Nottingham

We left our mooring at 9am and moved on to the nearby Cranfleet lock where we refilled the water tank. Unfortunately a rather slow tap so this took about 30mins. Then through the lock and onto the Trent.

The river here is very wide but there were no strong currents, so the journey was easy. The depth of water enabled us to increase the engine power enough to average 4mph - on the canals an average of 3 mph is good going. We could have gone faster, but the engine noise would have been too intrusive.

After 55 mins on the Trent we left the river just before a large weir to join the Beeston Cut, the route into the city. The cut is protected from the river by Beeston Lock, where a large class of young school children waved, took pictures, asked a few questions, and helped with the lock gates.

Going on towards the city centre, as in many cities on the canals, the surroundings are surprisingly attractive for much of the time. Unlike other towns and cities we have travelled through there was very little rubbish and the canal and towpath looked well maintained.

We have now moored within sight of Nottingham Castle (a relatively modern 17thC building, not the home of the evil Sheriff) and within 100 yards of a large Sainsburys where we were able stock up for the next few days.

Denise went out in the afternoon for some retail therapy - a 30min walk to the city centre whilst I fought with T-Mobile. Although we have a very strong 3G broadband signal here there was no connectivity to the internet. I have had to use the painfully slow GPRS - Grrrr!