After a sort of good 2 weeks in Nottingham it was time to move on downstream on The River Trent .Going with the flow as we pass the city ground which is home to Nottingham Forest we are only just above tick over on the engine and going at about 4 miles an hour which for us is fast.
This house reminded us a bit of the lower river Thames which we did last year . Except this was the only posh house we saw where as the Thames has hundreds of million plus pound houses.
Arriving at Holme lock we went onto the water point and started filling with water . I had read before we got here that the National water sports centre was next to the lock . With a very slow filling tap and with our tank being empty it gave us plenty of time to watch the Kayaks coming down the course.
The white water course is 700m long and a s well as canoes you can tackle the rapids in an exclusively chartered raft as a group of friends (6 - 8 people), or as an individual to be part of an 8 man team. Not only is the White Water Course amazingly fun, it is also environmentally friendly as it is a man made course powered by a natural river. Just a shame we didn't have enough time to stop and have a go . I'm sure I could have handled those rapids with no problems.
The water sports centre is part of the The Holme Pierrepont Country Park which underwent significant improvements in 2014 designed to enhance the facilities across the 270 acre site including the construction of a new Family Fun Park which consists of the exciting new Sky Trail, High Rope course, Mini Golf course, Cycle and Segway hire and a Country Park Café. Looks like a good day out if you are ever in the area.
We are now in Holme lock which is a little on the large size and because the water can get a bit turbulent we have to attach ourselves to the blue wires which you can see on the lock wall opposite. There is a Lockkeeper on duty for all these locks from 09.30 to 18.00 in the summer although they can be in self service where we would have to operate them ourselves.
With Carolyn on the bow with her rope through the wire and me on the stern we slowly drop down the side of the lock.
Cruising down the River Trent and there are many parts of it that reminds us of the River Dart in Devon which we still think of as our home river even though we cant get to it on Inca.
Next lock is Stoke Lock which is sometimes known as Stoke Bardolph lock.This time we have to put our ropes around steel rails as we descend instead of wires.
As we exit the lock we get hit by the current from the water coming over the weir on the left in the picture. We had to give the old engine a bit of welly to stop us being pushed in to the nearside bank .
After a good cruise we arrived above Gunthorpe lock and were surprised to see that the visitor pontoon was empty . We had been told that it is usually very busy here and we would be lucky to get on it. The problem we have is that being a river most of the moorings are very high and sometimes it means you have to climb a ladder to get up . That's where we would struggle as Hamish is not that happy about being lifted up great heights.
We will now have a day or two here before cruising further down stream and hopefully we will be able to pick up a suitable mooring in Newark a town we have heard so much about and one we cant wait to visit.
Happy Days
No comments:
Post a Comment