Offenham (last day – need to move on)

I say it was our last day at Offenham on Thursday but you know how things change with us.  I think we’ll stick with it this time though as when Karen left for work this morning I said she’ll have to come back to Evesham in the evening.  I’ve also ordered some stuff for the boat from a boatyard at Evesham and told them I’ll be in on Friday.

As with most of the rest of the country, Thursday was another lovely hot day but it brought out some strange flies!

Our private mooring at Offenham – well, you have to use the pub

Buddy gets a free run around the mooring and we have had no other boats moor with us since we have been here.  I got chatting with the lady who owns the pub, adjacent camp site and also the park home here.  She and her husband have run the business for 17 years and their two sons (young 20s?) help - what a great family business.  

She has spent the last few days sorting out the hanging baskets at the pub, on the moorings and in the park home site.  Getting rid of the winter pansies and potting up with summer plants.  I told her she should put a sign up asking moored boaters to water the ones on the moorings.

The flies were strange; during the morning, there were hundreds of little black ones that were settling on anything shiny, like our bike cover and just dying.  They never bothered coming in the boat even though the doors and windows were wide open.  Later in the afternoon there must have been thousands of little white flies covering the boat but again all dying.  It took ages to sweep them away.  It gave me a good reason to clean the windows though.

Buddy and I kept the walks short, as it was so warm, and found the maypole at Offenham.  I hadn’t realised that there are only six permanent maypoles left in the UK of which this one is the tallest.

Offenham maypole

We’re currently considering getting down to the end of the River Avon at Tewkesbury over the next couple of days.  From there we join the River Severn and head north up to Worcester where we can get a train back to Evesham to pick up the car.  Worcester is probably a bit too far for a comfortable daily commute for Karen so we may carry on up the Worcester & Birmingham canal towards Birmingham.

Map for our weekend cruising, maybe