Summer Cruise - Alrewas to Shardlow to Mountsorrel

Thursday 7th August 2008

Alrewas to Shardlow

An intensive day, with long gaps between the locks. Very attractive countryside, but the presence of nearby roads (A38) and the railway for much of the route was really oppressive.

There were huge numbers of hire boats, in particular Canaltime. One hire boat we came across the steerer had missed the 10 minute 'training video' while he was parking the car, so had very little idea of what was going on as his family tried to get him through the locks.

Through Burton on Trent, home of brewing, unfortunately not spotting the moorings for the supermarket, although we managed to find a small Co-op later.

Later in the day we spotted the boat Squeers which used to belong to a Canal World Forum member, and took photos to let him know the progress of his boat. Then we waited interminably while a couple filled a lock on minimally open paddles, dropping them completely at times. We couldn't really work out what was going on - despite the paddles being only just open the steerer was struggling to hold the boat, and when it was pointed out that it would take the best part of an hour to fill the lock the steerer just nodded and said "yes, it will". I'm all for a laid back attitude but waiting an hour for a lock really messes up my schedule, and if I don't want to moor by a noisy road it means I've got to keep going later into the night. Eventually we managed to persuade them to open a couple of paddles a bit more, at which point the boat became much easier to control.

We moored in Shardlow, by the boatyard, and after dinner David and Cath walked up the canal to the marina to check out the town.

Daily total: 23.87 miles and 11 locks

Running Total: 238.6 miles, 275 locks, 15 tunnels

Friday 8th August 2008
Shardlow to Mountsorrel (River Soar/ GU)

A fill of diesel at 81p a litre (cash and cheques only), the new people have only taken over the boatyard a few weeks ago, then off through the open flood locks by the marina at Shardlow.

Down onto the River Trent, which stunned us by it's size, and then under the M1. Then right at Trent Lock onto the River Soar towards Leicester.

We went through several flood locks that operate as ordinary locks from October to March, but the rest of the year are left open at both ends.

Kegworth Deep Lock AKA Kegworth New Lock took a very long time to fill. We were told that it used to fill faster but that it had been 'got at' - not sure why.

We finally moored at Mountsorrel, where this beautiful 1860 bridge crosses the river. However, being a river there is no towpath to moor at - not something we are used to. We finally banged pins into the edge of a field opposite the weir, where we were pestered by aggressive hissing swans bullying us for food through our side doors.

It's quite strange looking out of the window and seeing the grasses at the edge of a field at eye level.

We went to the pub for a pint (very good), and were kept awake at night by the weir (not possible says David, as it's 'white noise', but he wasn't awake at 5 am trying to shut the windows).

Daily Total: 17.45 miles and 12 locks (although some of these were flood locks)

Running Total: 255 miles 287 locks 15 tunnels (still)