As forecast, it was raining this morning, so we were pretty slow to get going. But after breakfast we moved round to Loughborough Basin. As I made the turn at the junction, something under the water hit the prop so hard the engine stopped; fortunately whatever it was hadn’t jammed the prop and we could just restart and carry on. At the basin, I turned and reversed onto one of the pontoon moorings. Everything went exactly as planned, which was a surprise as a man was stood there watching, which normally ensures things go wrong.
We’d gone to the basin for quicker access into town. Adrian headed off to a launderette with bedding, while I made a couple of trips to Tesco. We also did all the rubbish and recycling. At times the rain was heavy, but by the time we were ready to set off properly at about 11, it had pretty much dried up.
A boat was just leaving Loughborough Lock when we got there, and it took an age to fill. We’d hoped to do water and washing at the tap above Bishop Meadow Lock, but it was out of action. There were Soar Rangers about though, and they’d filled the lock which helped. We were now back on the River Soar proper, rather than the cut through Loughborough. Normanton-on-Soar has a pretty church right by the river, and some very big houses.
There are emergency flood moorings in the river a little further on. You’d hope never to have to use these, as you can’t get anywhere from them on foot, and the water would have to be really high.
At Zouch Lock, the boat ahead had just set it so we joined them. There were three guys on board, the boat owner and two colleagues who had apparently never been boating before. It was all slightly chaotic! It was even more chaotic at the next Lock, Kegworth Deep, where we arrived first. When they turned up, they spent several minutes trying to get to the side, and failed each time. Eventually the lock was ready and they could go in. It’s a very big lock, with a huge cill — in contrast to Kegworth Shallow Lock which was chained open as the levels are normal.
Just along from there, a little boat decided to leave its moorings at Kegworth Maine just as we approached. For some reason, he let go of the bow first which was caught by the flow and had him heading straight for us. How he didn’t hit us I have no idea, but he was very apologetic. On the approach to Ratcliffe Lock you begin to get views of the power station cooling towers. It closed last autumn, and the towers are due to be demolished.
Along this and the following stretches we also saw at least three kingfishers, the first we’ve seen this year. One even sat on a branch looking magnificent as we went by. Ratcliffe Lock was in our favour, and although we waited for our locking partners there was no sign of them. The lock is a replacement, and the filled in previous one is vsible alongside.
On the moorings below the lock are some very nice boats, which suit this size of waterway.
At Redhill Marina, they were just lifting a plastic boat out of the water on a cradle. I also liked the name of the one alongside.
Redhill Lock is another that’s left open when the river isn’t in flood.
Very soon comes Trent Junction, where the Soar flows into the Trent. The Trent itself goes off to the right over a big weir.
We went upstream a little, then made the right hand turn into the Cranfleet Cut. We’d hoped for a mooring with a view of the big expanse of water that makes up the junction, but there was no space until a bit further along. Once secure, we went for a walk around the area to have a look at the views.
We also walked along Cranfleet Cut to the lock, mostly to identify the water point we’ll use tomorrow morning. By now the sun had come out, but it was still pretty windy. We also have the East Midlands Railway trains on a bridge ahead of us, a mixture of EMR Regional and EMR Intercity services.
9 miles, 5 locks. (61 miles, 49 locks)
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