Sunday 2^nd September 2018

We left Swarkestone at 9:45 on a lovely morning. The canal now has become much wider with quite a flow although there is a fair amount of weeds.

                                   

                                                                                       Swarkestone Wharf

The run all the way to Shardlow is very rural, although the rumble of the A50 and the trains are never far away. Lovely countryside.

The two locks encountered before Shardlow, Swarkestone and Aston both have a drop of 10’11”, it’s a long way down in the lock, with double paddles operated from a single ratchet spindle.

             

       Locking arrangements at Swarekestone.

                Geared ground paddles and double, hinged, gate paddles

                operated from a single ratchet spindle

 Just before we passed under the A50 before Shardlow, we saw what we thought was a plastic terrapin sitting on a bed of reeds, followed closely by the 1mile to Shardlow/91 miles to Preston Brook milepost. We stopped to take a photo of the milepost and there was a group of regular moorers who I mentioned the terrapin to. They told me it was real and there were many between Shardlow Lock and the previous Aston Lock. Apparently they have bred from ones dumped in the canal in the days of the Ninja Mutant Turtles when every kid wanted a terrapin, got fed up of them and dumped them.

We had planned to stop at the first mooring in Shardlow, before Shardlow Lock if possible. The last ½ mile into Shardlow was taken up with permanent moorings but there were three spaces just before the lock, one of which was empty. It wasn’t the best of moorings. Right next to a road track with a very narrow strip of grass to put the spikes in and the back end on rough grass and rushes. We were in the process of securing the boat when a woman told us there was a wasp’s nest there. So, after some confusion, we decided to move on.

We passed through Shardlow Lock and then really struggled to get a mooring. There were many restrictions, several entrances to the marina and shallow banks that we were grounding on. We were beginning to think we would not get moored at all and have to go out onto the River Trent, when we got the very last space before the lock out onto the river.

We were very lucky. I didn’t think we would get into the space, but Brenda is much more able to judge the spaces than I am and she reckoned we would just get in. We had less than 9” front and back to spare.

      

          

                    Not much of a view from our back end,

                    but look how close to the boat behind.

                    We had a similar gap at the front.

We had a walk up through Shardlow, well more of a pub crawl really. It was a hot afternoon and all the pubs were heaving with people. The Malt Shovel was a bit of a disappointment. This pub was built in 1779, along with the canal, but had been substantially modernised and didn’t retain much of it’s past.

Then we came to the Navigation Inn. This pub is not located on the canal. The guide book mentions it is haunted. Walking in was a mistake. Apart from the fat landlord, his fat wife and two kids, there was only one other guy in there.

Back at the boat we had a barbeque and a bottle of Prosecco to celebrate our eventual arrival at the end of the Trent and Mersey Canal.

Weather: warm from the very beginning of the day, became hot in the afternoon.

Day Total: 4 lock; 6 miles; 0 Tunnels; 0 Boat Lift; engine running hours 3.6

Overall Total: 181 locks; 358 miles; 15 tunnels; 2 Boat Lifts; engine running hours 204.6