After a couple of months of cruising for us and three months for Pas Mèche, we have finally met and are now travelling as two narrowboats together. This makes life easier especially in the wide locks.
We left Nottingham on Monday and at first we cruised down a canal which was the Nottingham Canal and then becomes the Beeston Cut leading back to the River Trent via a lock at Beeston.
Coming out on the River we passed Beeston Marina where this chap was on watch!
In the distance we could see Ratcliffe on Soar Power Station which we saw a few days before from the top of Nottingham Castle.
Not many places on the canals have junctions as complicated as this one at Trent Junction. We were going straight on but moored pretty soon. As this is a major crossroads of canals there is plenty of passing traffic to make life entertaining.
On Tuesday we drove North with our friend Steve (we know him as 'Hodge') to enjoy a walk on Bleaklow in the High Peak. We drove really quite a long way, almost to Manchester, and parked at the highest point on the Snake Pass and then walked along the Pennine Way at first. We then explored some valleys and side ridges that Helen and Ian have never been up before.
Here we are on the tops at Bleaklow Stones with Helen and Steve doing silly things round the strange shaped stones.
These are the Wain Stones which are supposed to look like two people kissing. In Wainwright's Pennine Way Companion he describes a drawing of these stones as the only bit of sex in his book!
And here you see Helen and Steve at the Hern Stones on the way down. We stopped at the Barrel Inn at Bretton on the way back for a well earned meal. The pub is 1300 feet up with fantastic views.
After a very different day walking instead of boating, we set off on Wednesday up the River Soar. This is a beautiful and narrow river after our days on the Trent.
Here is the welcome as you turn off the Trent and up the Soar.
It has been really hot the last few days and Helen has finally been able to wear her summer hat. Here she is working the paddles on Ratcliffe Lock, the first one up the Soar.
The Soar is very pretty - tree lined and windy. The power lines are due to the Power Station being nearby.
At Kegworth you meet Kegworth Deep Lock. With the Soar below being very low due to the lack of rain, this lock took us up a good 11 or 12 feet and Helen was very cautious opening the paddles to treat Leo as gently as possible.
On Thursday morning we cruised upriver a short way to turn round and here we are passing Normanton Church on our way back down to moor at Zouch.
Later on Thursday afternoon a hoot sounded the arrival of a familiar boat - Pas Mèche - with David and Victoria waving their greetings.
We are not used to travelling with another boat but it was fun coming down the river with Pas Mèche.
Here is Leo coming straight through one of the two flood locks which were wide open as befits the present lowish water levels. In times of flood these gates would be closed.
I said it has been hot and here is David cooling off in the River after a run. Though Ian had plans for a swim, it has cooled off this evening so the swim might have to wait for another day.
Ian's sister, Ruth, has a memorable birthday this week and her husband, Peter, arranged to take her away to the Lake District for the weekend. What she did not know was that Peter had arranged to break their journey by meeting us for lunch at the Trent Lock Pub right by our mooring.
Now that we are back together an early priority is to decide more precisely where we are going next. So as I type this I can't say where we are going from here. To find out you will just have to look at the next blog.
P.S. We have seen a number of steam powered boats going past us this afternoon so here is an example of the vessels passing us.
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