Gloucester

Densie at Haw Bridge. The pub is on the left.

Last night we had a good meal at the friendly and well run Haw Bridge Inn. The food was fairly typical good pub fare and was very well cooked and the beer was delicious. I would recommend this place to other boaters - non boaters may have difficulty finding it.

One sight in the pub which did catch my eye was the marker showing the maximum height of the 2007 floods. This was about 3 foot high in the main bar - the pub must be 15-20 foot above water level. Photographs in the bar showed the columns supporting the mooring pontoon were covered, and the water was nearly up to the top of the stone bridge supports. An aerial picture of the pub shows it and the adjacent pub being little more than islands surrounded by water that stetched as far as the photograph covered.

Densie moored in Gloucester

At breakfast this morning the weather was looking grey and a bit threatening but it quickly cleared. We left Haw Bridge at 9:30 and arrived in Gloucester Docks 2 hours later having travelled 8 miles and 1 lock. The journey was again much the same as on previous days with pleasantly wooded riversides which hid most of the countryside beyond.

We were delighted to see our first kingfishers this year - those on the rivers must have been much better off during the winter than those on the canals which froze to a depth of several inches.

Gloucester was formerly a major port and the docks were built in the early 1800s. The two basins are surrounded by historic warehouses of that period which have now been converted into offices, bars and flats. Nowadays there is virtually no commercial traffic. the only boats one sees are narrowboats and the larger boats used for pleasure trips.

We plan to stay in Gloucester for a couple of days, so the next blog entry will probably be on Monday.