County Hall Steps to Sainsburys
We pushed off late morning and instead of winding straight away we went to see what was beyond Wilford Suspension Bridge. With the low sun ahead of us we were glad the river was wide and we’d be unlikely to bump into anyone. The river was far quieter than it had been over the weekend, just a couple of rowers out stretching their limbs.
Pootling upstream of the bridge didn’t really come up with any sights for us, just what seemed to be a long right hand bend. We could have carried on to Wilford Toll Bridge (the head of navigation) but got bored before we got there. What we missed was a modern span between the Grade 2 red bricked original bridge. It now carries the tram, pedestrians and bikes across the Trent.
As soon as we winded the blue sky took over, another lovely winters day to be on the river, well for a short while.
We ran down stream to just beyond Meadow Lane Lock where we winded and then returned to the pontoon. The lock was full, we suspected we knew who’d got here before us this morning, so I went up to empty it for us whilst Mick held onto Oleanna.
Once up we pulled in at the water point to fill up the tank. This morning the gauge had got down to one line above empty, so it was more a full fill than a top up. The pressure from the tap was incredibly poor, just slightly more than a trickle. We didn’t remember this tap being so bad, maybe something happened when C&RT closed the showers and other facilities after they’d been vandalised. The hour and a half it took to fill kept us busy. A full sweep through, empty the yellow water tank, a relaxed lunch and dispose of the rubbish.
By the time we got the boom from the tank to say we were full the blue skies had vanished. Onwards up Castle Lock, a handy hint if going up here don’t stand facing your boat as it comes into the lock. Why? All the pigeons roosting under the bridge fly out straight at you!
As the moorings at the back of Sainsburys came into view so did the stern of a familiar boat, the possible reason Meadow Lock had been full. NB Seyella has made their way down from being trapped up on the Leeds Liverpool Canal for most of the summer, they came up the tidal Trent last week so we knew our paths would cross at some point. We’d last seen them on New Years Eve 2017 in Llangollen basin. Today we had a catch up with Geoff on the towpath, much easier to do this than when passing on the river.
2 locks, 2.57 miles, 2 winds, 1 stretch of new water, 90 minutes to fill, 1 empty wee tank, 0 rubbish, 1 blogger boat, 2 long at the water point to go to the pictures, 1 giant crochet bag finished, 1 cat not fooled, we’re back where we were!