Day 6: Zouch to Barrow on Soar

Friday was the longest day so far - and windy, which meant plenty of practice using the wind when steering (ref. Ray Cullis of Trent Boathandling, our mentor in these matters!).  We travelled through Loughborough, our first encounter this trip with urban waterways.

Leaky top gates at Bishop Meadow

 Gauging how to control the boat with judicious operation of the paddles isn't easy!

 Duck house - on expenses?

 Lots of waterlilies in flower along the way

 Turning left for Leicester Navigation

 Loughborough landscapes

A magical moment: this tern circled the boat again and again, hovering then repeatedly diving into the river just behind us.  It seemed to be attracted by the bubbles in our wake, as we didn't see it catch anything.

Walking into Barrow from our weekend mooring near Pilling's Marina

 View towards Pilling's flood lock

Dusk

Day 5: Kegworth to Zouch

We move off from Kegworth and straight away meet groups of volunteers maintaining the locks.  At Kegworth Deep we were helped through by a party of about 10 Severn Trent Water staff who do 3 days per year volunteering in the local community.  This lock was the scene of a narrowboat sinking in 2014, when the steerer allowed the boat to catch on the cill - thankfully there were no fatalities.

Severn Trent Water volunteers

Canoeists on the River Soar - an increasingly popular pastime

 Coffee break on a beautiful stretch at Devil's Elbow

 The waterfront at Zouch

On the riverbank

We stopped on the pleasant overnight moorings at Zouch,  look for the bollards just before and beyond bridge 44.

Day 4: Redhill to Kegworth

Day 4 and we head out from Redhill Marina towards the village of Kegworth, a manufacturing centre for socks and stockings till the 1940s.

Sharp turn into Ratcliffe lock

Coming up

A quiet mooring for the night at Kegworth flood lock

Walking to the Co-op in Kegworth.  The quickest route from the moorings at Kegworth flood lock is turn right over the road bridge and then take the public footpath on the left opposite the Anchor pub.

By the river

Days 1 - 3: Sawley to Redhill

Our summer trip this year is to Cambridge via Northampton.  The first leg is south up the River Soar to Leicester, then continuing south via the Grand Union canal to Northampton where we'll turn east at Gayton Junction down the River Nene into the East Anglian waterways. On a previous trip, we did the Leicester Ring anti-clockwise, so parts will be familiar but otherwise it's new and unknown territory.

First leg: Sawley to Gayton

 Jan making new luminous covers for our mooring pins

Denis about to do final engine checks

Setting off from our mooring at Sawley Marina

Blue Adeline newly polished, on Sawley Cut

Down the River Trent towards the mouth of the River Soar and Redhill Marina - avoiding two people 'wild swimming' in the Trent on the way

Three days stopover at Redhill in the shadow of Ratcliffe power station and, for Jan, a trip to London to work

The power station stands on the site of a Roman settlement and discoveries include a 'curse tablet' from the 3rd or 4th century invoking the wrath of the gods for the theft of a mule. Perhaps an early form of social media!

Ratcliffe curse tablet, in Latin 'mirror writing'