We had a nice weekend at Willington although the weather wasn't very good, but on Saturday (24th October)we had a walk to Repton even though it was showery we managed to get there without getting wet.
This plaque is just at Willington Bridge over the river Trent
Walking over the bridge the footpath is only at one side and very narrow and we were glad we didn't have Jaz with us as the road was quite busy too. A bus was coming towards us as we were crossing the bridge and he slowed down while he passed us. It is ok when cars pass but anything like a tractor, lorry or a bus means you are quite close to the wall with the river below.
Looking across the bridge, no footpath on that side!
The river Trent below us.
Lovely thatched cottages in Repton
The cross in the centre.
We walked to the right of the cross to the Red Lion pub as it started to rain, (good excuse for a pint) and as we sat inside the heavens opened up and it poured down but by the time we had finish our drinks it stopped so we headed back to Willington. In the pub there were a few photos of people who had attended the school here and one was the earlier Sherlock Holmes actor Basil Rathbone along with another photo of Jeremy Clarkson. The school at Repton is spread out around the village, a lot of the different departments like the sports complex looked quite new. It was about a 20minute walk and if it had been a sunny day it would have been lovely as you always see places differently when the sun is out.
On Sunday morning we were getting ready to leave our mooring to go across to the services for water etc when another boat got there first so we had to wait, which is just one of those things but the couple didn't fill with water at first they decided to do a DIY pump out instead! The man got his hosepipe attached to the tap and then washed his boat!! We then made the decision to start to pull across to them and wait as if we stayed on our mooring while they finished someone else may have come along. They had already been at the services for over half an hour and we had to wait nearly the same again!
Anyway once we had topped up with a little water we emptied cassettes & got rid of some rubbish and then made our way to Stenson lock where there was a boat waiting to go into the lock so we were able to share it with them. There were volunteer lockies on too so they told both Kev and the man from the other boat to stay on board so that was a bonus, no such luck when we got to Swarkeston lock though and both Kev and the other man had to get the lock ready. We let the other boat exit the lock first as we were going to stay at Weston for the night and they were carrying on to Nottingham.
We moored on the moorings close to the lock and these were going to be winter moorings from 1st November, CRT men had just put up the sign there.
Monday morning about 8am we were ready to leave so Kev pushed the bow off for me and went to open the lock gates as it was full. As we got to Aston lock there was a boat coming up so we didn't have long to wait, and when we got to Shardlow lock the gates were actually open so we went straight in!
We were soon back at our marina and we spent Tuesday cleaning, packing etc ready to leave for home on Wednesday, although Kev will be back on board in another week or so as he wants to do a few jobs and Nigel will be at his boat too. They are both going to sort out getting a slot to get both boats into a dry dock for blacking etc probably in March next year so I will stay at home while they do that.
