Saturday 12th October to Monday 14th October
Since we left Gloucester on Saturday we have travelled all of 5 and a half miles and we didn’t do that in one go either! Saturday morning it was raining rather hard but we had done our 48 hours on the mooring so we had to go. We decided to stop at the next available place which was Rea Bridge, 2 miles down the canal and we had not moored up here before.
We had heard there was a Tesco store near Rea Bridge so after having some breakfast we went off to see if we could find it. We went over the bridge and headed towards Quedgeley but quickly came to a crossroads. Which way to go? A lady was walking her dog along the road so we asked her and she told us the best way to go, which wasn’t the way we would have gone if left to our own devices so that was lucky.
So the Tesco’s was about a 15 minute walk from the boat. Also near Tesco’s were two pubs and a bus stop. As we were looking at the timetable in the bus stop a bus came so we got on it and went to Gloucester! Yes I know we had only just left there but never mind and we had thought of a few things we wanted so it was a useful trip.
That evening Ken did a bit of fishing and caught a nice pike (see photo) in the pouring rain!
Yesterday we took a look at the weather (raining again) and the number of rowing eights, fours, pairs and individuals passing the boat, in both directions with alarming regularity and decided to stay put at Rea Bridge for the day. Although it was raining pretty hard we decided to don our waterproofs and take a walk to Stonebench to find a place where we may be able to watch the Severn Bore while we are down here.
There are a couple of good ones predicted for early February and another couple for early March next year so hopefully we will get to see one. We did find a likely spot along the river bank but it was a bit over grown so the view wouldn’t be that good but once the trees lose their leaves it will hopefully be a bit better. After this we walked back to Rea Bridge and on to Quedgeley, near Tesco’s, where we sampled two of the 4 pubs we now knew to be there, having seen two more round the corner when we went to Gloucester on the bus.
The Haywain is one of those big Marston’s pubs which do 2for1 meals and the other pub is a Harvester. We tried the Harvester first and it is a nice pub where the drinking only area is separate from the eating part (always a bonus especially on a Sunday!) They don’t do real ale but we had keg Speckled Hen which was ok.
Next we went to the Haywain and although they did do a couple of passable real ales it was absolute chaos in there with all the Sunday lunches going on. Think we’ll stick to weekdays if we go there again! We will probably sample the Little Thatch and The Friar Tuck as well.
Today it has been showery (again) and we have travelled another 3 and a half miles from Rea Bridge to Parkend Bridge. We hadn’t moored up here before either, nor had we been to The Anchor pub which is about a mile away on the riverside at Epney. We donned our waterproofs again and walked to Epney to find the pub. It is in a great location and if the weather had been better it would have been nice to have sat outside. However this being autumn and wet we had to go in the pub. There was an interesting advert beside the door (see photo) for which we were seriously over qualified!
In the pub we met a chap who used to work on the barges on the canal and the River Severn between here and Diglis. We spent a very happy hour listening to his stories. There were only two other people in the pub (it being a Monday, probably) and they sat in the other room. I’m sure it gets busy at weekends especially in the Summer.
Tomorrow I think we are going to Saul again.
