Friday, July 31, 2015

Trent trip - final day

Wednesday morning, and, after long farewells with Dave and Sandy, we left Smeeton and moved on. San Fairy Ann led the way, past Debdale Wharf and on to Foxton, where they turned left and went up the Market Harborough Arm, and we moored up at the foot of the locks, to wait to go up.

Dave and Sandy are a lovely couple, and they made our already very enjoyable trip even more so. We seem to have a lot in common with them, and we got on really well together. We enjoyed lots of conversation, very many laughs, hours of games. We became good friends.

I love it that they talk about feeling "privileged" to be living on their boat for eight months of the year. It's a word you don't hear very often these days. People now seem to think that they have an automatic right to good things. "I've worked for it", or "I've paid my dues", their just desert. Like us, Dave and Sandy feel privileged, and I believe they enjoy their boating all the more because of that.

They're off to Liverpool next month. We'll have to do that another year. This year, we have to be at Yelvertoft so that Grace can practise then complete the roses and castles on Kantara. We'll stay in touch with Sandy and Dave, and we hope very much to travel with them again some time.

Grace and I had a long haul back to Yelvertoft, slowed at times by others - difficult meetings at bridges and bends, and having to follow one young man on a boat which rarely went anything other than dead slow. Slowing down for moored craft meant, for him, drifting past in neutral! But at least we escaped the rain which loomed in the clouds all around us.










Arriving back at the marina late, and too tired to do anything else, we ate at The George and went to bed early.

It was a great trip. 200 miles and 128 locks.We thoroughly recommend the River Trent. 

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