Leicester to Shardlow - river navigation!

As I mentioned in my last post, in Leicester the canal joins the river Soar. The Soar then heads north and joins the Trent near Nottingham. I was advised not to stop anywhere after the city centre until I got to Birstall, a village to the north of Leicester. 

It was another hot day and at the lock in Birstall, there was another - this time larger - group of kids playing in and around the lock. They were a little bit more unruly than the previous lot. It was like herding cats keeping them from climbing all over the lock gates, getting in my way and even jumping on the boat (one did manage it at the end). Onlookers on the bridge were amused by all this, but I was quite stressed. 

Fortunately the visitor moorings just after the lock were very nice. They are located right where the river joins again after having gone over a weir. 

Birstall - lock to the right, weir to the left

Unfortunately, my time on the Soar coincided with quite a lot of rain and I got a taster of what the Soar is capable of on my first day there. As I knew there was going to be rain, I staid put. In the afternoon after about two hours of heavy rain, the river started to flow fast and rise very quickly. It went up by about half a metre in a couple of hours.

Spot the difference - before the rain ...

 

... and after

 

Sure enough the lock was on red now

I had no idea how much further it would go and had visions of the water overtopping the towpath and the boat drifting onto land. It got nowhere near that and fortunately started to go down again by the time I went to bed. By morning the water was back down to normal. But it taught me to respect what can happen especially as more rain was forecast. I had a closer look at the guidebook to work out what it looked like ahead.

I realised that there were really three different types of navigation here (all looking the same in the guide at a glance):

• Canal: a section away from the river. The river leaves over a weir and joins again further down usually after a lock. In between is just man-made canal. Some canal sections are even a few miles long to shortcut loops in the river. Some are only very short, where the weir is directly above the lock and the river comes back in directly below the lock.
• Canalised river: something that has walls and looks like a canal, but actually contains the river, i.e. these sections have a current and water levels will change. A clue is in the high walls usually.
• Open river: the natural river bed without walls, just natural banks. On the Soar, most of these go through flat areas with water meadows. These sections can get quite wide. They are beautiful, but you can't stop there.
  

Another weir with a lot of water

Upon closer inspection of the guide I saw that all the visitor moorings marked were in canal sections as they are safe from changing water levels (except in Birstall, see above!). In between there is nowhere safe to moor, so it is a matter of hopping from one visitor mooring to the next and hoping to find space. The navigation of the Soar was stunning, very different to a canal, but it was also a bit daunting. Throughout Leicester all the boards on the locks had been in green, now they were all in amber. I did not encounter that much current on the open sections, but I wanted to be sure to be on a safe mooring every night as it kept raining in between and I knew that the water could rise very quickly. Unusually for me this required quite a bit of planning, when on a canal you can usually just stop wherever you fancy.

Exiting Sileby lock a huge tree was trapped and it was hard to navigate around it

 

 

Looking back to Sileby, very strong flow from the weir

My next stop was the lovely village of Mountsorrel with a waterside pub by the lock and looking all picturesque. Unfortunately it rained the whole time except for a short while in the evening when the sun came out. 

Willum double moored for the first time ever outside of London

 

Sun in the evening after a rainy day

Moving on from Mountsorrel

 

This beautiful bridge proudly displays its year of construction 1860

 

This is the view by the houses above

 

 

It would all be so peaceful if it weren't for these signs everywhere

Next stop was Loughborough, a long canal section. I spent a bit of time shopping and doing various errands here. I liked the town, especially the extensive market.

Into Loughborough

The canal basin in Loughborough. I didn't moor here.

I moored here. Loughborough twinned with Schwäbisch Hall

After Loughborough there was a long stretch of open river without any moorings, so I decided to do one long cruise all the way down to where the Soar meets the Trent, turn left upriver onto the Trent and then onto the canal. On the Trent it is only a couple of miles to Sawley, back onto the canal. This section of the Soar was one of the most beautiful. It was peppered with DANGER signs everywhere to warn of floods though, which kept me on my toes. It was also dominated for several miles by Ratcliffe power station looming over everything. I even saw some planes overhead going into East Midlands airport, which was very close.

Normanton church

Yes - more DANGER

 

Emergency moorings for when the light flashes - I wouldn't want to be trapped here!

 

Oh and a ferry is DANGER too

 

A deep lock with an impressive waterfall

Ratcliffe power station coming into view

These pontoons haven't done well in some floods

More evidence of previous floods

Moorings and a dock in the shadow of the power station

Turning onto the Trent was a bit of a “wow” moment. I had never been on a river this big before. Fortunately there was not as much current as I had feared. It was a confusing junction with several opportunities to go the wrong way. I almost did as I was distracted by the Laser sailors and reminisced about when I used to sail Lasers myself. 

Sailors right on the junction of the Soar, the Trent and the Erewash canal

Signage for the junction (viewed from the Erewash canal, not where I came from)

The big river

After only about 15 minutes on the Trent I reached the double locks to the Sawley Cut.  

Little Willum comes off the big river at Sawley locks

Sawley locks in better weather

Safely moored on the Sawley Cut

Going up the Trent to Sawley was fairly tame. I thought I was now safely back on the canal network, but that was a misreading of the guidebook. There is actually another mile of Trent between the Sawley Cut and the start of the Trent & Mersey canal at Derwent Mouth lock. There was an open flood lock and it all looked very harmless though.

Then storm Francis came along and howled around for a day. No boating possible. After that it was a day with a lot more rain. The next day I thought I’ll finally continue onto the Trent & Mersey canal. But the flood lock was now closed! It is not impossible to pass when the lock is closed, it just acts as a normal lock then. But the board on the lock was hovering between amber and red. All looked calm though and I thought I’ll go for it. I went into the lock and as I was going up approximately a foot to get onto the river, two locals came by and told me that they were waiting to go through as well, but that they would not recommend it at the moment. They convinced me that it was better to wait as the water was rising and it was still windy too. OK, reverse to the mooring then to wait yet another day. Boats were piling up waiting to go onto the Trent. 

I cycled the river stretch to the beginning of the Trent & Mersey canal to familiarise myself with the route. There was a lot of water coming down the river and it looked like it was about to burst its banks in a few places. The video gives a bit of an idea.

The next day the level at the lock had fallen by about an inch (not very much at all), and was now just about in amber again. It was expected to fall more during the day and there was little wind. As more rain was forecast over the next days it was either now or be stuck here at least for another three days. The two local men were also going and very kindly offered to go through the flood lock before me and wait for me, so that I could follow their lead to take the best route through the current.

Well … they didn’t wait. I was furious, but had to proceed anyway. It was the scariest experience so far in my narrowboating life. On the very last stretch before getting to the canal, the Trent makes a sharp turn and you have to go across the current to get into the channel to the canal lock. On the opposite side the river Derwent comes in with yet more water.

I revved my engine up to a speed I had never done before and planned just gunning it across to the current. I knew I had to do this fast. As soon as the bow caught the current from the side, it started to get pushed around. Going further into the stream the whole boat got pushed sideways fast and started to roll side to side. I pushed the engine even more and managed to point the bow into the current to get across. It was all over in less than ten seconds and I was safe in the channel with calm water, but the adrenaline ran high. My hands were shaking as I opened the canal lock. After that I pottered on really ... really ... slowly on the canal and enjoyed the calm. I think I am not ready for the tidal Thames any time soon!

I am now firmly back on the canal network on the Trent & Mersey canal and will be on canals all the way back to London. It was beautiful and exciting to navigate these rivers, as it was so different from the usual canal landscape. I would really recommend the whole Grand Union Leicester branch. But the weather needs to be factored in as it can disrupt your travels any time here. 

Next time I will write about the historic port of Shardlow and the Trent & Mersey canal.

Vortex at a lock

Epilogue: Once back on the canal I caught up the two guys who hadn't waited for me. I arrived at the next lock just as they were leaving it (swiftly when they saw me coming). I managed to convey my anger to the last one to leave and he said that it was his friend who had promised they'd wait for me, not him (oh that's so nice of you!). At the next lock the other guy who had promised to wait walked over and was all apologetic. He explained that when I had waved to them as they left the lock where they were supposed to wait, I had used the international scuba diving(!) hand signal for "no". So he thought I had changed my mind and they left. I mean ... what? I had to give it to him, this was a pretty novel excuse. I did not take the conversation any further.

Route covered in this post