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)

 

East Mids Exploration: Day 10

It was very rainy this morning, so we were slow to get going. I continued writing my boat test, and Adrian also had work to do. I also phoned my father, as it's his birthday today. The forecast kept giving rain for longer and longer, so we knew we were almost certain to get wet today at some point. At about 10.30, when the rain seemed to have eased a bit, we moved up to the water point, and started a wash load. A big Dutch barge which had been using the services yesterday was still there, but had pulled forward just enough to leave most of the moorings clear. When the tank was full, we went into Trent Lock, went down, and then pulled out onto the Trent. By now the rain was pretty heavy again.

We turned left onto the Cranfleet Cut, more new territory for us. As we approached, we could see activity at the lock at the far end, which turned out to be volunteer lock keepers -- so the gates opened for us, and the volunteers worked us down.

The lock is deep, particularly at the moment because water levels on the Trent are low. At the bottom of Cranfleet Lock, there's a level gauge -- and the river is about a foot below the start of the green section. It didn't rain much for the hour or so we were on the river. There's not much to look at, though. When we got to the entrance to the Nottingham Beeston Canal, Adrian went to work out what was what at the lock. The drop from the river to the canal was six inches at the most; it didn't take long to get through. Immediately after the lock, some people dressed in period garb were leading a horse down the road. I've no idea why.

There was a beautiful boat moored at Trevethick's boat yard.

As we reached Nottingham Marina, the tow path began to be full of moored boats. A boat travelling in front of us slotted into one space, and one which had come out of the marina claimed another. I was beginning to wonder if we'd find a spot. We saw a space and decided it was big enough; it turned out to be right behind Matty on Old Friends, who's familiar from the Canal World forum even though I've never met him before. We had a chat as he's going the same way as us -- in fact, he was just getting ready to leave. It turned out we were moored right by the path to Sainsbury's, and there are hundreds of metres of available moorings ahead.

The rain had stopped so we walked into town, up past the castle and the oldest pub in England (allegedly; I'm sure there are several claimants). We saw the Robin Hood statue, thought the Old Market Square with the Council House and a very large fountain was rather impressive, and liked the feel of the city centre. We walked through some of the old lanes, and worked our way back to the canal, where we found a nice coffee shop not far from the old warehouse with British Waterways on it.

We walked back along the tow path, and when we were back at the boat we make a shopping expedition to Sainsbury's; it's so close it would have been daft not to. Tomorrow is meant to be much better weather, and we'll be going out onto the Trent again.

10 miles, 3 locks. (139 miles, 104 locks)