Back to the canals

Saturday 18^th July; Zouch Cut to Shardlow

There are footpath walks round here, so when I took Jess out first thing we had a short investigation.  Dave took her a lot further in the other direction last night.

The blob on the cut is a duck flying towards the bridge

Before we started Dave thought he’d better check the weed hatch before we went any further.  Just as well.

Better off the prop

It was a cool start for once, a jumper and long trousers day at least for a while.  We left at about 8.15.  The lock was empty, not surprisingly as it was extremely leaky. 

The gap between the bottom gates was huge.

It took ages to fill because of the leak but emptied remarkably quickly.  There seems to be some kind of rowing club along the weir stream as we saw a single scull and a coach/safety boat shoot out as we left the lock, and saw two or three more boats on the way to Kegworth Deep lock.  The lock is also known as Kegworth New lock as another was built alongside the old one – according to Nicholson’s, as part of a flood prevention scheme.

This must have been the side of the original lock, anything else would be hidden by the brambles

Kegworth Shallow lock, which acts as a flood lock, had both gates open.   

 Then it was just two miles to the last normal lock on the Soar, Redhill lock, so it was time to look out for the cooling towers of the old power station.  They were first visible across the fields a while ago, but I prefer this photo, especially as I was steering at the time and still managed to get them vertical!

Ratcliffe lock was busy, with one boat just leaving thus allowing us to go straight in, along with the boat already waiting, and another waiting below for us to leave.  Then it was the long stretch of permanent moorings leading to Redhill marina, with the cooling towers looming behind them.  There was no sign of Oleanna which we knew to be still in the paint shed, but we did look for Pip and Mick at the tables outside the café.  We were several days too early for that!  Still travelling north, we passed through the open gates of Redcliff flood lock and turned westward at the confluence with the Trent.   Now we were cruising upstream against a gentle flow.  Our locking companion stopped on the pontoons just beyond Trent Lock at the end of the Erewash, so we were on our own as we approached Sawley locks.  The lockies were on duty and one of the locks was ready so it wasn't long before we were passing along Sawley Cut.  The marina moorings all along the offside were full, and the long-term moorings along the towpath were also full.  At the end we spotted one of the boats owned by Forces Veterans Afloat, the charity based at Sawley Marina which we first heard about on last year’s Narrow Escapes’  on Channel 4.

At last we had passed under the long long pipe bridge to the second ‘crossroads’ of water; to the right is Derwent mouth where the Derwent joins the Trent, and to the left the Trent continues upstream where is a boatyard and the end of the navigation.

And ahead, at last, is the canal

Looking back downstream.  Too much water for comfort thank you very much.

I went to open the top gate for a small cruiser approaching Derwent Mouth lock.  They had to sort their ropes out before they could descend the lock – one was about to foul the propeller and the other lay hidden underneath the canvas cover.

Leaving the river

The lock was filling itself already as I closed the bottom gate.

I hadn't even opened the gate paddles

It was slow going past the moored boats all the way to Shardlow, where we found a shady spot half-way between the first pub and Shardlow lock.  I took Jess along to the next bridge, crossed over and we called in to the little museum for a look before walking back to the canal along the winding back lane and through an alleyway.  My plan was to suss out the pubs and come back on the towpath, but annoyingly an entire swan family – with 5 cygnets I seem to remember - was on the towpath opposite the New Inn so it was a long walk back the way we had come.  We went along to the New Inn at about 6 (the swans had gone) hoping to be early enough to order food, but by the time I joined the queue to order the wait was already an hour.  So we enjoyed our pint and went back to eat on board instead.

9 miles, 8 locks, including 2 flood locks