WYESIDE communities had the shock of their lives on Saturday when a 135-ft dutch barge charged its way downriver 23 years after a much-documented adventure going upstream from Chepstow to Hereford.

The present voyage of the Wye Invader remains much of a mystery but during 1989 she took from April to November to make the journey to Hereford, where it was intended she would become a floating restaurant.

As one of the largest vessels to attempt the passage she had quite a few scrapes including a much-documented grounding trying to get under Wilton Bridge at Ross.

The trip had its critics but the owner/skipper at the time, ex-SAS soldier Captain Frank Barton who had sailed her all the way from Rotterdam to Chepstow, said in the Review of November 10 1989: "The Invader is slow, even docile, draws only three feet and this is a 'one-off' trip.

"We have no intention of cruising up and down the river – just being moored as a floating restaurant at Hereford."

On Saturday, Rachel Mowatt spotted the Wye Invader from her bedroom window and could hardly believe her eyes.

"I said 'b*****y hell!' and called my husband to look and we rushed down in the van to get closer.

"It got over the ledge at Lydbrook with some difficulty and lodged on the island a bit with a lot of grinding but then swung past the Tump and on down the river, breaking a few branches along the way."

An almost equally amazing sight, she said, had been 20 or more swans preceeding the barge in a straight line, like a state procession.