A change of scenery.

The river was dropping quite rapidly, and by this morning it was down two feet, with the amber on the level marker just peaking above water.





So we decided to head off, upstream to Sawley. I toddled up to the large Tescos in Long Eaton before we left, to get the cupboards topped up, and had to get a taxi back ‘cause I’d bought too much! Still, that’ll keep us going for a week or two. Then we pulled down to the lock, filled with water while the lock filled, and dropped down to river level.

Looking back at the entrance to the Erewash Canal.
We decided to do a detour up the canal just to kill a bit of time, and finished up there for nearly a month! Still, there are worse places to be stuck.

It felt good to be out on the wide water again, a chance to wind up the old donk a bit and blow the cobwebs out of the exhaust.

Just a mile upriver we came to Sawley Locks, with the railway bridge crossing just below.



These paired locks are mechanised, and Lock 1, the right hand one, was nearly empty so we used that one.

The control panels have recently been changed to those new ones that seem to take ages…

Leaving the locks we noticed that the red light was on, indicating that the navigation was in flood – “Do Not Proceed”….

We didn’t go much further after clearing the locks, pulling in about halfway along Sawley Cut.

We’ll be here for a couple of days before pushing on to Shardlow.

Locks 2, miles 1½