Loughbrorough to Nottingham

On the way out of Lough and at the first lock, I spied something I had never seen before !. A Cat and a Rabbit, playing together. The little girl in the garden saw me looking so I asked if they were buddies, and yes they were, but they wouldn 't pose for a piccy.

Last night we moored up on the Beeston/Nottingham canal. Its great. Clean and tidy and has a real nice feel about it. The boats in front and behind us, were young folks with very small kids/babies aboard. They all made their own amusement, playing on the grass opposite. Its was really nice..

Trundled off this morning, and left the canal behind and onto the big, wide river. Its beautiful, and boy are there some gin-palaces cruising along here. They bounce us up and down as they roar past. good fun, though. Mick raised his can of Speckled Hen to one lady on her "liner", and she looked down at us far below and raised her .............................................. Champagne flute. that gave us a real giggle.

Finlay has developed a real problem with the rail bridges. Every one we go under, he spends about an hour shaking and looking forlorn. We keep trying to distract him by shouting " Rabbits!", but it doesn't always work.

This afternoon we have moored at The Bromley Arms, Fiskerton( and before you all say summat about us mooring outside of pubs, on this stretch of river, there is no choice, because its a RIVER, see. !)There is a monster boat behind us( the sort we like, dutch barge), and of course, a wag at the pub bust a gut to tell us that the man on board is a LORD( yeah, well we know one or two !!!) and the richest man in Nottinghamshire !

One of our chums is a count, Honest, he bought the title .

Anyway here are some pics. Tomorrow onto Newark on Trent.

The old Fellow,Morton and Clayton building. The regeneration in Nottingham is amazing and done well. All along here are restaurants/bars( to be tried on the way home )

A beautiful river.

The locks are BIG. !

Chap with a cats face. !

I knew I had something else to tell you. When we stopped in Leceicster, I went into the LOCKED castle gardens in the morning to let Finlay do his biz. and there was a couple sitting on a bench and the bloke had the face of a TABBY CAT. !!! No, I hadn't smoked a weird cig, nor had a drink at that time of the day. ! He was tattooed with whiskers , little snout etc. He looked a right prat, I can tell you. He even spoke to us, well he wanted to know all about Finlay. I had a job keeping my mouth closed, as it had dropped to the level of my knees, at this point. All I can say is he can't have been a very good puss, as Finlay would have given chase !!!!!! miaow, saucer of milk for me. !!!! it gave me a good giggle to start the day off , anyway.

We moved down from the canal nr Loughborough and onto the wharf, as I want to top up with water. Also after we had been shopping, some rotten sod had let their dog crap( enormous pile) by the boat. There was a dog bin 2 steps away. Anyway, some of you know what I am like with dog-poop. I wrote a large note calling them irresponsible, and stuck it in the pile ( enormous !) with a stick. I felt sick, so we had to move.

Have been checking out fuel prices on the way to Nottingham, and they are going up, up up. So thats it tomorrow Nottingham., and pastures new for us. and it is going to be raining, great ,,, and mick has said that we will have a meal out. whey hey. double great.

Oh the last thing that made me laugh today. Theres a kid on the boat nr to us with his granddparents. I reckon he;s hyper and guess what his name is ????? FINLAY ! yeah.

Hope you had a great birthday, Roger Wicks. ! I know you don't follow the blog, but Jackie may, and she can tell you that I have given you a mention. Chris, you know where we are going

A nice big bull. !


Left Leicester yesterday in the company of a nice young couple on NB Lucky Duck, they too, have a blog. Mick and I got quite a surprise, as the young fella is a teacher,they both look so young, Sorry James and Amy, if you should read this, but this happens when you get to our age. EVERYONE starts to look young. Aaarghhhh !. We had to water up ,and they continued on their way. At one of the locks coming away from Leic, there were a load of youngsters on an outward bound sort of thing. they were taking their own sweet time doing the lock with their canoes and kayaks . I enquired as to whether anyone was supervising, and was told most definitley that there was " but you can't hurry 8 years olds " ! I could.

We moored up at fave mooring spot. Bit wiffy compared to last year and then I had another look at the map. we are twixt 2 sh.. sewage farms. !. Wind must have been in the wrong direction .





Anyway today we met another set !!!! these were older. At Barrow Deep, there were 2 day trip tugs with loads of bladdered girls on, and they took an age, but that was quite a laugh . Mick was a bit sad, as these girls weren't dressed up in fancy outfits.( the last group of girls we saw were wearing very short and low-cut little sailor suits !!!). so they banged and crashed their way out of the lock. Then the kids started sorting themselves out, I went back to the boat and made a coffee. However when I went back, as they were older, they had got their act toether, and were told to help myself and the dutch lady on the other boat, with the lock. great stuff.





So tonight we are in Loughborough, and apparently tomorrow we are off to visit the Bell Foundry. The oldest and largest in the WORLD. ! and on particular thursdays they cast a bell. so quite looking forward to that. Also they dont practise 'elf n safety. !








Remember Micks "old lady type" trolley bag. He broke it.! There was so much Speckled Hen, chilean red wine etc. he lifted it up and bust the handle but, of course, Mick went to B+Q, got some long screws and mended it. !!! Thats recycling. !





The next blog could be from the Trent, but not the tidal bit yet !. Kennet and Avon is closed, alledgedly. and as you know, Chris Frost, we are in Loughboro. !

sorry about previous blog

Some pics I did not want on there, I hadn't done a spell check, and I hadn;t tidied it up. apols, blog-trotters. I had an Interlectual Interlude. !!!

Mick had had some injuries, changing a gas bottle he dropped the locker on his finger and toe, fell over at a lock( bad paving- should we sue ? or ashould he take more water with it?), dropped a pole into the murky depths.

Before we left Leicester ( now the wine cellar is completely depleted), I am proud to tell you all, that we were found waiting outside of a ......? for it to open. what am I talking about. a BARGAIN BOOZE !!!! Have only been in one once before and I was wanting a paper bag to put on my head, so no-one recognised me. The thing is they are not actually a bargain . Far better off at Tescos !

Met speckled jim at this lock, I think he was tired as he just sat there and let me do all the work.

Bucky to Cossington

This was a lovely secrective mooring spot that we saw last year, and we were lucky enough to find it again and stay.It was just after the Watford flight, where I had had a slight "menopausal moment" and nearly opened the lock in the wrong sequence. Lockie said i should refer to it as and "interlecutal Interlude". ok, fine by me. Problem is we are running out of wine. Cripes. !

Sat am we left this great spot, I spied some geese on the bank, and practised my goose "honks". I manage to stop them eating, but have managed to get any in the water and following us, as they did last year.

Stayed overnight at Foxton, as I wanted to do them first thing in the am, when there are no gongoozlers around. Some old chap referred to Mick as my Dad !!!! made me laugh, Mick felt that the bloke ,perhaps need to get some glasses. Thats the polite version.

Stopped opposite Wistow Park for an overnighter. This was strange as a rather sooper-dooper boat had put himself right in the middle of a mooring space big enough for 2 boats. Think he had Marlene Dietrich syndrome, but anyway, I had always wanted to have that view to wake up to( beautiful, rolling parkland with sheep and cows), and we tucked ourselves on the end( being only 45ft we can get most places). normally when something like this happens, the other boater would come out and offer to move his boat up. Not this guy. He put his Cat Stevens musice on loud( great, we like Cat), and did some work on his boat, but refused to meet our eye. we were quite happy to say hello. They played some great music too, so it saved us having to use our power. When we left, he was peering through his side hatch , and I was just about to say "good morning", but he withdrew his head, like a shy tortoise, and peered at us through the gap where the hinges are. !

This little guy and his family, cleaned some algae off Trundles' bottom in exchange for a slice of bread.

Finlay had a new neckerchief ! He is also after some Beef roll, but he didn;t get any.........................not much anyway.

Started today at 8.30 and stopped at 2pm.

Passed Trundle's old home and had a chat with Norman and Jen Clarke( they owned the fleet). We did the Buckby Flight of locks swith some nice folks and some interesting young people. Hmmm. well we should have shared a lock with them, but was then informed by an adult, that they were young kids from London who had issues with discipline. Does that me no "clip around the ear" then ? He said he preferred to do locks just on their own. There were about 12 troubled kids and 3 or 4 adults, I reckon. Anyway one of these kids started ordering me about like he was a teacher, so I soon put him in his place,nicely but firmly, and told him that its not a good idea to open a paddle when a boat is still coming into a lock. Also showed him some other top-tips about windlass x 2, when a paddle is very stiff. Heyho. then he startled me by saying " I like you shoes", was he taking the p...? or what ? apparentley, today I am mainly wearing "trendy" (Ha ! thats a laugh), canvas shoes. anyway I gave him the benefit of the doubt and said Thanks.

Saw this great old boat. Cor, if you could only hear its engine.

Moored tonight on the Leicester Arm of the GU. breezy.

"on the cut"

This is us just getting to the top lock. !


Whey Hey. It took us 4.25 hours to do the lock-flight up from Northampton. Its a lovely flight of locks, full to bursting with wildlife, especially water voles. A survey was done,and there is a big contingent of them here. Unfortunately I didn;t see one.







So we are moored just up from Bugbrooke. Cor, dont we know we are on"the cut". Its quite busy after the quiet life of The Nene, but heyho, this is what its all about.



Its interesting having a shower, with boats going by. I had quite forgotten all the bouncing about. So glad we didn't take the hip bath affair out of the bathroom, as it has a seat in it, and when losing you balance, its quite good to just be able to sit it out whilst they all pass by . Finlay has had the hump about something. not sure what, as he is now getting loads of walks, as its so easy to get off Trundle at a bridge and back on at another. It could be the trains. Nothampton to London line.