Hooking up at Evesham

We upped and left before 8.30 – it was about 4 and a half miles to the first lock. The Guide said "The beautiful Fladbury Mill overlooks the weir", so I was all ready with the camera, while making sure I followed the signposts to the lock. I thought "beautiful" was bit of a mis-nomer, but felt it my duty to snap away anyway as I carefully manoeuvred to the right channel.

It was only this afternoon that I looked at the guide to the Avon I'd bought from the lock-keeper at Tewkesbury. That says "The mill between Fladbury lock and Fladbury weir is rather unexpectedly called Cropthorne Mill, while Fladbury Mill is on the bank at the end of the weir." So I'd completely failed to spot the "beautiful" mill, and I'm not going back there just yet to have a look. Win some, lose some.

Coming past Evesham's extensive riverside recreation area as we followed the Avon's 180º turn, we could catch glimpses of ecclesiastical buildings hiding away, much as Bredon church had done.

Then it was up Evesham lock, with helpful advice from keeper Christopher, and on to Evesham marina, which is a main centre for Webasto heating systems. The header tank for Erin Mae's central heating is split, and they'd said we could call in Friday lunchtime. Turned out the engineer, Curtis, is up to his eyes in work, and it would have to be Monday. But that meant I could negotiate a free mooring, with an electric hook-up – something we've had just once (a night at Llangollen) since we left Great Haywood nearly seven weeks ago. I also thought that, with unrestricted electric, I might get to watch some of the really good sport that's on the TV this weekend. Unfortunately, I've just run through the auto-tune, and it's showing no stations available whatsoever! Sigh…

We don't have any friends locally to hook up with while we're here – but perhaps we'll have some when we leave.