A Bag was our iphone Insurance Policy for Severn Bore
We decided to head up to Gloucester on the train from London Paddington to try and capture some video footage of one of the most under rated world wonders, the Severn Bore. If you have not herd of this, its an inland tilde wave that travels around 30 miles in land from the Severn Estuary, to the City of Gloucester, and then heads off towards Tewkesbury, at a height of up to 20 feet and at a speed of around 30 mph.
Active about 12 to 15 times a year, the Severn Bore is largest around the equinoxes, depending on where about in the calendar of its nine year cycle it is. Popular around the world with surfers, many tourists will pay a visit to Gloucestershire to capture a glimpse of this phenomenal natural event, luckily, we were just a 2 hour train journey away from a potential 15 foot tidal wave.
We arrived at Gloucester station at 08.00 hrs and jumped straight into a Cheltenham Taxi , lucky for us there was half a dozen of them waiting right outside the door, all bright white as the sun low in the sky highlighted them as we walked out of the gloomy station concourse.
We asked the driver to take us to Minsterworth Church, where we were led to believe was one of the best spots to get a close view of the wave. The taxi driver was a bit hesitant and recommended we went to a place called Elmore Back, there were less people there and we would be able to get right up to the waters edge.
The taxi driver did warn us though, there is a risk of high water, so be prepared to run fast and long in a seconds notice, or you will get more than wet!
A 20 minutes journey down some ever increasingly narrow lanes, with the 2 fold up taxi seats in front of us covered with http://iphoneinsurance.org.uk adverts, slamming open and shut as the cab bounced down the narrow lane. Tom then came up with a little brain wave about wrapping both our iphones in waterproof bags, just in case the tidal wave did give us a soaking. As our iphone insurance did not cover against water damage, this seemed like a good idea as they are worth about £600 each, that’s far more than the digital camera and tripod we had with us.
The taxi driver came up trumps dropping us at Elmore Back, a fantastic location and we were just about the only people there. We asked the driver to wait an hour, but he was not prepared to take the risk of getting his cab flooded, as the car park was slightly lower than the river, and had a bit of a wet reputation. We see now why he said be prepared to run!