Time to go?

We’ve been over-wintering on the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal. It’s our last week and we’re having one final cruise along its length before putting the boat into the marina while we go off on one of our van trips. When we come back in a few weeks, river levels permitting, we will be heading north out of the lock at Gloucester Docks, onto the River Severn up to Tewkesbury and back onto the main canal and river network.

This month has been tough; our dog Sammy suddenly became very poorly and sadly we had to take her to the vets for one last visit. She has practically grown up on this boat so not having her with us is very hard.

 

 

 

Needing a change of scenery, we escaped for a few days and caught the train into London. On our first night we went to the Duchess Theatre in the West End to see the play called “The Play That Goes Wrong”. Ian was laughing from start to finish. It reminded him of his university days when he was the lighting and stage manager for the Theatre Society. Everything that could go wrong in a performance does go wrong in this one and he was in stitches.

The next day we headed to Tower Hill to explore the city using a themed mystery guide which was both informative and good fun. Then it was a quick dash to Camden Market for Heather to go to her favourite boho/hippy clothing stall and acquire some very jazzy trousers before we zapped back across London to see some films in Leicester Square. Of course Heather went for the heart warming “Mother’s Pride” starring Martin Clunes and Ian headed for a sci-fi something that he’s still trying to work out!

 

Our last day was spent at the UNESCO World Heritage site of Kew Gardens. I think we were both surprised by their size and diversity, the botanical collections contain over 50,000 living plants. Believe it or not, they employ more scientists than gardeners as the primary mission of Kew Gardens is “to understand and protect plants and fungi, for the wellbeing of people and the future of all life on Earth”

We were lucky to get in to the Palm House as it’s about to be closed for five years for a complete refurbishment and they’ve already started the process of rehousing the plants. Some are to go to other botanical collections around the UK and some will be transferred to a  temporary structure, sadly a few will not be saved. So I think we should plan to revisit in five years and see how it all turns out.

 

 

 

Back on the canal, the weather is improving, and we did one more visit to WWT Slimbridge where we were quite surprised to see it almost empty of birdlife. The geese, lapwings and waders have all moved on to find nesting sites, so the main excitement was to see the pairs of kingfishers flying in and out of their burrows. They are so fast and colourful, it was amazing to watch but very difficult to photograph.

This truly is a canal for bird lovers. From swans to tits to numerous birds of prey, there’s always something to spy through the binoculars and you do see twitchers wandering along the towpath with their huge lenses.
As for the 16 miles of the G & S, we have enjoyed our winter here. The length of it has felt a bit claustrophobic for continuous cruisers like us who like to explore new places, but the well managed water levels, lack of locks, manned bridges and the ease of winding (turning) the boat has made it all very easy going.
There have been a few down-sides such as a lack of boat facilities but it’s been manageable with planning. Access to public transport is also poor, so we’ve had to either walk further or book an Uber to get to the train station. You can only stock up with food in Gloucester, and one day we did a “dash” to the shops and cruised the full length of the canal in 4 hours (yes, that’s a speedy 4mph!!).

Overall, it has been a fascinating and safe base for the winter. We have loved our time here, enjoying the views and meeting friendly faces along the towpath and on the water. But our memories of the Gloucester and Sharpness will always be bitter-sweet.

Now we just have to hope, that when we come back at the end of April, the river is not in flood and we don’t meet any big boats on the narrow sections (we still have marks down the side of the boat from that close encounter!).