Severn Way - day 11

Shepherd's Rest (Slimbridge) to Oldbury -on-Severn. Thursday 8th August

The Tudor Inn last night can cover for 150 and has won many best pub awards, which doesn't necessarily mean much. There are various rooms and conservatories where one can eat, and when I asked if I could have a table with a plug point to charge my two oblong flat things the girl was helpful and I ended up in The Barn (just another room) on my own with peace and quiet, or so I thought.

In the main bar some way from me a lot of hysterical, and silly, louder and louder, laughter was coming in response to anything said by anybody in the party, surely everything couldn't have been that funny. It was like that Blackpool slot machine with the laughing policeman multiplied several times but at a much higher pitch. I went through to get another beer (Hule bitter, a well rounded traditional ale from a very local brewery), and discovered that all the noise was coming from a group of about six lads and lasses in their twenties from Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetland Trust, all with their logoed, cotton polo shirts and fawn shorts. Goodness knows what Peter Scott would have thought of it.

The service here was fast and well done with food at a good standard and there was no pressure to hurry. You just order each course as and when you want it. I had a glimpse into the kitchen - it was massive and something like the engine room of The Ark Royal. There was no messing about here - they were efficiently geared up to produce a high volume of orders quickly.

The Way continued down the Sharpness Gloucester Canal. When you see the speed the tide runs at you can appreciate the need for the canal if you want Gloucester to be a port. I saw no boats coming upstream to Sharpness - I reckon the Severn must be very tricky to navigate. Where I am now it is massive, more than four kilometres across. On the canal there is the site of a dreadful bridge disaster, but I can't recall all the details, but hope do a separate post when I get back home.

I am now booked in to a b tand b in Oldbury-on-Severn and am looking forward to good eating at the acclaimed Anchor Inn.

Later:

5 x king prawns crispy battered, with Chinese cucumber, two dips chilli and chilli and plum , two home baked breads to mop up with.

Smoked haddock salmon prawn eggs fish pie, rosti potato

Conversation in pub. Two guys just like two Ronnies, the talker knowledge box, and the credulous listener. Many others hilariously so close to two Ronnies party speak.

Good local ale. Butcombe brewery, estd. 1978. A first class pub.

Eve Maloney, B and B in the village was great considering she had just returned from hols. In Maine and was really suffering from jet lag.

Butcombe brewery (1978)

Sent from my larger oblong flat thing.