Back to ditch-crawling

What ever happened to the showers we were expecting today? It’s been mild and dry, if a little breezy.

My first job of the day, well, after taking Meg out, was to mount my rusty steed and cycle back to Loughborough. As well as the cable and connectors for the TV, I’d also bought an adaptor to allow us to watch content from my laptop on the TV. Or that’s what I thought I‘d bought. It transpired that I’d got a HDMI to VGA convertor, instead of a VGA to HDMI convertor. DOH! Although it wasn’t all my fault, I’d enlisted the aid of one of the assistants in Maplins, and I hadn’t got my reading glasses!

Anyway, first thing I pedalled the 5½ miles back to the shop, part towpath and part road. Not bad, I was there and back in 90 minutes. And the gadget that I’ve got this time does the job.

So now when Mags misses a soap and I download it, she can watch it on the big screen. I hope she appreciates it. After 11 miles on John Sage my bum is a tad sore….








After the toing and froing it was gone 11 by the time we got under way, arriving at Kegworth Deep Lock to find a boat just coming up. By the time they were up and clear, we’d been joined by another boat, NB Valden heading for Sawley.

Kegworth Deep Lock

Leaving the lock, Kegworth church spire in the background

Kegworth Shallow Lock was open both ends as expected, as I explained the other day these flood control locks are only in use through the winter months.

There’s a bit of activity near Ratcliffe as the A453 bridge is being widened.
There’s no restriction on the navigation at the moment, but I imagine there’ll be a stoppage when the bridge deck is hoisted into place. A bit of work to do first, though.

Out of Ratcliffe Lock and the large power station dominates the view to the north.

Ratcliffe Power Station

The last lock on the Soar is Redhill, also a flood lock and open, before the river loses itself in the Trent just above Thrumpton Weir.

Out onto the Trent
Thrumpton Weir is out of sight to the right, the bridge just visible left of centre marks the entrance to the Erewash Canal, Cranfleet Cut, the navigable Trent, heads off to the right at that point, and the river itself comes in from the left.

Wide open spaces
The Trent has had 90 miles from it’s source up on Biddulph Moor in Staffordshire to collect water from several tributaries, so is a substantial river at this point. It’s got another 90 miles to go, before joining with the River Ouse to create the Humber Estuary.

Approaching Sawley, the locks to the left, the service wharf on the backwater to the right.
We watered up and emptied the relevant receptacles, then swung around, back under the railway bridge to join NB Valden waiting in one of the mechanised locks for us.

Sawley paired locks, goods train on the bridge.

We left our locking companions after the lock, they moor in Sawley Marina, and pushed on through Sawley Cut and back out onto the river to Derwent Mouth.

Looking back along Sawley Cut, Derby Motor Boat Club moorings on the right, visitor moorings on the left, the locks in the distance and Ratcliffe Power Station on the horizon

Derwent Mouth, where the River Derwent joins from Derbyshire.
Dead ahead is the insignificant entrance to the Trent and Mersey Canal, our destination.

We moored just above Derwent Mouth Lock, Lock 1 on the T&M.

That’s it then, off the clear, fresh waters of the river, onto the turbid, shallow waters of the cut for another year. Ah well.







We had a visitor this evening, Carol who moors in Shardlow Marina had a walk round to see us with her little Jack Russell, Sealey. Both really good company, we’ve cruised with them on several occasions.



We’ll push on tomorrow, probably stopping at Swarkestone. Depends on the weather. We might be getting today’s showers tomorrow…

Locks 4 miles 6