Voyages of Gabriel: Nottingham to Farndon

Wed 20th Jul Nottingham to Stoke Lock

It was cooler this morning – what a relief.

We cruised to Sainsbury’s, where we were pleased to find a mooring available. We went first to Lidl for their bread which we like, and we ended up with a bag full of shopping. Then to Sainsbury’s for even more stuff. We noticed their café has gone.

Back to the boat, and into the centre of Nottingham, past the castle and a fine warehouse, into Castle Lock, where some people were having lock instruction.

The castle

Warehouse by Castle Lock

Castle Lock

Then past the old British Waterways warehouse, and the Fellows Morton and Clayton warehouse, before arriving at Meadow Lane services, by Meadow Lane Lock. We emptied all our cassettes here. The elsan facility has a strong spring on the door to keep it shut and there are no windows. James found a plank by the bins, and was able to prop it open.

BW warehouse

FMC warehouse

Meadow Lane Lock and facilities

A cruiser was coming up in the lock, so we filled up with water while we waited. Meanwhile another cruiser came from behind, with a bright orange canoe on tow, but they were too wide to share with. They said there was another narrowboat following them, that we could share with.

About to go into the lock

When the lock was ready, there was no sign of the second narrowboat, so we went in and went down onto the Trent. At this point the other narrowboat appeared above the lock.

There are three major sports venues here: Notts County football ground, Nottingham Forest football ground, and Trent Bridge cricket ground.

Trent Bridge

Nottingham Forest Ground

We cruised downstream to Holme Lock, by the canoe slalom course, and the National Water Sports Centre. A boat was coming out of the lock as we approached, but the traffic lights remained on red, and the gates closed. We tied up and went to see the lock keeper. “You coming down?” he said. “You’ll have to hurry up because there’s a boat waiting below, and I’ve just started to empty the lock” “You obviously didn’t see us, then!”

He gave us a card with all the phone numbers for the locks, and said we could also use channel 74 to speak to them.

Holme Lock and the entrance to the canoe slalom

Holme Lock

We had less than three miles to go before Stoke Lock, where there is a mooring pontoon above the lock.

Radcliffe Viaduct

Red Cliff

Our mooring by Stoke Lock

The view

There was a mother duck with a brood of 17+ small ducklings. She was very wary, and kept them away from us. It will be interesting to see how many she has when we return after the Chesterfield Canal.

Mother and brood

Maybe 18

Little Egret

Water art

We had a Canal Ministries Zoom meeting later. It was a very quiet mooring.

3 locks, 7 miles. Dep 1020, arr 1035 Sainsbury’s. Dep 1225, arr 1515 Stoke Lock.

Thu 21^st Jul Stoke Lock to Farndon

Morning reflections

We heard tawny owls in the night. Otherwise, it was a very peaceful spot. James set up our radio so that we could talk to the lock keepers. He also phoned Farndon Marina and established that they had a 6kg propane gas bottle, as we had emptied one.

We spotted a kingfisher before we left.

Stoke Lock we shared with a canoe laden with camping gear. We only had two other locks, Gunthorpe and Hazelford, and there was about an hour’s journey between each one, with a further hour to Farndon.

Stoke Lock with a canoe

Gunthorpe Road Bridge

The Unicorn at Gunthorpe

Gunthorpe weir

Foam and water art

We found the radio very useful, and the lock keepers had the locks ready for us each time. It was a lovely stretch of river, and we saw a great variety of water birds on the banks. Photos at the end.

Radio in use

Beautiful river

Hazelford Lock

At Hazelford Lock, the lock keeper was the one we had seen yesterday at Holme Lock. He said he had seen a badger and a muntjac deer on the lock island, and we once saw a fox there. There is a large weir on each side of the island, so these animals must swim there. There are lots of large rabbits that live there.

We started to have intermittent changes in engine noise. We were quite low on fuel, having travelled from Aylesbury without filling up. We stopped on the visitor mooring pontoon at Fiskerton, and James used one of our 5L diesel cans to put into the tank. He also checked the propeller, but that was clear.

Refuelling stop

It was three miles from there to Farndon Marina, and we had no trouble, so maybe the bottom of the diesel tank has some sludge. At the marina we changed our gas bottle, and bought 175L of diesel. We asked about someone to fix our plumbing leak, but they said it may not be straightforward as they don’t stock plumbing parts. We think it only needs some o-rings.

Farndon Marina

Full tank, empty bank account

Our plumbing arrangement under the washbasin

We left there and moved back upstream to the visitor mooring, where we met the guy on Lincoln Imp. He had just been rescued, as he had grounded outside the marina, and needed to be towed off. We had travelled down into Liverpool with him, and he had also once tied alongside us in Reading.

Moored on the visitor pontoon

On the journey today we had seen lots of birds, including kingfishers, a lapwing, oyster catchers, cormorants, four sorts of geese, including some strange ones, little egrets. Here are a few photos.