We are moored up in Sawley Marina, on the river side enjoying the waters of the Trent. We are also hugely enjoying the visitor moorings with electricity and water all in!!! Wonderful. Laundry without Levi on deck awaits.We set out from Barrow upon Soar just before 9am having had a few great days of work making us feel as if we earned this glorious day on the canal and river. The weather was sunny and dry, sort of warm and not too windy. Wonderful, really. We were delighted that the first lock was set and open, so sailed straight though. We enjoyed the travelling through Loughborough, one of the best kept canals in an urban area we have ever experienced. Lovely brownfield sites have been transformed into housing and light industry keeping many of the original wharf buildings. We circled Loughborough to the east then north, coming to a T junction to turn right (north) onto the Loughborough Navigation.
We stopped at Bishop's Meadow lock to use the BW services (v slow water!!) and then made our way north to meet the Trent. Along the way, we saw housing we have never seen, shown in a few photos. Clearly, the River Soar floods. Extensively. We saw holiday cottages and homes on stilts, something Elizabeth recalls from the southeast coast of the USA. We also saw moorings where there were huge poles. If you enlarge the photograph of Pete lockside at a rather large lock, you can see the poles along the far bank. These are either poles on which the boat's mooring ropes travel up with the river level, or they are poles on which the whole pontoon along which the boats are moored rises with the water levels.
We stopped for diesel along the way at Kegworth Marina and were told that the water has made its way to nearly the bottom of the hanging sign. The building in the background is on stilts.
From the Loughborough Navigation, we then joined the Soar again and made our way past Kegworth and on to the Trent. One photo is of the large weir separating the navigable section from the non-navigable. And one photo is of Bella on her largest river EVER!!
She rather likes it.
