A trip away from 'the cut' for Fathers Day

My sisters and I had planned to surprise my dad by all converging from our respective residences for Fathers Day.  My eldest sister lives in Sutton Coldfield, next one down in Southampton and the youngest in Exeter!  Linda, from Southampton, had travelled on Friday to stay the weekend with my parents and had the task of keeping the secret and also keeping them at home until we all arrived - which was quite difficult as my dad had been eager to go out for the day!

We walked about 20 minutes into the centre of Ilkeston to find the bus stop - what an adorable place it looked, though it would be much improved if they had flowers in their collection of tubs in the square.  However, similar to our impression of the canal, it's well-kept with little rubbish around, which is refreshing.

 The deserted town square, early on a Sunday morning

Some tasteful architecture 

The bus 'The Ilkeston Flyer' took us to Derby Bus Station - then we caught another bus one stop to the train station!  We'd have walked but it was a convoluted route and we may have missed our train.  Unfortunately the train to Birmingham New Street was so crowded that we had to sit on the floor for the almost one hour journey - the earlier train had been cancelled for some reason.

 

We spotted a 'Westfield Mall' in Derby - Barry's daughter Jamie works for their head office in London 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fine looking building opposite the railway station in Derby

 

 

Arriving earlier than scheduled in Birmingham, we were collected by my daughter Kim and her partner Joe. We haven't seen them since the beginning of January so it was great to spend some time with them.  We got to my parents house just after 1230hrs and found my younger sister already there - my dad was further shocked to see us all troop in the front door!  My eldest sister, Kath (who lives the closest) arrived just before 1300hrs when the table was booked for, so met us at 'The Reindeer' pub at the end of the country road where my mum and dad live.

There was a carvery on the menu and nothing else - which would be fine if they'd catered for the two vegetarians in our group!  Naively they didn't, but expected those with 'alternative' dietary requirements to let them know in advance.  Another lesson learnt!  Ah well, it was passable food, extremely soggy overcooked vegetables (and for the vegetarians even the gravy had bits of meat in it so they had to have theirs dry!), but fabulous company ...

 Joe, Kim, Linda, Harry, Viv, Ray, Kath, mum, dad, Sandra

 The Walshes!  Katherine, Sandra, Irene, Don, Linda & Viv

   And the extended Walsh family - Harry, Sandra, Barry, Kath, Linda, Irene, Don, Joe, Kim, Viv & Ray

We caught snippets of the New Zealand/Italy World Cup match - what a shame the ref gave a penalty that enabled them to score against us to give a 1-1 draw.  Fingers crossed for the last All Whites match (in this round hopefully!) on Wednesday at 3pm UK time.

 

 

 

 

 Mum and dad after a lovely Fathers Day outing

 

 

 

 

 

One of the few drawbacks of living on the canals is relying on public transport.  Altogether it took us over eight hours of travelling to be with my parents and family for five hours - but then a car's not necessarily swifter as it took my daughter six hours to return to Brighton on the roads due to the sheer volume of Sunday afternoon traffic!

Arriving back in Ilkeston late in the evening as the sun sets before the longest day on Monday 

The other end of the High Street

A sunflower to commemorate a sunny, happy day ...

Delightful, but damned hard work!

On Saturday, as we continued up the Erewash, we discovered that the Long Eaton carnival parade was taking place that afternoon.  We couldn't decide whether to stop and watch it or not, so carried on towards our destination of Ilkeston so that on Sunday, Fathers Day, we could get the bus to Derby for the train to Birmingham to then get to my mum and dad's near Droitwich for Fathers Day on Sunday. 

If only we'd chosen to stop for a while to watch the parade ...

 'The Barge Inn' along the way - great name for a pub by the canal! 

Just before the next lock we were accosted by an extremely old and decrepit boat and it's equally attired owner asking if we had any jump leads as his battery was flat.  Well as the law of karma goes, what goes round comes round and as we'd been so kindly assisted last year when our starter battery was dead we tried our best to help - well Barry did, I just held the bow rope in place while they used all sorts of different leads and wires to try and mend his ailing boat but to no avail.  After about an hour the task was abandoned and we moved along - hope he finds a solution bless him.

 Old mill chimneys apparent around here

To get to Saturday's destination we had eight locks to work and each one was a challenge - but we had plenty of time so it wasn't a big issue.  We did stop just above Long Eaton Lock and watched the carnival procession - Barry hasn't seen an English carnival before and said he'd wondered why they were holding it in June as they have one in Gisborne in December - of course it's due to the reversal of seasons in each hemisphere!

 Towards the end of the procession - with military precision

We also found the most humongous ASDA - I so forget how overwhelmed I get when I'm in these superstores - it took ages to do a few days grocery shopping as I walked each aisle in awe of the vast ranges of anything you can think of.  It was wonderful and frightening at the same time - people who use these places frequently probably couldn't imagine having only a couple of choices of brands of each thing as we do in Gisborne; and realistically that's all you need!  However, having so much choice has its advantages as there's so many bargains to be had - we had a trolley full of food and stocked up our cupboards and fridge but spent less than ninety pounds - amazing!  But I couldn't do it every week it'd drive me crazy that there's so much 'stuff' to choose from.

    En route to the supermarket - possibly the Council Chambers?

The locks on this canal (of which there are more than one for every mile), are backbreaking!  They're all double locks with very rickety old gate paddles - even Barry had trouble opening some of them when he came to my rescue!  Less fit people would have no chance of negotiating them, no wonder few people come up this way.  But what a shame, because it truly is an adorable journey with some very friendly people along the way, and all admirably clean and tidy.

 Steering in gently trying not to open the other gate ...

Sandiacre Lock where a sign on the cottage says 'E.C.P. & D.A.' - Erewash Canal Preservation & something or other (not sure)

Northern Pride alone in the lock - not a chance of waiting for another boat to join us and share the load 

 This could easily be a scene from a bygone era ...

and again

  The early evening sunlight dapples the meadow with a golden glow, and the outskirts of Sandiacre in the background

Stanton Lock - with some young and very helpful gongoozlers

Right next to Gallows Lock - Gallows Inn - you wouldn't want to hang around too long here! 

We reached Ilkeston late in the evening and moored up close to the road bridge that would lead us to the bus stop on Sunday morning.  Unfortunately we missed the opportunity to fill up with water whilst in Sawley and hadn't appreciated that the only place you can get water on the Erewash canal is right at the summit in Langley Mill - so we were getting a little desperate by now - we still have water but we're not sure how much and the drinking water is running low.  How on earth have we managed to be on the canals for so long and not realised the importance of forward planning such necessities - obviously we've just become much too laid back!

Have you ever seen a flower like this?  Any idea what it's called?  Looks like a firework exploding!  Awesome

Happy Fathers Day

 

To all the Fathers out there. Yes! even the football fan fathers

The Erewash canal - a parallel universe within a parallel universe?

It's extremely difficult to judge what time it is in the mornings when you have no timetables to follow and the curtains are dark green velvet and almost 'blackout' any light.  Barry, bless him, mistakenly got up just after 0500hrs on Friday morning - he'd thought it was later but by the time he realised he was already wide awake, so off he went to look for photo opportunities (what else would you do at that time of day?).  Having been a shift worker for much of my nursing and midwifery career, interspersed with more civilised 9-5 posts, I relish any chance to stay in bed if I get it, so just rolled over and dragged myself from my slumber at a decidedly more decent time of around 0830hrs.

 

The light and peaceful mirrored waters at 5:30am, were just perfect for photography

Even had a touch of mist - Sandra still sound asleep on the right ...

  and a very obliging duck paddled by to add a little life to the serene scene

The Clock Warehouse where we ate Thursday night, with Shardlow lock on the left

Shardlow Lock and cottage

The Old Salt Warehouse next to the canal - now a tearoom

Lots of warehouses and working boats about

Stunning wild poppies

You have to look in all the unlikely places on a photo shoot ...

 

as often the less obvious make great shots

  Awesome reflections

 

An abundance of public houses adjacent to the canal

 Black and white gives another perspective

A variety of architecture

Barry wanted to chat to the very helpful young man who works at the Marine Engineers at Shardlow (we'd purchased a back hatch cover from him last year that he'd customised for us at a very reasonable cost) to ask his advice about the rusty parts in the storage seats in the bow.  Reassuringly and much to my relief, he stated that it wasn't half as bad as feared, and suggested Barry uses his grinder to take off the surface rust and put a few coats of 'Danboline' paint on.  So at some stage on our journeys there's going to be some serious work going on.

Dobson's Marine at Shardlow Wharf - very helpful and knowledgeable staff

Another view of 'The Clock Warehouse' in the sunlight

As we now didn't have to stay for any length of time at Shardlow, we left and moved up to Sawley so I could use their launderette.  So far managing the washing without a machine on board hasn't been too much of a hassle!  We devoured a tasty fish 'n chips lunch in their cafe, then, on returning to the boat, poor Barry had a rare afternoon nap - he was worn out after his early start!

An imposing sight - Ratcliffe Power Station dominates the skyline

So it was around 1800hrs when we negotiated the electronically operated Sawley Locks and emerged onto the Trent, heading for the meeting with the river Soar and then the sharp left turn into Trent Lock, to enter the infrequently navigated Erewash canal.  We thought just being on the canals was like going back to a time when life was taken at a much slower pace, but within half an hour of commencing our experience of this waterway were captivated by the atmosphere of bygone days. 

  In Trent Lock at the commencement of the Erewash Canal - the towers continue emitting their steam ...

 and a closer shot of their smouldering magnificence

There were boats moored most of the way for the first mile so our short journey took longer than usual at about 1 mile an hour!  Not only narrowboats, but all shapes and sizes of extraordinary houseboats too ...

Some interesting and colourful old canal boats

 

Incredible house boats not far from Trent Lock

Moored boats as far as the eye can see

Even boats moored on a little side arm

  

The 11 3/4 mile long Erewash canal was completed in less than a year in 1779 to carry coal from the pits in Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire to the towns of the East Midlands.  Even though it's just a short canal, there's 15 locks to negotiate from one end to the other, taking the traveller up 109 feet to Langley Mill!

We moored just after 1900hrs at a pub called The Royal Oak at Long Eaton, ate some tea and caught the last minutes of the first half and second half of the England/Algeria match which just reiterated what I've previously said about football - so blooming frustrating, a nil/nil draw, give us rugby union any day!

Poppy's from the parallel universe