North again: Day 14

The water point in Shardlow is just through the bridge ahead of where we’d moored, so once we’d had breakfast we moved forward to fill the tank and get some washing on.  Once that was done we went up the lock, which is pretty shallow.

All morning we’d been watching a Ryanair plane doing circuits out of East Midlands Airport.

The next lock is Aston Lock — not to be confused with the other Aston Lock on the Trent and Mersey, which is up near Stone.  In fact you can’t really confuse them, because this one is a wide lock.

We think it was at Aston Lock in 2006, when we were on a hire boat, that the boaters we were sharing the lock with told us about shared ownership, which led to us buying a share in Debdale, and then to owning our own boat.

The countryside round here is pretty but unremarkable, with plenty of farmland and views across the valley.  But we also spotted big marquees up on the hill the other side of the river, and worked out they’re for the Download music festival next weekend at Donnington Park Circuit.  After Weston Lock, the scenery changes  and there are cliffs one side of the canal.

On the approach to Swarkestone there are glimpses of The Stand, a 17th century pavilion with a distinctive roof.

When we got to Swarkestone Lock a boat was just coming out so we could go straight in, and then another arrived to go down.  These are deep locks, at nearly 11ft, as well as wide, and you have to be careful with the paddles.  We moored up just past the junction and the restored crane.  After lunch, we had a visit from David Oakes, who was the Canal Boat boat test photographer when I first started doing them.  It’s a long time so there was a lot to catch up on, and it was really lovely to see him.

6 miles, 4 locks.  (91 miles, 61 locks)

East Mids Exploration: Day 17

We were up fairly early this morning, and set off a little before 8am. There's not really much to say about the retracement of our steps along the Nottingham Beeston Canal. At Beeston Lock, the rise up to the River Trent was again just a few inches. Along the next stretch of the Trent, there are some quite nice looking houses, all of which seem to have a boat outside as well. You can seen how much the river floods, as the houses are up on stilts.

As we approached Cranfleet Lock, there were again volunteer lock keepers on duty, who prepared the lock for us, gave us a green flag, took our ropes when we were in, and worked the paddles. It's quite a deep lock.

The Cranfleet Cut is a little over half a mile of straightness, which ends at the big junction with the Trent, the Soar, and the Erewash Canal. It's a week since we were last here; then we were going from the Erewash to Cranfleet Cut, this time is was Cranfleet to the Trent. We're now on waters we last did three years ago, although in the opposite direction. On one side of the river there's a Scout adventure centre, with lots of tents and lots of kids (and quite a few adults) in lots of boats.

At Sawley, we decided we'd take the right hand channel where there's a full range of services. So we were able to fill with water, get rid of rubbish (there are even recycling bins), and I did an empty of the composting loo. I'm getting good at this now, so it didn't take too long.

We were stopped for half an hour or so. We needed to turn around, then go back through the railway bridge, then turn again to get into Sawley Lock. A couple of boats had not long come down, and there was a volunteer lock keeper on duty, so we could go straight in. We made a further brief stop outside Sawley Marina, as we need diesel. But if you don't want to use the automated system (which does a 60/40 split on propulsion/domestic), their attitude seems to be that it's really too much bother. So we decided to go elsewhere. We'll stop at Mercia Marina tomorrow instead.

The next stretch is back on the Trent again, going under the M1 and then a much more impressive water pipe.

Derwent Mouth Lock takes you up onto the Trent and Mersey Canal, and we had to queue for a lock for the first time since Foxton (and I don't really count queues at Foxton and Watford, because the staircases mean there's nearly always a queue). Next comes Shardlow, with some attractive buildings.

We shared Shardlow Lock with a Kate hire boat from Warwick doing the Leicester Ring. We told them we did that ring on a Kate Boat ten years ago. By Bridge 7a there's a tree down, giving just enough room to get through. It looked like a crack willow -- and I thought they were supposed to have been dealt with, following an incident a few years ago when a boater was swept off her boat by a willow which happened to crack and come down as she passed underneath.

One of the following bridges has suffered quite a lot of damage, with half the parapets gone, and big cracks elsewhere. The farmer or someone has decided to prevent further damage by installing barriers on the bridge.

There's a nice looking church near Weston, and before Swarkestone you can see the Swarkestone Hall Pavilion, or The Stand, which is available for holidays.

We carried on through the deep locks at Weston and Swarkestone, and moored above Swarkestone -- where we moored three years ago. It's been a funny sort of day weatherwise -- dull, not very warm, and with brightness always just on the horizon, but never getting any closer.

Once I'd written this blog, the engine was cool enough but still warm enough, so I did an oil change which was a few hours overdue.

19 miles, 8 locks. (275 miles, 132 locks)

 

Big Trip - Day 27

A couple of related events happened yesterday evening.  First, a number of Drayton hire boats came down junction lock travelling together, and apparently had little idea what they were doing.  One shot out of the lock and managed to scrape along the side of Briar Rose.  The girls on board seemed to think this was quite amusing.  Much later the boat moved in a strange way, and at first we thought little of it; then it happened again.  It turned out that the same boats had left the paddled open right down at Common Lock, and the boats on the permanent moorings there were sitting on the bottom.  Some of the owners ran water down from the junction, and as they did so we rose by at least six inches before the water levels sorted themselves out.

This morning we were awake early, so at about 7.30 crossed over to the water point where we filled the tank while having breakfast.  At about 8 we got bored of waiting for the top to be reached, and a boat was coming up Keeper's Lock, so we set off.  Reports from boats coming up said Alrewas had been choc-a-bloc last night, so many had set off early to try to get ahead of the crowds.

This meant that we swapped with boats in the opposite direction at most of the locks to and through Alrewas.  We also saw the Drayton hire boats heading back, zig-zag fashion, towards Fradley.

Below the first lock of the day I saw a chap I vaguely recognised.  It was Nev off Percy, so we were able to have a quick chat.

Alrewas is pretty from the canal, but it was also very busy and doesn't have much room if you meet another boat.  Fortunately, the place where this happened had a kind of passing place, where someone had already left.  Below Alrewas Lock, the River Trent crosses the canal.  The weir is better marked these days than it was when my parents and uncle and aunt boated this section in the 1960s.  It seems they nearly went over it!

By Wychnor church is a strange bridge which requires you to get right over to one side.

Bridge 36 is another which requires a bit of concentration.  From a distance, it looks impossibly small, and when you get closer there's evidence that some people have indeed had trouble getting through it.

At Branston Water Park we came across a trinity of bloggers.  First, Muleless, the latest boat by MGM, and we were able to have a quick chat with Della and Gary (who seemed to be expecting us!).  The other side of the bridge were Petroc and Epiphany, but there was no sign of anyone at home.

Much of Burton on Trent seemed fairly familiar, as we went to the IWA national at Shobnal Fields a few years ago.  Naturally we photographed the best known of the bridges.

Much of this section is accompanied by the A38, which is rather noisy and spoils the enjoyment somewhat.  All the locks along this stretch are shallow as well as narrow, with falls of as little as 3ft.  Dallow Lane is the last narrow lock in this direction, although there's a long lock-free section before the first wide one.  On the outskirts of Willington, I spotted a house where the loft appears to have been turned into an observatory.

Stenson Lock is the first wide one, and it's also deep, at over 12ft.  We shared with a boat which appeared to have no reverse (or at least, its owners seemed unwilling to use it).  I was slightly concerned that their bow button had got caught on the gate, but before I could say anything it slipped free and the boat dropped about 9 inches.  There were plenty of gongoozlers from the neighbouring tea rooms, many asking questions about where we'd been and where we were going.

After Stenson is a rather pleasant section of canal, going through farmland.  It was enhanced by the fact that it was a lovely sunny, warm afternoon.  Not only have coats not been needed today, but fleeces have been discarded, and the shorts have been brought out of retirement.

We moored up for the night just short of Swarkestone Lock.  We walked along to have a look at the lock, and found a Hire a Canal Boat coming up.  They were taking things carefully and, we thought, doing quite well, until it became apparent that their rope had been taken twice round a bollard and had got jammed as the boat rose.  It meant the boat was being forced to lean over at an increasingly alarming angle.

The crew didn't seem to have noticed, so we alerted them as to what was happening, and when it became apparent that they didn't know what to do to rectify the situation we directed the closing of top paddles and opening of bottom ones, until the boat was upright and the rope could be freed.  Amazingly, quite a crowd appeared to watch what was going on.

It's now a lovely warm evening, we have a glass of wine, and there's a chicken roasting in the oven.  What could be better?

20 miles, 11 locks.  (341 miles, 195 locks)