Having entered Tewkesbury we headed up the river Avon towards Stratford.
The river is a beautiful river with wonderful scenery all around you. We first stopped at Pershore, a little town with quite a few shops then after heading north again, stopped at Evesham and joined up with my son who was on the way back from the Glastonbury music festival. We had a lovely time in this lovely town where the river moorings were good near to the waterside park. This allowed us great access to the town. There were rising moorings lower down but these were a bit poor for access, but a real must for when the river was in flood.
Heading upstream we passed many beautiful places, and saw all sorts of wild life including four – yes, four kingfishers all working the river bank. This was a real sight for sore eyes. Our next night was at Bidford on Avon. We wanted to see where in the early eighties we hired our first narrow boat from. We had hired a 70ft boat called Teal, which was from Bidford Boat Hire, this was the boat that gave us the bug for narrowboats.
While nearly at Bidford at the lock prior to it called Marlcliff, we came across another narrowboat which was from Bidford Boats. The poor chap was out for the day and was in a bit of pickle. Who should turn up was the son of the then owner, now deceased called Mrs Bidwell. We had a real chat and agreed to escort the struggling narrow boat to Bidford on Avon. He arrived safe and sound.
Sadly the boat company only now does day hire, but it is still trading. Bidford on Avon had really grown up. Trees now were full height from the small saplings we saw all those years ago. How time flies..
Onward to Stratford on Avon, where we arrived to an IWA greeting of ANT (Avon Navigational Trust) saying would we like to join the water festival that was about to happen that weekend. This was the first weekend in July. We agreed straight swat and got a lovely mooring right across from the town church.
The river festival is not to be missed as this is most likely one of the best outside events that Stratford has. There must have been at least 10,000 visitors to the festival over the weekend period. If you are interested in going, here is the link for the festival. It normally is held the first weekend in July every year, but check the web link for full details. We also with our mooring got prime slot to view the brilliant firework display on the Saturday night. We sat on our boat drinking as we watched.
After going round all the stalls and seeing all the displays etc. we wandered into Stratford to see the sights. Unfortunately we were on a schedule to go and pick up our grand children for a long trip to Billing Aquadrome, so our time in Stratford was short. However we will certainly be back for a much longer look.
So now it was off up the Stratford canal and onto Braunston to meet our two girls.