Eddie's Swinging Time (Don't take it the wrong way!)

The next morning was dry (yippee!) with hints of sunshine, although the overall impression was of a cool and breezy day. Nevertheless, we were all up early and raring to go and find out what river travelling was really like. We didn't really count our short hop along the Severn as river experience as this was more like travelling down a motorway. To continue the comparison, if travelling canals is like travelling small country roads, then we reckoned that travelling the Avon would probably be like travelling on 'A' roads. We were about to find out.


Our first picture, which we think is quite atmospheric, shows what we mean about the difference between canals and rivers. The river was a lot wider, but as we were going upstream and had the current to contend with, we couldn't really go much faster than on a canal.

Before long we travelled under the M5 motorway. We always have a great feeling of well-being and good fortune when we pass under major roads such as this, and we remind each other how lucky we are to be out in the fresh air, cruising along in relaxed fashion, with hardly a care in the world.


Being on a river didn't meen a lock-free passage. On the contrary we encountered locks fairly regularly, although they didn't come in flights as is often the case on canals. We'll talk more about river locks in a future post.

Today, Eddie wants to share with you the fun he had operating one of the low swing bridges which we came across on the approach to our first lock. Being Captain, Eddie thought he should supervise the operation to swing the bridge to the side of the river so Muscovy could pass through and not crash into it. The rest of us were detailed to pull the bridge aside while Eddie decided to have a ride. As it happened, there was so little effort involved, that Jimmy could manage it on his own, which is why you see Fred and me (Ungi) resting on a convenient bench when you watch our short video clip.




Hope you liked our clip. Sadly we got a problem with the tape after this so we couldn't do any more filming of our holiday. Never mind, there's always next time.

Lots of love, the crew of Muscovy xxx