Alrewas

A bit late getting away today, well we didn’t think we had anywhere to go. The plan was to run down to the winding hole at Wychnor and then go back to Branston Water park for the night while waiting for the Trent to reopen.
We kept meeting boats all morning but every lock we came to was against us, we knew Jules Fuels where ahead of us but they hat a good start on us.
We passed this rather hansom chap, he didn’t hove a feather as we passed, I just wish I could have got the camera out sooner.

By the time we reached Barton Turns lock we must have met 8 boats. There was a boat moored just below the lock and I was rather impressed with his tiller pin, I don’t know how robust it would be.

A boat was approaching the lock from above which like all the rest was against us and I said to him about all the boats and wondering where they came from, his reply was Alrewas, apparently CRT unlocked the locks yesterday evening, but didn’t tell anyone. This was the sign at the marina entrance.

This of course meant a change of plans for us, we would now not be winding above the lock but continuing down onto the river and then to Alrewas. As expect Wychnor lock was against us, but that turned we were on our way. There was a bit of flow on the river but not to much at this end of the river. We passed under bridge 45 and here you can see where the fendering is missing.

With the river being a bit higher a lot of the land is now flooded and these poor cows are on one of the remaining pieces of dry land.

After we passed the weir at Alrewas the flow to the right hand side of the river, where we should be was quite a bit stronger, I would estimate the best part

of 3 MPH. and our speed over the ground dropped well below 2 MPH until I moved over to the slacker water. There was a boat about to enter Alrewas Lock (originally known as Smithy Lock) from above but in the lock cut it was no problem waiting for them. Once clear of the lock we moored for the night just before the waterpoint.

Today’s journey

7 miles, 5 Locks in 3¼ hours