Kegworth

Today's Navigations : River Soar, Loughborough Cut

Although we have noted several times in this blog, we have only had one really sunny day so far. Today was no different. However, it would be unfair not also to mention that we do not recall a single day when we did not at least a glimmer of blue sky. Today it took until well after we had moored for the occasionally slightly damp clouds to clear and leave us with a fine evening - at least it meant we could see  quite clearly the planes arriving to land at the airport just over a mile way. We could, in any event, hear them as the flight path, alas, was directly overhead! A heavy shower arrived soon after sunset.

First stop today was Barrow Deep Lock, just 100 metres ahead of where we moored overnight, even if it was then out of sight. As we prepared the lock,  a group of youngsters were carrying out several large kayaks from the nearby caravan park for an adventurous trip that would include shooting the rapids down the bypass weir.

This gives some indication of just how deep the lock is when emptied to the lower level.

A river section followed and at the end of it we passed through Pillings Flood Lock as we entered the long Loughborough Cut. (Many of the River Soar locks below Leicester are on some sort of bypass cut but other then here they are fairly short)

We were rather nonplussed by this line of bollards - a useful mooring but in the middle o nowhere. Sometimes this is because they were once associated with a wharf or a mill but the older maps show nothing at all in this location.

We now entered the outskirts of Loughborough where a substantial amount of housing has grown up over the past two or three decades - and still continues to spread outwards. On our journey upstream we spotted several signs that warned boaters to take care because of works in progress, but we failed to see what they were. We took a closer look his time and, firstly saw that one of the logos on the signs was that of a demolition company.

Just after passing under this bridge we looked back to see some scaffolding that was yo assist with the rebuilding of the brick wall alongside the canal. The site contained a rather decrepit looking industrial building which we suspect is why a demolition  company is involved. More housing?

During the past few days we heard somewhere that the Great Central Railway restoration trust have now received planning permission to extend their line further north - you may remember that we commented how the line comes to an abrupt halt just to the left of this photo.

We have now discovered that the next project is to fill in the 'missing gap' of around 500 metres gto where another trust has restored the section of the Great Central line into Nottingham. One of the main obstacles was the A60 where the original bridge/viaduct has been removed. So far, this bridge has now been restored but is still someway from either track. Clearly the remainder of the work also has an obstacle - restoring the level of the track back up to its original height. The photo shows what lies just to the left of the previous picture - a major drop won of about 2 or 3 metres! So far we have not discovered any details of how this is to be achieved.

We continued on to Loughborough Junction. We could have moored just before but that is an extra walk to the shops so we speculatively started to turn towards the basin knowing that if there were no spaces we would have to come back to the junction and reverse a short way to tie up. However, as we came out under the junction bridge a couple of walkers kindly told us that there were two spaces free in the basin! The other two spaces looked remarkably like they did when we left here nearly a week ago! Both boats seemed to be here for a good stay.

After a visit to the nearby Sainsbury supermarket we continued on down to Loughborough Lock as it was still not yet quite lunch time. Here we found a couple of lads who wanted to see how a boat goes through a lock. Mike quickly handed them a lock key and they equally quickly picked up what was needed to be done. They cycled off down the towpath but our hopes of having fully trained lockies to help at the next lock - alas we later saw them cycling back up again - perhaps we were too slow for them!

Half way to Bishops Meadow there is this brick bridge, still confusing called Swing Bridge. Some guides, and occasionally in notices from CaRT there is an assumption that this really is a swing bridge. On the maps from early 1900s, a swing bridge is indeed marked here but by the time we started to use this road in the late 1960s it had been replaced. As far as we know, it only serves the long term moorings and the lock cottage at Bishops Meadow.

Just after the bridge  a number of cars are parked alongside and amongst them we spotted this one, its postfix A reg means that it dates from 1983 (unless it was purchased as a special) At over 50 years on the road it has done well.

We paused above the next lock for lunch. A boat arrived just as we were 'thinking' about resulting our journey and quickly enquired if they were going down, hoping to be able to share the work. But alas, they were heading for the water point but by now we were ready to go ourselves.

Soon after the lock we rejoined the River Soar for a long bendy section.

We managed a better photo of Normanton Church although some blue sky would have improved it further.

At Zouch we shared the lock with another boat that had just entered it ahead of us. They were only out for a short trip and so allowed us to go ahead of them once the lock was empty. A large log caught behind one of the bottom gates that we had to exit separately anyway.

The final stretch was again a pleasant river section of about half an hour brought us down to just above Kegworth Deep Lock where we found  a useful mooring with piling (not a lot of that on the river) so we pulled in and left the remainder of the Soar for tomorrow. A number of rowing crews - not sure where from - were  practising on the river, coxed men's and coxless women's teams. (Sorry, no pix)

9.8 Miles - 5 Locks