Well, the quiet Bank Holiday weekend wasn’t. Not for us anyway. Four lots of weekender boaters. Two one night (BBQs, smoke, drinking, noise etc) and then another two the next night. Nice enough but with the strong breeze, it sent firelighter & smoke fumes into our boat and then the ghettoblaster came out. We escaped to our cratch, opened some wine and played James Blunt loudly.
So, Tuesday, we chugged on. A three hour trip to Sawley Cut. Down through Zouch lock with Mel on Last Furlong and then round to Kegworth deep lock and teamed up with a couple we met in Loughborough on Merthain and thence to Ratcliffe lock before out into the confluence (nice word that, confluence) of the Soar & Trent. The going slowed quite a bit as there was a bit of a flow on. This was the remnant of the big floods seen in the West Midlands (“a month’s rain in one hour”) and this got a lot worse as the day wore on, in fact the flood lock at Sawley was put into operation with 1.5m of water t’other side. Hmm, we’re staying put then.
You know you’re nearing Nottingham when these shapes heave into view:
Ratcliffe power station
Moored on the Sawley cut, opposite the Derby Motor Boat Club – one of our favourite spots. A big CRT work boat pulled in beside us.
Here’s Sawley locks and beside them, one big reason for stopping here:
Dave’s ickle pub, the Lockkeepers Rest – not open until Thursday!
Meanwhile, there are other pubs around – found this one in the town, the White Lion. And the Old Sawley Brewery. Little Jack, Figaro, Jobber, Tollbridge Porter to name a few of their own beers – see White Lion website
This was a guest beer (and on keg but very tasty)
I think we got to try 3 or 4 beers . . . with the brewery in the background.
The next day, as predicted, turned out to be very wet, a 1cm of rain by 11 o’clock.
It does it all get very quiet in wet weather. There are good facilities here (toilets & showers, water and rubbish disposal) as the locks are manned by volunteers and the pub/cafe is here too.
