- Monday dawned bright with just a few wispy clouds to spoil the blue. Managed to defy the odds and set of at 8am. Just as we were departing a nearby boat was also moving off, so we followed them down to Stenson lock and went through it with them. Trying to exit the lock the lower gates wouldnt quite open all the way and we managed to get both boats jammed together in the exit! Only by removing all the fenders did we manage to free them. We were to remain with this boat - a 72ft tug named "Mecca" and converted from a 1920s butty - all day.
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| Negotiating Stenson Lock with the Tug Moments later we became firmly jammed! |
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| The Idiot in the sailor suit had just missed the opening and hit this bridge head on. |
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| Snapped this because its an interesting old building. Looking at it later I realised there is an owl sitting in the window! |
We kept going through Shardlow which was beautiful. After Shardlow we were through the flood lock and into the River Trent. Wow! After the confined narrow canals we were all of a sudden in a big wide river - we could breath! Very like the Thames in nature - except all the big houses lining the banks were missing. We passed beneath the M1 then Sawley Marina before finally going by the Erewash Canal junction and Trent Lock. Just after Trent Lock there is a sharp right into the River Soar. Here the beautiful landscape has as the incongruous backdrop of the huge cooling towers of the Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station. At the first lock our friends on the Tug caught us up and we traveled the rest of the River Soar together, finally finishing for the day just above Zouche Lock south of Sutton Bonington.
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| River Trent - first wide river since leaving the Thames |
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| Dramatic sky over Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station |
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| Fish my precious... |
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