Day Eight - Shardlow to Loughborough

We got off to an early start again at seven thirty and the sky was clear and the river was quiet. We came across a sign that said the River Soar was in flood and to proceed with caution. Then we became worried that it wasn’t quiet because we were early but we were the only ones to be approaching a flooded river! We passed the Derwent River on our left which has not been navigable since the late eighteenth century and proceeded to the manned Sawley Locks. The lockmaster was just starting work at eight o’clock and had rung ahead to see how the floods were going and he said we should be OK but to follow the British Waterway signs along the way. We didn’t have any trouble with the River Soar but we did come across other boaties at the locks who were proceeding north and were held up yesterday whilst waiting for the water to go down.
For the first time since we departed seven days ago last Saturday we are now going up in the locks. This means that Henk steers the boat into the empty canal and I fill the lock with water rather than letting out the water. I like going up the locks as we don’t have to worry about getting the boat caught on the cill as we come down.
We came off the River Trent at Trent Lock and took a sharp right turn into the River Soar and met with three fast flowing weirs which we navigated through. The Ratcliffe Power Station and the accompanying electricity pylons which were on our left dominated the landscape for some considerable time whilst on the right there were lovely farming scenes.
As expected for the last bank holiday weekend of the year the boat traffic was heavy with most of the traffic coming our way. We even came across rowing boats from the Loughborough Boat Club.
We were going to moor at the Loughborough Basin but when we arrived at one thirty it was full as it was much smaller than expected. There was no place to turn the boat. Henk had to reverse the boat for about 250 metres until we reached the dog-leg turn at the Leicester and Soar navigations. It was very tricky and made even trickier as the boat rudder does not cooperate in reverse which is a mystery to us. At one stage I had to use the large pole from the roof to push us off the side of the canal. It was very frustrating but we eventually found a good mooring spot further down the canal.
After lunch we ventured into Loughborough to the laundrette and caught up with some washing. My jeans nearly walked there all by themselves as I’ve been wearing them since I left Australia. We also caught up with some grocery shopping and decided to “eat in” on the boat. We had some very tasty Wensleydale cheese from Hawes which is a place we stayed on the Pennine Way last year.
Photos: Ratcliffe Power Station; Farms along the way; Sharp right turn into the River Soar.