Good morning. I've left Lowes Lane. Lovely mooring there, I've spent many a week
there and I'm still heading west along the Trent & Mersey today. The next lock
is Stenson Lock and personally I think that's the worst lock that I've ever
experienced. It is horrible. The ground paddles work the opposite way around,
when you're coming down the lock there is bits of the gate don't work, I don't
know if that's Canal & River Trust or other boaters, I'm not quite sure. There's
a bit of a debate about that and going up the lock, which I will be going today,
it's just a nightmare because it's so powerful and because it's such a deep
lock, the rope is really long up to the the bank and if there's any movement of
the boat the the rope stretches and it swings the boat across the wide lock and
bashes into the wall, and just to make things worse there's a cafe there and
I'm sure they've got some sort of scoreboard on like a chalk board on
their wall going, yep there's another one, yeah there's another one. So hopefully, I
won't do that today. I'll take it nice and easy.
[Music]
Once I ascend the lock at Stenson I sweep down past Mercia Marina.
It's the largest inland marina in Europe and many wooden cabins surround the
various lakes within the 24 acre site. The village of Willington is positioned
further along my route and is the last place wide-beam boats can navigate. The
Trent & Mersey Canal then turns south neighbouring the A38 highway down to
Burton upon Trent. In 1880 there were over 30 breweries based here producing a
quarter of all beer sold in Britain. Then as the canal turns towards the southwest
it joins the River Trent passing a strong Weir and up into the village of
Alrewas, where I was due to moor up for the night.
Willington is a great place to stay for a few days. There's a winding hole, water,
bins and elsan here and in the village itself, there's a post office, train
station, fish and chip shop, and a general store. Right next to the canal are a
number of pubs and restaurants and a large free car park, where I left my car.
I've just untied and pushed the boat out into the canal and just as I was walking
back to the stern to untie that end, another boat had also pushed out and had
already been out into the canal. Now, there's nothing worse (because it's all
single locks from here on) you untying to drive off and someone else sees it
and unties and tries to get in front of you. It's not fair. It's not the way to do
things. So I bet his his heart sunk when he saw my nose go out, but I've been nice
and polite and I've pulled the boat back in and allowing him to go first and I
will help him through the locks.
[Music]
Just arrived at Dallow Lock. It's just north of the town of Burton and it's a
narrow lock which is brilliant because the last couple of months I've been on
wide locks. This is a very shallow narrow lock as well so it's extremely fast to
fill up, and empty especially when it's got a boat in. I
must say Molly is extremely good, even at locks, even when other people and
dogs go past she will always stay on the boat and she always sort of looks out
either side to keep an eye on where I am but she's very good, she'll never get off
unless I say so.
When there's split gates like this lock because the the jump is only sort of
three and a bit foot, a lot of people will just jump it and I don't
like doing that because all it takes is for me to slip and bang my head and
in the water I fall. Because there is a bit of a fall here I would say it sort
of four, five foot, four foot and that could be dangerous especially when
you're on your own so I always go round.
Just as you come around the corner there, there's a real sense of hops in the air.
There's a couple of breweries based in the town of Burton. It's famous for it
because in historic times the water was very, very pure here but there's a real
smell in the air. It sort of smells a bit like warm Weetabix. Now some people will
say that's a nice smell and some people say it's not but it's always here.
It's always really difficult when you get to a bridge at equal distances and
there's someone coming in the opposite direction. Normally it's classed as
whoever goes through the bridge first obviously has it. In my case, I've got
lots of boats either side it's a little bit more tricky, so the guy ahead has
really nicely given way so that I can get through. If you were traveling north
towards Burton and didn't want to moor up in the actual town itself,
say for example you didn't want the noise on a Friday or Saturday night, I
would suggest you more just after Branston Lock. It's beautiful
surroundings and don't be fooled by the how close the A38 is, because it's
really, really quiet.
[Music]
Just walking through the centre of Branston Water Park. It's a series of
different lakes here with lots and lots of wildlife. A lot of different types of
bird and lots of vegetation. Now one thing to note it's OK for Molly to drink
out of the cut or her water bowl, which is always on the stern of Alice,
but don't let dogs drink out of the lakes here. Molly is dying too, especially
as the the banks are quite shallow and she can walk straight down there but
there's some sort of algae in the water that can be dangerous for dogs. So I've
got to really keep an eye on her today.
You can't swim in this one I'm afraid.
This is the sort of location that Molly would have absolutely loved to swim in.
Nice shallow banks, lots of clear water, lots of sticks around - not today!
Bridge number 36 ahead of me looks so narrow you can't fit through, but
obviously you can. I'm just going to go nice and slow and see if I can squeeze
Alice through the arch.
It's always interesting this bit ahead because there's this great big bridge and
you've got to squeeze down the right-hand side of it. Sometimes I bash
the sides sometimes I don't so let's see what happens today.
Well just as I was saying about the tight fit underneath the bridge, boom
there was another boat coming in the opposite direction. As normal, when you
get to bridges whoever is at the bridge first goes through and he did realise
that I was there first but, and he sort of waited in the background but it's
just typical, I've not seen a boat all day and then suddenly one a the really tight
point. Just around the next corner there is quite strong weir. Now when this river
is in flood it's extremely dangerous, today it's perfectly calm but I still
need to keep on the towpath side.
[Music]
{Molly, other side}
{Other side}
That's my latest training. She goes round the back of me on to the other side of
me.
This is just typical, it's been bone-dry all day and now that I've come out for
an evening walk with Molly and it starts to rain. I haven't got my rain jacket on,
so I'm just going to head back to the boat. Oh dear, really nice village though.
Which is where I moored up for the night. Until next time, see you later.