Still struggling with Blogger, but we’ve moved on towards Nottingham.

I’m still having to upload pictures using a tedious workaround, so these posts are taking longer and the formatting of the finished article might leave a little to be desired…
Anyway, we moved off from the pontoons at Gunthorpe yesterday morning.

A couple of Egyptians hanging about for breakfast

It was a cold grey morning which didn’t get any better, but we weren’t the only ones on the water…

…these guys were certainly giving it some rice as they headed downstream to Gunthorpe Bridge!

This far up the river there is a little more to see as we approach civilisation, like this unusually steeply-pitched roof on a house in Burton Joyce.

I thought it was a significant building, but it appears to be a private house.





Taking off to avoid this noisy metal thing bearing down on them…

You can almost navigate the Trent by the riverside pubs, often with “Ferry” in the name. But you can’t always get to them from the water.
The Ferry Boat at Stoke Bardolph does have moorings for patrons, though.

After just over an hour steady cruising Stoke Lock appears after a gentle bend. You can’t see the lock itself at first, but the suds from the weir let you know it’s there somewhere…

The very pretty Stoke Lock

There’s good, quiet moorings above the lock, too.

Ratcliffe Viaduct, carrying the Nottingham to Grantham railway line has an impressive steel lattice span over the river…

…but the really impressive bit is the 31 brick arches that stride across the water meadows to the east.

We’re now to the east of Nottingham, and industry starts to appear on the west bank. Old wharves show that once upon a time the industry here was at least partly serviced by water.

Our last lock for the day was Holme Lock, deep and slow to fill. The complex here includes water control sluices, a hydro-electric installation and a slalom course alongside the lock.

Holme Lock

The hydro-electric plant has been a couple of years in construction and now appears finished. But it doesn’t look to be working yet.

That was it for the day, we moored towards the end of the lock cut where the bank is lower but there’s an unfortunate shelf sticking out below water level. Still, you can’t have everything.



We’ve not moved today, but will be heading in to Nottingham tomorrow.

Locks 2, miles 7½