Friday 9th April

Today has been a busy and interesting day, moving from a nice safe canal onto the mighty River Trent where we felt rather small then onto the River Soar.

We did moor rather close to the East Midlands Airport flight path but I have to say the planes didn’t bother me but they did Richard. We went through Shardlow which has to be one of the prettiest waterside villages. After Shardlow is the junction of the canal with the River Trent and the River Derwent – they come in one from either side and we had been warned to take care as we could be spun round! From there we could see the cooling towers of the Ratcliffe Power Station which stayed with us for many miles. Under the M1 and then through a pair of manned locks – it was rather nice not to have to do anything! Not long after the locks we reached the junction of the River Trent with the Erewash Canal and the River Soar which we were going down. I have to say that the River Soar is a beautiful river and of course it does make a difference to going down a canal. The river must flood a great deal as the flood precautions are amazing. We stopped for the night at Kegworth and if we thought we were close to the flight path last night then we were mistaken – here we could see the undercarriage as the planes landed right overhead! Fortunately they did stop during the night.