Thursday 6^th September 2018

We started off just before 10am in not too bad weather. The whole of the surface of the canal was covered in a kind of white dust. It turned out it was some kind of seed probably from trees, but it was a weird sight.

We quickly came across the first lock of the day beside the Gallows Inn pub. We were going to stop here last night but we were both glad we hadn’t. The pub didn’t look very welcoming and the area didn’t seem the best.

We had been warned that the locks on the Erewash Canal were heavy. And they are. Brenda was really struggling with many of them which is very unusual. Not just the weight of the gates but also the difficulty in operating the paddle gear. It is not a good idea to leave the boat unattended in a double lock when it is the only boat in there, but there were a few locks were we had to do just that and even I struggled mightily with the locks.

Yesterday we saw just four boats on the move all day, and they were all going in the opposite direction. Today we saw just one, which passed us just as we were thinking of moving off this morning. They also, were travelling upstream.

We caught them as they were leaving the second lock of the day and they waited in the third lock for us. I wish they hadn’t. They were sat in the lock on the towpath side with the gate shut, so I had to approach on the offside. The bridge arch was low on this side and, I had noticed and was approaching very slowly, but only realised once the front of the boat was under the bridge that we weren’t going to make it. The boat was put in reverse but she swung to one side and just caught the bridge with the edge of the front cratch scratching it. It is sickening when you realise something like this is going to happen but there is nothing you can do.

This was our last lock before we moored up on the far end of Ilkeston to go exploring. We had wanted to visit the Erewash Museum but they wouldn’t let the dog in so we didn’t bother. Miserable buggars.

We walked up to the High Street and found it was

market day. Ilkeston didn’t seem too bad a place but,

like all other pit towns we have visited, that never

seem to have properly recovered from the Thatcher

era and all seem run down still. The town centre

though, was pleasant enough running down quite

a steep hill that is all now pedestrianised.

It started to lightly rain. We called into Tesco on the way back to the boat and the rain got heavier. However, it lightened a bit so we decided to move as neither of us felt very comfortable. We only covered a further two miles and two locks, but the rain and the locks just got heavier, especially the last one which was extremely difficult. Harvey normally shoots onto the rear deck whenever he hears the engine start, but had been shut in the boat because of the rain. And boy did he howl which didn’t help matters.

Once through this lock, Brenda went inside with Harvey and I battered on for a further mile to get into the countryside and as far from the ever present railway as we could get. Moving in the rain really doesn’t bother me. But you do need the proper clothing. I was still in my jeans, which became soaked and heavy, and trainers which were also soaked.

We tied up just before the next lock and within 30 minutes the sun was out and it became a lovely evening.

It turns out there are no public facilities on the Erewash Canal, waste disposal, toilet disposal or water points. While we can work around the rubbish disposal, we have started stuffing it into public litter bins, the toilet capacity, we have a spare cassette, there is not a lot we can do about the water. This will curtail our time on this canal, we had intended spending a week but this will have to be reduced. Shame. Had we realised we could maybe have planned around it.

It would appear the autumn is with us. The days are much cooler now and the evenings dark a lot earlier.

Weather: Nice morning. Rain in the afternoon becoming quite heavy. Nice dry evening.

Day Total: 5 lock; 4 miles; 0 Tunnels; 0 Boat Lift; engine running hours 3.1

Overall Total: 195 locks; 371 miles; 15 tunnels; 2 Boat Lifts; engine running hours 214.4