The Avon

Out of the lock our companions turned right to get water and moor up again on the Riverside.
Whereas we turned left and under two stone bridges, going as far as we could towards the end of the navigable channel.
Luckily it was early so only a few rowers about.  A lot of very desirable properties with their own moorings/ slipways/ boathouse. It was only a mile or so to the bend beyond which our length of boat could not go without having to reverse back out again, and narrowboats don't do backwards very well.
Absolutely lovely.
A tight turn at the last bend, and back we go.
I took over the helm at this point, and stayed there for the next four hours.. having such fun on the tight wiggly bits, as narrow as any canal, then sagging into wide areas. So no photos! Except at locks.
They are much bigger than we are used to, but otherwise the only difference is that you do NOT close the gates behind you. River management is all about letting the water through rather than hanging on to every drop.
We are also glad to be going downstream, because these locks fill fiercely!
We stopped overnight at Bidford on Avon, a rather prosperous looking spot, by the Big Meadow.
The Bridge in the distance is grade 1 and pretty venerable, being a packhorse bridge dating from 15th century.  We crossed over it to have dinner at the Bridge,  which calls itself an Eaterie. This 'word' is easily the worst thing about it, it's a top notch restaurant which we would go out of our way to eat at again.
Debate: is Eaterie a ghastly twee lapse of judgement,  or is it a worthy descriptor of a restaurant that is too informal for tablecloths? We look forward to your views.

All these moorings specify one night only, so away we went again. It's such a pretty river.
Our next mooring was at Offenham Lock, but the village of Offenham was on the other bank.. we went exploring and wound up in Evesham, two hours and quite footsore later. But it was useful to check out the moorings (a bazillion of them, plenty of room) and the town centre.
 We then caught the bus back. When it eventually arrived, it took 10 minutes to cover the bulk of the road we had slogged along. Having got properly chilled, we had a heap of pasta carbonara to restore equilibrium. 

Wednesday morning, and all 4 boats on the moorings took our time getting started, under way by around 10am. We buddied up with a Canaltime boat to go down the locks together.

This was the worrying sight we were greeted with at Evesham. You basically had to moor against that walkway, with the weir a couple of feet away the other side. Then there's a rival current on the other side going to a hydroelectric plant. Plus, the lock gates are ridiculously heavy.
Are the Welsh coming?

Limited room to pick up crew the other side.. so Andrew merrily blasted out of the lock saying.. I'll see you at the moorings. Unfortunately I soon found there was no way off the island where the lock was. Luckily our lock buddies were still picking up crew so I yelled to hitch a lift. Problem sorted!

Fantastic mooring for the next couple of nights.
The clouds cleared completely, so in the afternoon we did the touristy stuff and went to the museum:
Eclectic mix of exhibits from Evesham's history
then through the Abbey Gardens where the Abbey used to be.
The bell tower is all that's left: 33m high, and the main Abbey spire was over twice as high.

Then we refreshed at the Red Lion, excellent local with real ales and ciders, locally sourced. Slack Alice cider a happy discovery.  Finally back to the boat to cook.

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