Back to the River

I was very happy to interrupt my report of our canal boating holiday for such an important occasion as our 300th blog and we thought Moose's latest email was so good it simply had to be shared. I must say we are all looking forward to meeting Wilbur and I've been admiring his cap as it would be really good for boating, so I must ask him where he got it from.

Anyway, back to the River Avon. When everyone was back on board after the Bredon Hill climb, I fired up the engine and we were once again on our way.

I remember saying previously that the Avon locks are in a different league to the canal locks I'm used to. Most canal locks are only a couple of inches wider than our boat, which means the boat can't get thrown around when the lock fills with water. Not so, the Avon locks - take a look at this.


Not quite as big as the Severn locks I admit, but with those you don't have to do anything as the lock-keeper does it all for you without having to get out of his control room. For locks we operated oursleves with our windlass and paw and arm strength, these were big. As you can see 2 boats fitted in with loads of room to spare. I was very busy securing Muscovy to the bollards at the side of the lock so she didn't get thrown on to the other boat as the water surged into the lock. You can see how fast it came in from all the white water.

Another interesting lock was the Wyre lock which was a very unusual diamond shape.


It was very interesting and I read my guides to see if I could find out the reason for the shape. It seems likely it was designed this way to reduce erosion of the chambers by the force of water from the sluices.

You can appreciate the diamond shape better if you look at the picture I took from the stern as we were leaving the lock.


I'll be back soon.

Lots of love Eddie and fellow Bears Unlimited boaters xxx