Cool, breezy and overcast as we left Holme Lock on Friday morning.
Trent trip boats on their wharves as we approach Lady Bay Bridge.
Meadow Lane Lock on the right, the way up onto the Nottingham Canal.
As the lock emptied I watched the start of a canoe race heading upstream to Trent Bridge.
We were joined in the lock by NB Gabriel, they’d seen us ahead and had pushed on to catch us and share. It’s a lot easier with two…
They pushed on above the lock, we pulled in to top up the water tank but it was so appalling slow that we gave up after about 20 minutes and shoved off ourselves. The next couple of days gives us plenty of opportunities to finish off anyway.
Up Castle Lock and around the corner and we pulled in near Sainsbury’s, pretty much the same spot we had when we came down over a week ago.
We took Saturday off, the weather was a bit damp in the afternoon and the wind was up a bit, but yesterday we set off under bright blue skies.
At Lenton Chain where the Nottingham Canal joins the Beeston Cut, there’s evidence of the long-removed stop gates just south of the junction.
Lenton Junction, taken in the 1950s before it was built over.
The photo was taken from the Nottingham Canal, the bit that still exists. The Beeston Cut comes in under the iron Chain Bridge where a chain was secured at weekends to prevent passage of boats. Curving off to the right is the now filled in line of the Nottingham Canal up to Langley Mill.Lots more interesting local history here.
The old junction taken from almost the same spot, as it is now…
We topped up the water tank at Beeston Lock before dropping back out onto the river.
Beeston Lock and the large weir that takes the river around the city.
A lovely day for a lovely bit of river.
Ratcliffe Power Station seems like an old friend, the number of times we’ve cruised this stretch.
It was cooler though, the cloud had started to build up again.
We were following a distant boat and as we got nearer we saw it was a wide beam. Cranfleet Lock is considerably smaller than those downstream, so we were reconciled to having to wait for them to go up before us.
Cranfleet Lock
But we were waved past them as there was a narrowboat already waiting in the lock.
A group of volunteers took us up steadily onto Cranfleet Cut where we pulled in just past the permanent moorings near Bridge 8.
We were up early this morning, so, instead of the late start we’d intended, we untied and set off soon after nine.
Back out onto the broad river at Soar Junction.
The Soar comes in from the left, we turn right up the Trent, past the entrance to the Erewash Canal.
Looking back
Once again we were following a boat, but at least this one was narrow so we could both fit in one of the Sawley Locks.
A boat was just leaving as we arrived, and there was a lockie on duty. Double result!
Up the lock, a thankyou to the lockie, and we were toddling along Sawley Cut past the Derby Motor Boat Club moorings.
The cut rejoins the river at Sawley Weir, then there’s a short reach to Derwent Mouth.
The River Derwent comes in from the right (north) carrying water down from the Peak District, the Trent appears from the left, only navigable for about a mile now, and the Trent and Mersey Canal is dead ahead.
Our luck ran out at Derwent Mouth Lock, a boat was ahead of our pair so our erstwhile lock buddies went up with them, leaving us on our own.
It was better for them that way anyway, they’ve now got partners for the broad locks up past Shardlow.
We pulled in above the lock, we’ll be here for a day or 3 now.
Locks 6, miles 15 (3 days cruising)
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