Saul Festival

Our Group moorings at the festival with Cutweb were some way from the festival entrance. Such is the way with such things. We had requested a mooring with wide grassy towpath suitable for socialising, but the weather forecast was not good. Steve and Heddi's boat was already moored when we arrived on Thursday, Angela and Mike on Levic and Barbara and Malcolm on Pilgrim arrived on Friday morning having been down to Sharpness and back. It was 5 p.m. before the remaining two boats, Capt.Beeky and Sheila on Uncle Mort and Andrew and Wendy on Lord Toulouse arrived. By this time the weather had broken and we were set for a night of rain. Saturday dawned bright with broken sunshine and I had a chance to look round the show. There is a large marquee for the set piece performances with the major folk music groups for which tickets are required, but music is all around, in the beer tent, on the canalside, the large hotel boat "Oliver Cromwell" (The civil war was big around this part of the world) and the theatre barge "Sabrina". There are also plenty of trade stands, though little in the way of general chandlery. Part of the reason to be here is to give voluntary support to the festival in support of the aims of the Cotswold Canals Trust and I have found myself helping with car parking. Pat took "Grannie" into the festival for a look round yesterday, but her Mum is not the most nimble and finds it a bit of a struggle, so evening trips for the music are out for us. During my afternoon/evening session in the car park yesterday the rain clouds gathered again and we had a very wet evening. The Cutwebbers were determined to have a session together and I returned from my car parking duties to find them drinking and laughing in the wind and rain huddled under umbrellas. It was too cold to stay long - so much for summer. Today, Sunday, it is supposed to brighten up again. The general forecast does not look good for a transit of the Bristol Channel which apart from the navigational challenges in the upper reaches becomes virtually open sea at the Avonmouth end. Not the place for a narrowboat in bad weather. Not wishing to wait indefinitely for weather - we need to be back home by the end of the month - we will try and return via Stratford on Avon if the state of the rivers allows. More rain overnight this Monday morning leads us to start worrying about the state of the rivers we have to use to return home.