East Mids Exploration: Day 9

Last night we paid a visit to the Great Northern pub right next door to the basin. The food was typical good value pub fare, and we drank a beer brewed by North Star in Ilkeston, the town which accompanies the Erewash Canal for a good proportion of its route.

It rained overnight, and was still pretty damp when we left the Great Northern Basin at just after 8am, waving the Irene on Free Spirit as we did so. Today's journey was yesterday's in reverse, so you could just read yesterday's blog post again, starting at the end. Unlike yesterday, though, Langley Bridge Lock and most of the others were in our favour. For some reason only Gallows Inn Lock was empty when we got to it, and at Pasture Lock we met a boat just coming up.

At the bottom of the lock out of the basin, under the bridge, is the sign which marks the start or end of the Cromford Canal. All that remains of it is the basin, which is unfortunate as its route sounds as though it would have been oth interesting and pretty.

I liked the sign at the Bridge Inn at Cotmanhay, more of less pleading with boaters to stop.

The only sour incident of the day happened at Barker's Lock in Ilkeston. Adrian had walked ahead from the previous lock, and was approached by a young man who was opening sniffing lighter fuel. He didn't make much sense, but was rather intimidating none the less; we kept the boat on the offside of the lock, and got through as quickly as possible. It has to be said that most of the locals seem very pleased to see a boat, and are very cheerful and chatty -- even if many of them do have a can of lager in their hand (or their pocket).

You see different things on the way back. In Sandiacre is what looks like a new build property, apart from a small section of wall and two doors. I wondered if that was all that was left of an original building, and the new bit was an extension.

We continued retracing our steps of yesterday. About half a miles before the end of the canal there's a very substantial set of flood gates, and a bridge which sits on the offside, but can clearly be brought across the canal. It's fairly low, so there's a set of traffic lights too.

Among the houseboats on the approach to Trent Lock there's one which has two storeys.

We tied up in exactly the same place as on Wednesday night (but facing the other way, of course). Whereas the journey up the canal had taken seven and a half hours yesterday, today's journey back had taken just six -- thanks to not having to turn every lock.

We went for a walk around Trent Lock; it was sunny but very windy. A boat was coming up the lock onto the canal and another was waiting below. Out on the Trent, a couple of narrowboats were heading for the Soar, and one was coming the other way, heading for Sawley.

Since then it's continued to be breezy, and the odd shower has blown through. Tomorrow's forecast suggests we're going to get wet.

12 miles, 14 locks. (129 miles, 101 locks)

 

East Mids Exploration: Day 7

Today we've visited three waterways and three counties. We set off at 8am, and soon arrived at Mountsorrel Lock. This was the place that provided the cover photo, when we took the MGM 37ft boat for a weekend boat test last year. I recreated the shot with Briar Rose.

We continued through Barrow Deep Lock and into Loughborough, where a site that was empty last year is now full of new houses. We turned left at Chain Bridge into Loughborough Basin, to make a quick shopping stop at the nearby Tesco, mainly because Adrian needed more printer ink.

Setting off again, when we got to Loughborough Lock there were two boats going down. By the time I'd turned the lock for us a small plastic cruiser had arrived, so we shared the lock. The man was very chatty. We wanted to stop for water at Bishop Meadow Lock, and as we approached there seemed to be more boats around than we've seen for days. A narrowboat pulled out of the long term moorings there right in front of us without a backward glance. The cruiser from earlier was on the lock landing, the two other boats were almost down, and another narrowboat was waiting to come up. We got to the water point, and started a wash load.

Below the lock, the river forms the boundary between Leicestershire, on the left, and Nottinghamshire on the right. Normanton-on-Soar is very pretty, with its riverside church.

Above Kegworth Deep Lock we saw the Moomins from Malealuca moored up doing some painting on the boat. The lock is quoted at 7ft 9in, but seems deeper. Around this area, there are plenty of planes to watch going into East Midlands Airport. The other major landmark, which seems to look over everything is Ratcliffe Power Station.

We completed the River Soar and briefly joined the Trent. Where the two meet is a big rail bridge, and we saw a new London Underground train being towed along. Presumably it's been built at Bombardier in Derby.

The Trent continues round to the left to join the Trent and Mersey, the Cranfleet Cut leaves to the right, but we were heading for the start of the Erewash Canal -- our third waterway of the day, and our third county as the Trent forms the boundary with Derbyshire.

Having been going downhill since The summit level ended at Foxton, we had our first uphill lock, at Trent Lock, overlooked by The Steamboat pub.

We moored just above the lock. There's a ledge under the water, so we've got the tyres out again, to try to stop the boat grinding against it. It's very hot and sunny again -- another day that's been much better weatherwise than forecast.

16 miles, 8 locks. (105 miles, 73 locks)