Friday 16 September 2016

East Mids Exploration: Day 16

There was a fantastic sunset over Gunthorpe Bridge last night.

Then an hour or so later, at the stern of the boat, there was a beautiful moon.

This morning was anything but beautiful. There was rain, which was heavy at times. Every now and then there appeared to be a lull, but then the heavy stuff returned. Having done so many miles yesterday, we were content to sit it out. Then as lunchtime approached we could see the end of the cloud. We decided to go over to The Unicorn pub just over the road for an earlyish lunch, then set off. So we were underway at 1pm. It was turning sunny up ahead, but still really dark behind. There was plenty of water coming into the river from a stream near Stoke Bardolph, and the swans appeared to be enjoying the ride (or the food).

The VHF radio proved invaluable again today. The two Trent locks we did were both against us until I radioed a few minutes before we arrived, and by the time we got to them, they were open and ready for us. The lock keeper at Stoke Lock said it had been the quietest day this month! The approach to lots of these locks going uphill can be tricky, because of all the water coming over the weirs. At Holme Lock, there's the weir stream coming in from one side, and the end of the white water course at the Holme Pierrepont watersports centre coming in from the other.

Holme Lock is deep -- the lock keeper said that with summer river levels, the rise can be up to 18 feet. When the lock is full, it holds a million gallons of water.

Our next lock, we had to work ourselves. It's the one up from the river to the Nottingham Beeston Canal. Then we did one more lock before mooring in central Nottingham, just a few boat lengths from where we were last Saturday. We had planned to go further, but the lunchtime start put paid to that. We made use of the very nearby Sainsbury's to stock up for a few days.

11 miles, 4 locks. (256 miles, 124 locks)

 

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