Wednesday 29th June, 2016 at Kegworth.
Although our mooring was very quiet, it was opposite a large building site so a great contrast to our very rural, remote and rather lovely moorings over the last few days. We were interested to see that the crane is controlled remotely from the ground - no small cabin high above the site.
It was forecast to rain all day but brighten up after tea so we decided to spend the morning riding on the Great Central steam heritage line. As it was already pouring with rain, we took the big Eddie Stobart umbrella, which is huge and kept us both dry (unlike yesterday afternoon under M's small umbrella).
The trains run on Wednesdays as well as at the weekends. Hooray!
R brought our tickets, which are valid all day. M would happily have spent all day going up and down, but we did need to make some progress towards Nottingham later.
The station is set up to represent the 1950s, including the kiosk with its newspaper headlines, although we noticed one modern addition!
Our train was waiting on the platform and, as it had a very smart restaurant car, we decided to have second breakfast. As usual, the waiter put the big breakfast in front of R and the small cake in front of M. Wrong way round!
M found that there was a mound of extras under the two fried eggs and she couldn't finish it all.
Later, she couldn't resist sticking her head out of the window to look down the line (and got very wet and windswept!). This claims to be the only heritage railway with twin tracks.
Could it be that this station might just be vegetarian? Marvellous names.
Back at the main Loughborough Station, the train made ready to leave on its next trip. Reluctantly, we made our way back to MM in the rain.
Back on MM, it was still raining hard but, by teatime, the rain eased off and eventually stopped, so we decided to move on.
At the first lock, a waft of sweet fragrance turned out to be a large bush of entwined philadelphus (mock orange) and honeysuckle. Lovely,
As we approached Bishop Meadow Lock, the heavens opened again and we both got very wet - but decided to keep going anyway. Next to the lock is an old lock keeper's cottage with a beautiful garden. The owner came out to talk to us (despite the rain).
When M complimented him on his garden, he went and cut her what he described as "the best rose in his garden". What a very sweet gesture.
R said that he must have fancied her - M replied that "He should have gone to Specsavers!" After all, by this time, she was looking like a drowned rat!
Soon afterwards, the rain finally stopped, the sun came out and we started to dry out and warm up (we'd started to get chilled).
At Normanton-on-Soar there is a very unusual church. It welcomes boaters and even has its own mooring for worshippers! The countryside hereabouts is lovely.
Kegworth Deep Lock was a bit scary as it has a very wide cill. A warning notice said that there had been three boats caught on the cill and sunk in the last year. So, we were very careful. The blue ropes are for skippers to hang on to so as to keep their boats from drifting back on to the cill.
Just past the Kegworth Flood Lock, we moored up for the night.
Supper was very light as M had had such a big second breakfast - avocado and prawns. Delicious!
Good thing that we had moored up as the heavens opened again. We just hope that the River Soar and the River Trent (which we need tomorrow to get to Nottingham) do not rise too much - they were both closed for a while last week due to heavy rain.
Today: 6 miles, 4 locks and 5.1 hours.
Trip: 154 miles, 98 locks and 116.6 hours.
Great Central Railway good ride have not been there for years.
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