Homeward Bound

We are now back in Swarkestone. It seems weeks ago when we were last here but it's only 10 days.

The weather continued alternating - yesterday was awful, today was very nice. We started at 9:30, the first job being to fill up with water, which we hadnt done since we first moored in the Great Northern Basin. We normally like to fill up every other day, but facilities on the Erewash are only available at each end of the canal.

After fillng the tank we dropped through Trent Lock onto the river. After the recent rains the water level was on "amber" which means that passage is allowed but caution required. The flow was certainly fairly strong, but it didnt cause us any problems as we travelled the 2 miles to Shardlow where we left the river Trent to join the Trent & Mersey Canal.

Here we stopped as we needed to get our Saturday Guardian, the only newspaper we ever buy, as we like to do the Prize Crossword. Unfortunately we found that there are no shops in Shardlow, and nothing else til we reach Willington which should be tomorrow. So no crossword this week.

After Shardlow we passed through the large locks at Aston, Weston and Swarkestone to reach our intended mooring at 15:30.

We went through the Shardlow, Aston and Weston Locks with "Tig" a mini-narrowboat, perhaps 25 foot long max. Despite it's diminutive size, it apparently has a gas oven/hob, shower, hot water supply and a double bed which needs to be dismantled when not in use as it fills the cabin. So it has all the facilities one needs, indeed apparently it was previously owned by a couple who used it as a permanent home for themselves and their Alsation!

Weather for tomorrow looking not so good again, so the alternation continues.