Monday 4/5 Shardlow to Barrow upon Soar

Big day. We left Shardlow, going past Chapel Farm Marina

at 8.00am. Next work out was Sawley Flood lock, normally open, but closed when the river level rises into the 'Amber'. They were closed! Worry wort immediately became anxious; the skipper was doing a Joh - don't you worry about that - amber means proceed with caution. Words hardly likely to soothe the nerves. 

By the by the lock woman was right. The lock gates are huge and heavy and some of the paddle gear is nearly impossible to wind. Thank god for Tim and Mike. The next lock after the Sawley flood lock was the Sawley duplicated locks (electric and manned) which let you down onto the River Trent proper. Exiting the huge duplicated locks

And out onto the River Trent with the River Derwent coming in on the left

 both looking rather full. Don't you worry about it, says Lawrence!! After awhile we turned southish onto the River Soar which became an altogether more intimate affair

 But the level warnings at the following locks were still nudging the amber. (Don't you worry about that). However we did pass some beautiful scenery. Below is an example of a couple of bits of eye candy

we encountered on our journey. We kept pushing on, trying to get up River as far as possible in case conditions deteriorated. We pushed on through Kegworth (shop, restaurants, pubs and other forms of civilisation)

Past Zouch (nice pub), past Normanton on Soar (shops, pub), through Loughborough (museums, a still working bell foundry where 'Great Paul' was cast for St Paul's Cathedral in 1881, good moorings, lots of restaurants etc etc) finally finding an overnight mooring Barrow upon Soar which had a couple of pubs. In all we did 17 miles, 8 locks in 10 hours. I forgot to say on Sunday we did 11 miles, 4 locks in 4 hrs.

Another change of plan

We've changed plans once again. Yesterday, during our handover cruise, Lynden waxed lyrical on the charms of the River Soar and he soon had Lawrence beguiled. So after Tim and Mike arrived, somewhat late due to taking a wrong exit and having to some circle work and scenic touring to regain the route, settling them in and a quick bite of lunch, we then reversed out of our mooring (aqua life is the middle boat)

And headed out of the marina 

And turned left toward Swarkestone and Shardlow. Our first lock of the day was manned by volunteer lock keepers. It was a huge double lock and you could see the lock keepers straining to open the paddles. I asked the advice of the female keeper, she said turn back, that this was the only manned lock and they were all hard.

Approaching the lock, and in the lock waiting for the water level to fall so we can exit out under the bridge

Out from under the bridge we come

No more photos of locks because for the remainder I was busy training up our 'crew'. 

Our mooring tonight at the delightful village of Shardlow and so,e ducklings and blossoms on the way to dinner. And the converted warehouse where we had dinner

Off for a last chigger and to check the. Mooring ropes.

Slight change of plan

Friday morning woke up to a lovely morning

We left Lock House at 6.45am for our journey to Stourport for our Helmsmans course. The first part of our journey was slightly fraught as the lady with the nice voice temporarily deserted us and Lawrence reverted to yelling at me instead of her. However with some desperate button pushing she suddenly returned to us and tensions were relieved.

We arrived at the Stourport Basin in good time (which translates as I had time for a couple of fags) to meet Rod Fox our instructor for the day and to be given a tour of his boat on which we were undertaking our instruction. We were soon underway and Lawrence's first task was negotiate out of the Stourport Basin

Which involved navigating 3 really tight corners - any mistake meant the ignomy bashing into moored boats, many with their owners on board. I was so proud of him, he handled it like a pro. We then proceeded up through a lock onto the Staff &Worcs canal where we spent the morning teaching me to steer (much harder than it looks - a momentary lapse of concentration and we were heading towards the bank; physically also - my shoulders are still aching. So Geoff, I have new respect for your and Lawrence's last year). Winding (turning the boat around) and reversing (the hardest of them all as the boat has no steering going backward).

We had a 20 min lunch break, Rod was a hard taskmaster, and then it was back down through the lock with me steering - only one teeny bump, was very chuffed. I quailed at negotiating the basin, so it was back to Lawrence who once again handled it like a pro.

we then had to negotiate a double set of staircase locks down onto the River Severn where I had more steering and winding experience and we both had to take the boat through this huge lock

Then back up the Severn with some man overboard practice. Rod was disappointed that neither Lawrence nor I were prepared to throw ourselves off the back of the boat, so we had to save a bucket and buoy instead. We won lots of brownie points as I didn't run over bucket man and managed to steer close enough so Lawrence could hook him and heave him on board and administer CPR!

We returned back up thru the double staircase locks and back to the mooring and got these

Got back to Lock House at 9.30pm absolutely knackered, so yesterday we decided not to leave Mercia marina and wait here for Tim and mike to join us on Sunday. Justin and linden at Aqua Narrowboats were fantastic -friendly and really helpful. Linden took us on our handover cruise. And we learnt a whole lot more from him. Linden is a master reverser and happily passed on some tips to us.

Report on our first night on board later.

Journey to the River Trent

Our sleep last night was disturbed when our samsung tablet decided to suicide and proceeded to enter into long and very noisy death throws. In the end it had to be wrapped in towels and locked into the bathroom to keep the noise down to a barely acceptable level. I was hoping it would suffocate, or at least overheat. But no, on and on it went all night, dinging and wailing away every few seconds as it turned itself off and on. So this morning we had a couple of hours to kill whilst a technician investigated. While we waited we purchased some essentials to deal with the English weather - a beanie, umbrellas and a couple of towels.
The samsung restored to us working again, but wiped wiped clean (there is another little job for you, George, when we get home!) and so totally useless for the rest of the trip, we set off , travelling through more of the beautiful Peak District

to reach Harwick Hall, built by Bess of Hardwick btw 1590-1597. about which Elizabeth the 1st advisor Robert Cecil quipped "Hardwick Hall? More window than wall."

 Bess is primarily remembered for two things: having survived 4 husbands and getting progressively more wealthy with each one (with the demise of no.3, it was estimated that her annual income was the equivalent of $30+million in today's terms and no.4 was the wealthiest of the lot) and in doing so had progressed from being the daughter of a squire to a countess and the second richest woman in England, Queen Elizabeth 1st being no.1. Her other claim to fame was the building of Chatsworth house and Hardwick hall and the tapestries therein.

Having spent too long at Hardwick Hall it was back into the car, driving thru lovely scenery and past cute sheep

To reach our final destination, Lock house, on the Trent where we will spend the next 2 nights.

We will going thru this lock in a few days time!

Apologies for all the different print styles - don't know how they got there so don't know how to get rid of them.

Somewhere to rest our weary heads

After a long and uneventful flight we landed at Manchester, picked up the hire car that came with a nice lady, who after supplying her with a destination, kindly told us how to get there. First stop was Macclesfield for phone and internet connection stuff. Tonight's blog will be a test of whether it works!

With the help of the nice lady we were very quickly out of the airport and onto country roads

And here is our final destination for the night. The lovely Old Hall Hotel which overlooks the Pavillon gardens at Buxton

Last supper at home

Our last dinner before handing over the reins of 'Tradewinds' to our house sitters and good friends George and Rhonda. We leave early in the morning. First stop Melbourne, an 81/2 hour drive away.

However we are sad to be leaving the best mate behind

Home

Why would anyone leave here to go to England in April?
To go narrow boating of course.

1 week to go to the start of our seven week adventure.