Thursday 28 April 2011

The River Trent... At Last!

It was wonderful yesterday when we arrived at the River Trent junction and finally left the River Soar that had been our travelling companion for so long. Of course we were unable to go down it straightaway as there was a dirty great waterfall in the way called Thrumpton Weir. I could tell that the Skipper was impressed by it though and had there been incidental music playing in his ears at the time, at this point it would have risen in a great swelling crescendo as we entered the vast width of water that was the junction and it would have burst upon his ears in a great harmonic climax of symphonic beauty.     Er... Sorry about that!
But really, I could see that he was amazed by the vast width of water and the surrounding flat green water meadows that spread out towards the steep ridge to the south.
And I liked the breeze as came across the flatlands and it hit me full in the face. It was gusting at times quite severely and the waves were furiously breaking against my stem, wetting my nose each time with their spray. I loved the exhilaration of it all!
Because we couldn’t go over the waterfall without badly injuring ourselves, we had to travel a bit further and enter the short man made canal called the Cranfleet Cut, which the Skipper I think, found to be an anticlimax, as I always do. But we didn’t have long to wait till we could join the mighty river below Cranfleet Lock and then it was wonderful again.
He had heard so many stories about it that the Skipper I think was a bit anxious about what to expect from the River Trent. But I’ve been here before of course, in my previous life as ‘JP2’ under Ian and Linda so I was well used to it and I would like to have reassured the Skipper that everything would be okay. He is a careful person so I shall have to transmit by telepathy that all will be well. And of course he has me to look after him so he will be fine.

A blending of Nature and Man on the River Soar



Leaving the River Soar



Arriving at the River Trent



And on the River Trent

1 comment:

Old Salt said...

Hi Paul. Sorry I missed you though I was probably aboard somewhere.... Possibly trying to get my computer to work for me! Ha ha! I look forward to meeting you sometime.