Heading steadily upstream.

The sky cleared enough for me to get a shot of that supermoon, but with no foreground there’s no indication of scale. Glad we saw it, though.

The river frontage at Fiskerton was busy during the 19th century, wharfs for coal and grain, and warehouses and a large malthouse were established, taking advantage of water transport.

Fiskerton malthouse, now a private house. The flues on the roof are a dead-giveaway as to it’s former use.

Alongside is a large warehouse, still with a gantry crane on the wharf.

There’s another swinging crane in front of the pub.


Of course, with all this activity on the riverfront, boats needed something substantial to tie to…

(the glove is there to add scale…)




Very mild this morning, but dull and grey for the most part as we set off. Twenty minutes saw us arrive at Hazelford Lock, but it was slow going as there was more water coming down than yesterday.

Through the foam towards Hazelford Lock


It seemed to take forever to empty and then refill the large lock to fetch Mags up, but then we were on our way, the river very wide along here. On the left, east, bank, the Trent Hills start to rise, cutting off views in that direction and leaving a narrow strip of water meadow along the river.

Finally the tree line reaches right down to the water’s edge.

Across to the right, the flat flood plain has been extensively excavated for sand and gravel. The village of Hoveringham lies that way, and gave it’s name to the Hoveringham Gravel Company. Until it’s take-over by Tarmac in 1982, the fleet of trucks with the mammoth logo on the side was common on the Midland’s roads.

I had a Dinky model of one of these!

A minor road runs close to the bank here, and this was proudly trotting along. I think they call it a sulkie or jog cart…


The river gets even wider as it sweeps around long, gentle curves on it’s way from Gunthorpe Lock.

Gunthorpe Lock, with it’s long weir to the left.

You can see the lock-landing pontoon dead ahead. It’s not well placed; water from the weir flows under it making the approach a little tricky. It took me two attempts to get close enough to jump off with a rope.

We went up the lock without incident, and were planning on stopping on the visitor pontoon mooring just around the corner, but it looked to be fully occupied…


…but I guess they didn’t like the look of us!

Of course, with the birds congregating there the pontoons are covered in poo!

Not sure what we’re doing tomorrow. It looks to be another good-ish day.

Locks 2, miles 6½