Erewashout - Friday and Saturday

Friday

While Trent Lock had been a good place to moor, it has to be said that we became less and less impressed with the canal as we moved on yesterday. True, the weather didn't help, the rain coming down in heavy showers accompanied by a strong breeze, but the canal itself had very little to offer in the way of interest or beauty. The water was very shallow; not because of lack of rain, but simply because that's the way the canal is. Shallow water meant that we could only go slowly – there simply isn't enough water for the propeller to push through and push against. And there was a great deal of weed threatening to wrap itself around the prop shaft, too. A resident of one of the houses backing onto the canal told us of a boater he witnessed recently, pulling armfuls of weed off his propeller. But, fortunately, we reached our second mooring without suffering that problem.

A bit of a dodgy place to have a nest!

The mooring was another matter. Spoken of in positive terms in the map book - “delightfully landscaped” - it turned out to be separated from a busy road by only a few metres of grass, planted with a number of trees. Yes, we could have seen that on the map, and we didn't.

The mooring on the other side of the canal, the towing path side, gave us better distance from the road, and, as it turned out, far fewer passers-by. It passed the graffiti test – there was none – so we settled in there for the night. The weather continued to be wet and, at times, very windy. That there was a good Co-Op very close by was a great bonus.

Nearby, there is a wonderful piece of Victorian architecture; a huge factory/warehouse complex renovated and now serving as offices. We saw a similar building yesterday, but not nearly so clean and tidy.

Saturday

As we prepared to leave this morning, we were passed by a young couple in a boat, asking if we wanted to travel with them, to share the locks. That always makes good sense, so we followed and went through the next two locks with them. However, we turned around just after Stanton Lock, returning to this morning's mooring (see above). Being in a smaller boat - 35 foot - the couple were able to travel faster than us in the shallow water, but we were not happy with the water the way it was. The canal was getting more rural, and prettier just as we got to the winding hole, but we decided against going any further. Even if we had had the time to finish the length of the Erewash, we probably wouldn't have done so. We are not very impressed.

But hey! It's sunny!

As I finish this post, the other couple, in Emma B, are mooring just beyond us, having winded some way further up from us.