Monday 12th June 2017

Thankfully the wind seemed to have abated a little overnight and it felt reasonably warm as we filled with water and left Holme Lock to continue down the non tidal Trent. The locks are huge but all mechanised and you just need to hook a rope bow and stern through the risers and hold on whilst the water leaves the lock. 

There are some rather dramatic bridges across the Trent. This one is Gunthorpe Bridge. There seems to be a small settlement here with lots of pubs/ restaurants so we have noted it for next year.

Leaving Gunthorpe lock and rejoining the Trent which has passed over a weir.

The clouds returned and the temperature dropped as we passed Staythorpe Gas fired power station. The cooling towers don't need to be so tall as they are only dealing with steam used to generate part of the electricity. They can be seen behind the other structures.

Under the A1 with another lovely bridge span.

The sun was showing a brief return and we saw a whole line of weeping willows.

We moored for the night at Cromwell lock which means that we will be on the tidal Trent tomorrow. Cromwell weir is the largest on the Trent and unfortunately it was the site of a tragedy on 28th September 1975 when 10 volunteers of a parachute squadron of the Royal Engineers drowned when their boat went over the weir during a night exercise. There is a monument on the lock landing.

We walked to a garage to see if we can buy a newspaper tomorrow. The path took us over the A1.

Quite scary seeing how fast the traffic is travelling.