Delivering Leo for Blacking

We have spent a lovely week taking Leo from her winter mooring at Newark to a boatyard on the Erewash Canal for blacking.  So we drove down to Newark on Monday afternoon and set off about 5 pm on a lovely evening.

We cruised under Newark Bridge and past the Castle shown here.  At Town Lock the lock keeper was off duty.  A paddle was open at the top end of the lock and we misread 'Far paddle' and 'Near paddle' as meaning the two ends of the lock  rather than the two sides at one end.  Never mind, we sorted it eventually.

Here is Helen in lovely evening light steering Leo past Newark Marina and on towards Averham weir.  We were a bit surprised how fast the river was running, but at least it is now out of flood.









We moored overnight at Farndon after just three or four miles and ate a nice meal at the Boathouse pub.  On Tuesday we carried on up the still strongly flowing river.  Much of the day we were running at 1800 rpm which is quite a lot for Leo.  We moored at Gunthorpe and enjoyed a drink at the Unicorn with friends Jeff and Sue on Rubbin' Along who we had passed at the public moorings at Newark.  It was good to meet up with them again.  On Wednesday evening we cruised just a short way to a mooring we've not used before just above Stoke Lock.

Here you can see Rubbin' Along just ahead of us cruising under Gunthorpe Bridge, the only crossing of the Trent between Newark and Nottingham.

Rubbin' Along carried on to Nottingham but we stopped above Stoke Lock to wash and wax one side of Leo and we then enjoyed a walk in the sunshine to Stoke Bardolph and back along the river.

This picture was taken on Thursday morning.  It was amazingly still with the water like a mirror and promising a fine hot day which was duly delivered.  Boiling hot really for April.








So on Thursday we carried on into Nottingham:

Here is an unusual view of Nottingham taken from the river as we approached upstream.  By now the river had gone down a few feet and was running at a more normal speed so life on Leo was a bit easier.

At Nottingham we came up Meadow Lane lock off the river onto the Nottingham Canal which avoids the river for about 6 miles.  We shared Castle Lock with this canoeist.  We managed to avoid squashing him.  This picture is of the old Fellows, Morton, Clayton warehouse in the centre of Nottingham.

We chose to spend Thursday night at Beeston, another place we've not stopped before.  We had tea and cakes at a new cafe by the lock and sat on an upper terrace with fine views of the Trent. This picture of the river below Beeston weir shows Clifton Hall which we've not noticed before.


On Friday morning we went through Beeston Lock back onto the Trent and up to Cranfleet:

Here is Leo coming to the landing stage for Cranfleet Lock.  To our surprise the lock was surrounded by CRT volunteers one of whom waved a green flag to invite us in.  We shared this and Beeston locks with a Sea Otter.  At Trent Junction we climbed the lock onto the Erewash.

After having lunch and using the services to leave Leo full of water and with an empty toilet, we moved across the canal to leave Leo ready to go into the dry dock shown here.  Mick of Kingfisher Narrowboats is going to be busy next week reblacking her.






We plan to go down to see Leo out of the water next week and will then be back onboard next weekend to set off on our summer travels.  Where are we going?  Well you'll just have to come back here to find out.