On the river

It's beautiful down here on the Avon - we have now reached George Billington Lock and have had a very successful barbecue for a late lunch/early dinner. The 'island' we are on is private land and the lady who owns it is happy for boaters to use it as long as it is treated with respect - she came down on her mobility/golf cart to chat and tell us so.

The trip down from Stratford has been great apart from exiting the basin where David had great difficulty keeping the bottom gates closed to start filling the lock. Fortunately Julia arrived to give a hand. My part in the drama was to have got close to the lock gates to give David a hand and then being unable to get into position to enter the lock - I had to go back a fairly long way and get John to pull me around so I wouldn't damage any other boats. I called out to Mick that I thought I'd reverse to Wilmcote instead of going down the river ...

Fortunately, he started to strip off his top - I asked him to do a full Monty to take the early tourists' attention away from my shenanigans.

I just want you all to know that I am tired of being a novice again and I want to regain my competence; so there!

Not sure where this is but I thought it was lovely - there's that word again ...

Beautiful

Some great houses and gardens on the way down the river - a fair bit of money around here

See what I mean?

Glad I don't have to mow those lawns!

Or those ...

I am delighted to see whitebaiting stands on the river! Well, that's what they look like, but I understand they are for fishermen, and the season starts at midnight tonight.

See the whitebait stand? Looks just like in Taranaki and on the West Coast.

We had two nights at Bidford-on-Avon where David and I managed to go to the same restaurant 3 times; yes, you read that correctly: three (3) times. The first evening we went to The Bridge for starters and mains (fabulous), and decided we need to come back the next lunchtime for dessert. That was fully our intention, but the tomato, pesto and mozerella panini sounded lovely, so we had that. Then of course we were too full for dessert. So back we came in the evening, for cheese cake and chocolate fudge cake. Shared both and they were both delicious.

The village is very attractive with lovely houses and has the archetypal style of English villages in that some shops are slotted in between houses. And the Budgens supermarket at the end of the village is superb!