to Burton on Trent

Well, on our way from Loughborough to Nottingham we passed through Cranfleet Lock. Alongside the lock is the old lock cottage which is now the HQ of the Nottingham Yacht Club, and in the window was a poster advertising their weekend of events two days later, featuring a fly over by a Lacaster bomber, made famous by the Dam Buster raids in WW2. We decided we would go to this and headed first to Nottingham. Lovely weather, and we ambled into the city, stopping by at the "Trip to Jerusalem", a pub carved into the rock beneath Nottingham Castle. It is supposed to have been used by knights as they assembled for the 3rd crusade, let it be said it was an interesting place to visit, made more pleasant by the smoking ban.

We did bits of shopping then turned around and returned to Cranfleet. The weather for the weekend was fabulously hot and the club made us all very welcome. On Friday night there was a duo who put on a very good "Beatles" act, and the drinks were incredibly cheap. They featured "Bomber" bitter, and very good it was. Saturday we had the overfly, hopefully you like the pic, and on Sunday there was a very good morris dancing troupe. A great weekend and fun meeting people.

We then made our way gently to Burton on Trent. We could have made the trip in one day, we took a week! Every two years we need to get our bottom scraped and blacked, by we I mean Lily. Weed grows on the hull profusely during the Summer, and we knock into things so we need to protect the steel. We have done the blacking ourselves in the past but Carol decided that following my accident on the Thames in 2006 it would be better to get it done for us. We could have had this done at Debdale, our home base, but we decided to use Shobnal Boat Servces as we would be under cover & we could get the roof repainted. We had booked the date months in advance, but as we would have to cross the rivers Trent and Soar, and as both are well known for going into flood after heavy rain, we gave ourselves time for a flood to rise & then fall again.

We had a gentle amble along the Trent & Mersey Canal, and had a call from two friends. Would Ian like to go to visit Williams GP? Their daughter was putting on an event at the Williams conference centre and there was to possibilty of Stan & Ian joining in on the trip. What an opportunity. Itinerary was changed and we spent two nights staying at their home and spent a memorable few hours looking around the exhibition of the history of one of the most successful teams in Formula 1 GP racing. Because of the involvement of Stan's daughter and the arrangements she had made for her company's exhibition, we had the other opportunity not offered to all to actually sit in a car. It was a 2001 model, though it had been decorated up to look like the latest model for promotional reasons.

Ian took the opportunity to visit his mother too, using his bus pass, it took as long to get the 15 miles from Desford to Mountsorrel as it took to get from Desford to near Swindon!

Anyway we entered the dry dock on Monday morning nd then made our way into the centre of Burton, which was nearly 1 1/2 miles away, & Carol doesn't do walking much. We found bus routes out, but no thanks to the bus stop signs not having route numbers on them, whilst in Leicestershire they do. For any other boaters going to Burton, from Shobnal there is a number 10 running hourly from close by the boatyard, or with a little walk onto Shobnal St a number 3 runs around every 20 minutes.

On Thursday it was Ian's birthday & we celebrated in fine style, a curry in Wetherspoons, price up now to £5.09 for a curry & a pint, followed by watching the new Indiana Jones film on its opening day. Typical Indiana Jones film, typically enjoyable. Before that though we were given a great opportunity as in the boatyard there was a telescope set up looking at part of the "Coors" ( Bass to me ) brewery. It was trained onto a bird box and we were allowed to watch a Peregrine Falcon feeding her brood of 4 fluffy white chicks.........incredible. Friday morning at 9 the water was let into the dry dock & we carefully moved her out, ensuring that the newly glossed sides were not knocked. Now we are off to the Leicester Festival on June 7th & 8th, but Saturday is our 39th wedding anniversary. Ian chose the date two days after his birthday so he would always be reminded by the arrival of his birthday cards, and he has never yet forgotten!!

More soon

From Loughborough

Well, I said we would move off on Tuesday. We managed about half a mile and went into the new canal basin at Loughborough where we first attended to essential services, emptying things and filling the water tank. It was a lovely day, bright sun and warm, so we moved away from the water point and tied up and went shopping.



Carol is a great cook and we both like spicy dishes, but unfortunately our plates were showing the signs of being nearly 20 years old. When we ate food that contained saffron or turmeric, we were left with discolouration that needed bleaching because the glaze was worn and less than perfect. So it was off to Tylers in Loughborough, a lovely shop & well worth a visit, and some new stuff bought, more modern in shape, but we can't fit so many in the plate racks.


I enclose a pic of the new wharf. The multi coloured buildings are student flats and the "balls" are art works with carvings to some degree reflecting the past of Loughborough. They have merit in being different, and are certainly worth studying to identify features of the town and its industrial history, though I didn't see a stocking frame or a Cottons Patent knitting machine. The nice flat area around the balls was much appreciated by the skate boarders! The student flats were the subject of a great many objections at the planning application stage as they have no parking spaces and the students are supposed to sign an undertaking not to use a car, though how this is enforced heaven knows.

We moved off about 100 yards before mooring for the night. Ian went to the NHS Drop In centre as he had a problem with his ring finger. An injection might have worked, we'll see, if not it will be a small operation.


So Wednesday dawned, bright, sunny and warm. A bit of clothes drying first and off we went at 11. We needed to do some washing and when the boat was fitted out the boatyard had an old washer dryer it dropped in, it helped the balance, but it was beige and we wanted white, so the beige one went to a flat we let out and the new white one was for the boat. Getting them in and out was not easy. The doors are only about one inch wider than the machine, so one person heaved at the bottom, two others pulled on ropes and out it came onto the back deck. The doors off the back deck are even narrower, so to get it off we had to lift it over the top. The new one works well and we have a nifty way of fixing a rotary clothes line to the boat to get the clothes dry.

We passed through just 5 locks, all of them double width and with quite large falls in them. We have difficulty with Bishops Meadow Lock at the edge of Loughborough as it is a bit short. The only way we can get out the lock is to open the gate on the side opposite to that where Lily lies. We understand British Waterways are going to do some work to get the lock up to 72 feet long soon.


It really is lovely on the river Soar, beautiful sweepig bends and pretty fields alongside. There is a gorgeous house on this bit of our cruise, I include a picture. Heaven knows what it is worth, but it certainly is way beyond our means, and it has planes from the nearby East Midlands Airport passing close by with great frequency.

We have moored for the night at the entry to the Cranfleet cut. We are right at the junction of the river Soar and river Trent, and the Cranfleet cut takes boats past Thrumpton weir. We are unfortunately near to the bridge where the Sheffield - London rail line crosses the cut so it is a little noisy, but I expect the fresh air will see us sleeping like tops.

Nottingham tomorrow. We are in the process of working our way to Burton on Trent where we are to enter a dry dock and have our hull blacked. We have allowed time to get there in case the river goes in to flood, rest assured if we see heavy, prolonged rain is forecast then we shall dash off to Shardlow and off the river very quickly.

More later