We awoke to yet another very bight, cloudless day with the forecast that max maximum temperatures might reach 32C.
After feeling very exhausted by the heat yesterday afternoon, we decided to get away as soon as we could manage. Not very early but we did manage to untie by 10 minutes to nine!
A boat had just come up Zouch Lock so we hoped for it to be full but, alas it is rather leaky and the level had dropped nest to half full. A single hander arrived a just moments later and he gave us some help to get through. We did take rather longer than we should have as, whilst chatting, we only opened gate paddles on one of the two top gates! He moors at Pillings Marina and reported that, after the shenanigans between CaRT and the original owner of the marina, it is now well established under a new owner who delegates almost everything day-to-day to a manager. This boater had been there for six years so it cannot be bad!
Shortly after the lock we re-joined the River Soar which has been on a trip around the fields with a radial weir to control water levels.
The next stretch is wide, open and very attractive but with few notable features. Here is the upstream end of Devil's Elbow (a small island there part of the river flows around - but is not navigable that way.
And here is the downstream end.
In some ways, this waterside house is quite ordinary but what caught our eye was the way in which it has developed over time with all sorts of bits added on. What is especially 'stand out' is the patio garden on the garage roof, complete with a greenhouse. And it comes complete with room to moor two river cruisers.
At the point where the A6 and the River almost collide there has been a pub since at least early 19C. The original Navigation was rebuilt more than once and the present building only dates from 1996. Despite advertising itself as the perfect riverside English country pub, it seems to have turned its back on river trade as none of the earlier moorings is now usable and to get to it from the opposite bank is a very long walk!
Next to the Otter is a set of moorings, mainly for river cruisers, and uses a short stretch of water just away from the river and is part of a series of ponds that appear to be of recent origin as they only appear on modern maps.
The protected 'inland' moorings emerge just downstream - we think we could later see from a distance that moored boats can exit this way.
Christine began to wonder if we needed to drop down any more locks before a stopover and promptly indicated a mooring spot (with good piling to which boats can tie up) just before Kegworth Deep. Mike duly brought our boat alongside into a gap between several wide beam boats already moored there. Alas, we once again demonstrated that most wide beams are much shallower draft than Alchemy. Eventually we managed to make fast even if the stern is a bit too far out to be able to step of easily. The bow is just fine.
We are also directly under the flight path for planes coming in to East Midlands Airport. Although the sound of them flying overhead is noticeable, in practice we could only hear them for a very short time - perhaps less than 30 seconds. The start of the runway is just one mile away so they are over the tree line quite quickly (the airport is not visible from the river)
Across the fields alongside our mooring we can still see the now closed Ratcliffe Power Station, the last operating coal power in the UK. The complete removal of the development will take some years. The first stage is to remove all of the equipment inside the buildings. The more visible work of bringing down the eight cooling towers and the tall chimney is expected in 2029-2030.
This healthy brood of Canada Geese and ducklings were being taught how to scrounge food from boaters. The already seemed to know what to do but also that it is not worth wasting effort on those that show no inclination to throw out good bread to them!
Kegworth village is on the opposite bank, just a short distance further downstream. Despite the tempting sight of the church spire (which we considered as an option for yesterday until we realised that there is no way across from the towpath side until Kegworth Shallow Lock. About a mile and a half on foot) We wrote about The Hermitage in last year's blog.
By the time we moored it was barely ten thirty but here we were to stay the rest of the day, doing as little as the heat would permit!
2.4 Miles - 1 Lock
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