North on the Trent

 

We moored last night at Cromwell Lock, the last lock on the R Trent before you launch on to the tidal Trent. The snap above taken late evening, the large orange bollards strung like  giant's necklace above the weir. This morning JJ  chambers up the ladder to the top of the lock approach wall where we moored overnight, a good 2 metres above the boat. 

The other snaps show the size of the lock, as we leave.

All these tidal locks are manned, with craft marshalled by the lock keeper in to his lock when the incoming tide allows sufficient time for the boats to reach the next lock. There are few moorings on the river, just one, so we must reach the safety of the first lock some 16 miles north. We are running against the tide for much of the way, Santiago's engine a satisfying rumble as the river curls and winds, swans, grey legged geese, gulls along the banks, an occasional windmill, old wharves, a Roman fort.

Now traffic on the river is sparse, mostly pleasure craft, but for millennia it was the highway from the Humber and North Sea to the south.

After our 3+ hour slog, we gratefully enter the lock leading from the Trent to the Fossdyke Canal, originally dug by the Romans.