Sawley Cut to Loughborough

Thursday 11th July, posted later ….

An early-ish start at 8.15, because we are hoping to get to Loughborough in time for Deb (who is a bell-ringer) to get to the Bell Foundry museum which closes at 4.

In my haste to get yesterday’s blog posted while the laptop battery held out I forgot these photos of two of the houseboats on the Erewash;

Not such a nice houseboat but a cool dinghy!

The paired Sawley locks are BW Key operated, so very easily descended, and it was out onto the Trent which is very wide below the locks – this is looking back towards the locks.

In the distance was the entrance to the Erewash canal at Trentlock;

and this shot proves that Debby does drive sometimes!  and she truly is not as worried as she looks – the sun was in her eyes, honest!

As the Trent went east towards Nottingham we swung round to the south towards Thrumpton Weir and the mouth of the Soar.  Although the water levels are fairly low we could still feel the push of the Soar as it joined the Trent.  Here is the weir with the railway crossing it. – much further away from us than it looks here.

We have seen a lot of widebeams since Shardlow, and there were plenty more moored along the lower reaches of the Soar, though none in this photo of Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station.

We had a bit of a wait at Kegworth Deep lock while two boats in front of us went up, then discovered why the wait was so long – it’s quite deep but also has very stiff paddle gear and heavy gates.  Apparently the locks get worse towards Loughborough!  No problem through Zouch lock, then we passed the emergency flood mooring dolphins – we had expected something more interesting than this …….

Normanton-on-Soar has expensive-looking houses and a pretty church, then it was into the locks below Loughborough.  Yes they are heavy and luckily we had company through them.  We moored for lunch just before the basin, where Deb phoned and discovered that the Bell Foundry was closed this week because of staff holidays.  Grrrrr.  But we went into the town for some shopping, then Dave cycled out to Halfords to get an aerial for the new digital radio.  We moved on for a quieter spot for overnight, passing what may be the bell foundry on the way – at least it’s one of the more attractive buildings you can see from the canal.

We found a lovely spot in the evening sunshine, the peace disturbed only by walkers, some teenagers learning to row, and this unusually bold little moorhen which came up to the side hatch begging for bread.