We
are now on part of the Trent and Mersey Canal, above Fradley
Junction, that we travelled along about this time last year (in the
opposite direction). Sunday proved to be quite autumn like with a
very chilly wind, making us light the fire & pop the winter duvet
onto the bed.
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| Junction from River Soar onto Trent, Erewash canal opposite |
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| River Trent |
We
had a lovely time with beautifully warm weather and almost no wind as
we travelled to the end of the River Soar where it meets the River
Trent. Then we joined the beginning of the Trent and Mersey Canal.
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| Sawley electronic lock |
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| In Sawley lock |
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| Loughborough Basin |
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| Loughborough Basin |
During
our river journey we spent a night at Loughborough Basin, a much
smaller version of Aylesbury Basin. It was rather sad the boaters
facilities were all boarded up due to vandalism and there were many
youngsters hanging around until very late in the evening. The trip
there was very worthwhile as I got some new boots from Go Outdoors.
The following evening we were moored by Redhill Flood Lock, before we
went onto the River Trent. Due to the water level being so low we had
to clamber up from the boat to the bank. This spot is in the shadow
of the power station. We could see the cooling towers from miles
away and they looked like volcanoes when the moon rose in-between
them. It was quite odd cruising straight through all the flood locks
on the river as they are left open as the water level is quite low.
There is a huge weir that goes under a railway that takes the bulk of
the River Soar’s water down to the River Trent. Our travelling
friends on nb GYR, went straight over at the confluence onto the
Erewash Canal. At this point we could see how small the River Soar
actually was compared to the River Trent.
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| nb GYR waiting to go into Trent Lock |
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| All gates open, Redhill flood lock |
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| Huge pipe bridge over River Trent |
We
spent an afternoon exploring and pub crawling around Shardlow, known
as the inland port. When we went through Burton on Trent we passed
nb Firecrest, so Eric & Cheryl decided to move to moor near us.
In a couple of weeks Cheryl & I are taking part in a spinning
marathon ‘BritSpin’ in aid of the air ambulance charity, so we
discussed our
strategies for getting lots of yarn spun over dinner.
The following evening John & I had a lovely evening in The White
Swan pub at Fradley Junction chatting to holiday makers & locals.
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| Clock Warehouse, Shardlow |
I really enjoyed my BritSpin wool spinning marathon last weekend. I
spun 3.914km which was 678g. Our Team Spinning in Beds totalled
22.14 km and all the teams managed 506km. Altogether the teams raised
£3,470 for the Air Ambulance Charity, which was great. I entered
two of the photo competitions, where I came 3rd in each:-
spinning somewhere – I was under a rainbow and I made a spindle out
of my old pinard stethoscope (what I used to listen to baby’s heart
beats in mum’s tum) in the make you own spindle competition. I didn't actually finish the challenge set by my team captain, so I'm working on it and have chosed to 'spin a rainbow'.
