This end of the Trent and Mersey sometimes feels like a motorway compared to the Macclesfield Canal. It is wider and deeper, but that’s nothing compared to what was coming later today.
The first lock of the day at Stenson, was our first wide lock of this trip. These last few locks on the T&M are all wide and all “downhill”, so that was a good way to ease into them. But going through as a single boat is always more work. So that’s why it was great to join up with Resting Easy at the next lock.
With the wider locks, you start to see widebeam boats. I know people get these wide canal boats because they effectively get twice the interior space for the same length of boat. But we have never been drawn to them. They restrict you to a specific set of waterways which a narrowboat doesn’t. Our 57 foot narrowboat makes all the connected english waterways accessible to use. A widebeam just wouldn’t.
Late morning, we arrived in Shardlow, a famous inland waterways port. Shardlow is always bustling with boats and today was no different. Passing through Shardlow, we reached the Derwent Lock, the last on the T&M (or first for those heading the other way). And on this stretch, some of the boats are even bigger. 
It becomes obvious here that you are about to pass on to a very different waterway. Having passed the flood lock with its flood warning lights, at Derwent Lock there are other warning boards about water levels and the risk of navigating when the Trent flow is high. Thankfully none of these warnings apply today. So we descended Derwent Lock and ventured out onto the River Trent.
Wide water, with around 1.5-2mph of downstream flow. You don’t know how exhilarating it is to travel at 6mph instead of less than 4mph. Especially when you get to go under the M1 when the motorway traffic was crawling along slower than that.
It is a short-lived excitement, as we soon reach Sawley Cut. River navigations have weirs and locks at regular intervals. The weirs help to retain enough depth in the reach above them to allow boats to operate without grounding. The locks allow boats to bypass the weirs and descend to the level below. Locks are usually situated in a man made channel called a cut. Sawley Cut 
is another busy boating destinations, with a large marina, public moorings and services. Sawley Lock is electrically operated and manned by lock-keepers. We took on some water and then descended the lock onto the last stretch of the Trent for us, passing Trent Lock and Erewash Canal before turning on to the River Soar.
The Soar is not nearly so wide as the Trent, but is definitely a river and not a canal. There is a detectable flow, which we are now working against. The flow also means you need to be aware of how the navigable channel can vary in position, especially on bends. And there are a lot of bends!
We moored up, for the night, just below Kegworth Deep Lock. A good spot, with other boats to watch, as well as aircraft on the arrivals flightpath for East Midlands Airport.
After Armitage, we are back in glorious English countryside on the way to Fradley Junction. The straight section at Ravenshaw Wood on the run into Wood End Lock is another favourite mooring spot. We remember mooring there on our first canal holiday, one October half-term in the late 1980’s on a hired boat from Burton on Trent. Perhaps we’ll stop here on the way back. 
