The River Severn
Leaving the Droitwich Canals onto the big wide open
and extremely windy River Severn
This is just our highway to the Staffs & Worcs canal .....
I wasn't looking forward to this trip up the river one
bit. It's 12.45pm as we do the sharp right turn onto the river and the bitter wind
whips us into shape, goes right through you.
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| Leaving the safety of the Droitwich Barge Canal, onto the wide open river |
It's cold out here, there's no
boats traveling, its a very lonely place to be. There's just a lot of trees on
either side of the river with very high banks too.
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| The trees either side don't give us any shelter from the northerly wind that blows right through you |
This river rises and flows
whenever there's been rain, it's such a volatile river if you catch it at the
wrong time! There's no shelter here standing on the back of what seems a very
small vessel on a very wide river, you're there with the elements whether you
like it or not! The sky started off very blue, so at least it started off a
bright day. But soon the blue turned to grey and the clouds rolled in.
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| Blue skies turned to grey bubbling cloudy skies making the river look even less inviting! |
Luckily we haven't got far to go on here, only 8.5
miles and two locks. That should only take us 2-3 hours. Surely we can put up with that?! There was nowhere
to stop the boat for the night here, nowhere even just to nudge your nose in!
We had to keep going.
As we left the security of the Droitwich Barge canal
there was a notice which said you have to ring a number if you are going
towards Stourport, it's a number to advise the lock keeper of your arrival.
Well, I tried but had no signal. And I kept trying .... we'd only got 2.5 miles
to do till we got to the first of our two locks and I couldn't get through to
him! Eventually I got a tiny bit of signal and a jolly lock keeper answered and
said he'd be expecting us shortly.
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| Just beyond Holt Fleet Bridge is the rather large Holt Lock |
We ploughed on at a pretty good speed, the bitter
northerly wind in our faces, pushing upstream all the way.
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| The green light on the right lets you know you can enter the lock |
About 1.30pm we saw
the huge doors of Holt Lock, massive they were, looming above you like castle
gates! There was a traffic light signalling us not to enter and we hung about
for what seemed ages, although it was probably only a couple of minutes!
Eventually it turned green and the massive doors opened, daring us to enter.
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| Paul gets ready to climb up the huge ladder in the lock. Little did we know that wasn't the rules on this river |
As
I went in with the boat we did our usual Thames thing (we were on a river after
all!), Paul went to the front and I slowly went in to the left hand side of the
huge lock and he stepped off at the steps with front rope in hand. We were then
shouted at, the lock keeper banging on the window yelling at Paul to get back
on the boat! But by then the boat had drifted too far away for him to step back
on, so he had to continue up the long ladder to the top. I was still floating
about in the bottom of this lock while Paul had been instructed to come over
the other side of the lock with the front rope. The huge back doors closed up
behind me, I was still drifting about, not secured onto anything, nowhere to
tie on to. The lock keeper assured me the boat would come over to the right
hand side as soon as he started to fill the lock, and it would stay there! "Theres
no need to tie on to anything", he shouted down to me! And he was right! As
soon as the lock had finished filling Paul had to throw the front rope down
onto the boat and climb down the ladder to me on the back of the boat, the
front doors were opened and after the lock keeper noted our boat name and number
we were on our way! Well, what a mess up! After all these years of cruising and
using locks we've never hashed up quite so much as we did today! Felt like
proper prats! We'll know what to do on our second lock on the Severn then!
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| Leaving the lock the flood poles rise high above the boat |
It was now 1:45pm. We've got four miles to the next
and last lock on this river, Lincomb Lock. There's still no boats about, no people walking,
no boats moored up .... it's such a boring bit of river. The wind is bitter and
cold and 4 miles seems more like 40 miles!
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| The sign lets you know to keep right, and the camera on the top lets the lock keeper know you are on your way |
Eventually we get to the sign that
tells you the lock channel is over to the right and there's a camera on the top
of the sign. This tells the lock keeper that you're on your way, and its a great
system that seems to work!
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| The lights were on green and the back doors were open.... ready and waiting, and this time we knew what to do! |
We hadn't even got up to the lock and the traffic lights went green and
the 'castle gates' opened and the big wide deep lock beckoned us in again. This
time we knew what to do! We went in slowly on the right hand side and came to a
stop, the back doors shut up behind us and slowly the lock filled, gently
pushing us over against the right hand side lock wall. No ropes, just a very
gentle rise. we got to the right level, lock keeper taking note of boat name and
number and the top doors opened and we were off! Easy when you know how!
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| The huge top gates opened and we were on our last bit, one and a half miles to go! |
Only a
mile and a half to go now, and well be off this river and onto the Staffs &
Worcs canal, back to peace and tranquility, shelter from the bitter wind.
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| The red sand stone cliffs by the edge of the river looked stunning |
It seemed an age before we arrived in Stourport, it came
to us quite suddenly. All of a sudden there was nothing about, a small boatyard
and then the port of Stourport arrived! We were finally here!
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| The large lock entrance for the bigger boats to get in to the basin, we had to go in the narrow lock entrance |
There were two
entrances into the Historic basins, the first one was for huge boats, originally
to get the boats off the river and get the cargo onto smaller boats to
transport around the canal system. The locks, two of them, were massive and not
meant for narrow boats. we were to use the narrow locks.
The first of five locks was under a tiny bridge on our right.
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| The signs tell you to use the Narrow Locks, and that Wolverhampton is thata way! |
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| I had the boat in forward gear as Paul let the water out of the first of our staircase locks |
We didn't know we were supposed to
moor on the river mooring so I turned off the river and stuck the nose of our
boat into the lock entrance. Paul hopped off, emptied the lock and I pushed my
way in.
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| Looking back on the River Severn, now we're safe and sound in the cute canal locks once again! |
You can't imagine the relief I felt leaving the river
and closing those cute little lock doors up behind me!
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| Safe and sound in the Stourport Basin, the start of the Staffs & Worcs Canal |
10th October 2013, our journey continues ......
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