AND REPEAT

A misty morning on the Trent

 Doncaster to Lincoln 59 miles, 5 locks 3 canals and 2 rivers.

We enjoyed visiting Doncaster, its a lovely lively town with a few good pubs and a Cosmos. On Saturday after we had moored up and had a rest we headed into town to find we had missed Doncaster Pride, but there were still plenty of colourful people milling about, and most of the pubs had joined in with gusto. We decided to try The Hallcross, the Captain could see from his real ale finder app, they had York Chocolate stout on by Rudgate brewery. The pub was busy and we decided to sit outside, but it was so windy we only had the one in there, and thought we would try the Red Lion a Wetherspoons, hoping it would be quieter. It was not to be, we managed to find a seat, but the pub was heaving, so just the one in there too. Then it was off to Cosmos, an all you can eat world buffet. We really like Cosmos, and were not disappointed on this visit at all, the choice and quality of the food was excellent.

https://www.hallcrossdoncaster.co.uk/

https://www.cosmo-restaurants.co.uk/restaurants/doncaster

We stayed put next day and went to the Draughtmans micro pub on platform 3b at Doncaster railway station. It is housed in what was originally a ladies waiting room, with beautiful tiles and even better beer. The Captain was very happy, with Small Black Flowers by Pentrich Brewery and a good pint of ABK lager for me. Then back to the boat for a Sunday roast with all the trimmings.

https://www.thedraughtsmanalehouse.co.uk/

Monday and the rain was back, so just a short hop on our way back to Keadby and the mighty River Trent

On our way to Thorne next day, as we approached one of the few locks on this stretch there seemed to be a queue. I jumped off to see what was occurring. Bramwith lock is unusual, in that it has 3 sets of gates and can be used for short boats, or by opening the middle gates large boats. There were 2 narrowboats waiting, Chrisden and Outlaws Dream, a large sea going boat Amyjay, us and then a small yoghurt pot turned up. The 2 narrowboats had tried to get in the short lock, but found that one of them was too long, so needed to open the middle gates and use the full length of the lock. Well not only did they get in, we all got in, so that’s 5 boats in one lock. That’s the way to do it !!!

We stopped at Thorne on the visitors pontoons for the night and headed for the Canal Tavern once again.

Back to Keadby next day as we had a very early start on Thursday. We met NB Derwent Lass at one of the swing bridges, they seemed to be struggling to understand how the swing bridges worked. The ones on this stretch tend to be manual, but you need to use your BW key to release the locks on the road barriers and bridge locking mechanism, I went along and explained the process. They told me they were heading out of Keadby next day to join the Chesterfield canal at West Stockworth lock. However they stopped at the next bridge for lunch never to be seen again.

Thursday morning came and I groaned when the alarm went off at 5am, but we needed to be up and off. The lock keeper was ready for us at 5.45. We we were joined in the lock by Chrisden and Outlaws Dream once again. Out on to the tidal Trent and we took the lead as we have done this trip a few times now. 28 miles to Torskey, and we kept an eye on the boats behind us to make sure we didn’t lose them. It took us a respectable 4 ½ hours, and we were able to lock up and onto the Fossdyke canal and head for Saxilby. The other 2 boats were staying on the pontoons below the lock and going to Cromwell next morning. We got to Saxilby and moored on the newly refurbished visitors moorings. We had a plan. Saxilby has one of the best fish and chip shops on the system, and a couple of decent pubs, so that was tea sorted. Then surprisingly Chrisden and Outlaws Dream turned up and tried to wind, but the canal wasn’t wide enough at this point, so they moored up in front of us. After a discussion they headed off up the canal until they found somewhere to wind and then they were back, just before we headed to the pub The Anglers. After a couple of pints we headed back calling at the chippy on the way. There was no sign of them when we got back.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100047626485073

After a quiet night we headed for Lincoln, and instead of going through the Glory Hole we moored on the visitors moorings near Brayford Pools. Glory Hole is the nickname of High Bridge, the oldest medieval bridge with houses on it in the UK

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Bridge,_Lincoln

We had arranged to meet our friend Phil Hancox and his new girlfriend Karen at the Cardinals Hat. Phil lives on his boat like us, Karen still has a house, but seems to be taking to the boating like a duck to water. We had a great time and hope to see them again.

The Cardinals Hat is a great real ale pub, and the Captain was very happy with Small Black Flowers stout by Pentrich Brewery (again), and Mena Dhu a Cornish stout from St Austell Brewery.

https://www.facebook.com/thecardinalshatlincoln/?locale=en_GB

https://staustellbrewery.co.uk/our-beers/mena-dhu/

For once we actually arrived somewhere when something was going off (we are usually a week early or a week late). It was Lincoln Pride. A very lively, colourful noisy and well attended event. We watched the parade and when it had finished decided to head to the market hall, only to find it was undergoing refurbishment. Shame but we did pick up a lovely piece of pork for our Sunday roast from a local butcher.

https://lincolnpride.co.uk/home

We spent a quiet afternoon, and surprisingly for us didn’t venture out for a pint.

Sunday and it was D Day for the Lionesses, and we were ready to watch them in plenty of time, well the Captain was watching, I was cooking with one eye on the match.

We all know it didn’t finish the way we would have liked, but they did their very best, and you can’t ask for more than that.

After the match we headed back to Torskey. We were booked back out on the Trent next morning. To give the |Captain a break I took over steering for a while, the canal here is straight and wide, just the way I like it. It was sunny and to help the Captain lent me his baseball cap, but a strong gust of wind swept it off my head and in to a watery grave. Oooops. Will have a buy him a new one.

That’s all for now folks