Frustration

7th & 8th June

It's been a frustrating couple of days. Yesterday, it just rained. A lot. There was no question of even plodding to Sutton Bonington for a paper, I'm not that desperate to read the Independent on Sunday.

We spent the whole day inside, fiddling about with stuff like odd IT jobs, and I baked some bread for lunch. Even that didn't go as well as it usually does, coming out underdone and heavy. I have less success with the Wright's bread kits than others, not sure why.

Occasionally I strolled down to the lock to check the level gauge below. It slowly worked its way up the yellow, getting about half way up by the end of the day. There was also an overspill weir just ahead of us in the moorings, and we watched the level mount steadily on that.

I've no doubt we could have gone on if we felt brave enough, but given the conditions, why should we?

Late in the day, a couple of big Dutch barges came up the lock. Each in turn stopped on the lock landing, pondered the bridge between us and them, and then set off towards it, only to backwater frantically when it became all too apparent that the wheelhouse wasn't going to make it under.

Then they hovered in mid stream whilst the woodwork was removed.

Overnight, the levels went down a lot, and the weather improved immensely, so we set off to go at least as far as Kegworth to get fresh bread. It was a great run down the river, in reasonable weather, with bursts of sun between the clouds.

We went down Kegworth Deep Lock, and round to Kegworth Shallow, which is normally chained open. On this occasion, it wasn't, though there was only an inch difference in the levels. We tied below the lock, and I did the ten minute walk up into the village.

It has a Co-op and a newsagent, together with a butcher and a small Boots. I just got the basics, as we plan to be in Nottingham, alongside Sainsbury's, within two days. (Joke coming up).

Since it was still very pleasant, we decided to carry on to Sawley for the night, so that Sheila could run the washing machine, and we'd top up the water tank after. We had a good run to Ratcliffe Lock, and went past the site of the IWA National on August Bank Holiday.

Redhill Flood Lock was also in use, with again a very small change in level. The only thing was, the red light was on below the lock, meaning that the Trent was closed.

I called BW Newark (via the Customer Services number) and the woman on the other end could only confirm that the river had gone into flood last night. She declined to offer any further advice, or to speculate how long it might be closed.

"It all depends on whether we have any more rain."

So we've tied below the lock to wait and see, at least for 24 hours. If there's no change, we'll go back to Kegworth for more supplies. The only problem is, there's no way of telling at Kegworth what the state of the Trent is. They've not posted a stoppage for the Upper Trent (thanks, BW) so presumably, they won't post one when the river reopens.

Meantime, we've heard a cuckoo calling here, and seen two cormorants fishing right by the boat, so it's not all loss.

It's just... frustrating.