Cranfleet

Here I am Rune

Distance 8.5 miles 

Total 4703 Locks  313 Tunnels

Running total mileage 7,023.7 miles

So, after more days in Nottingham than we were originally intending, back on the move now heading down towards Loughborough where we will need to be for next weekend. The stay in Nottingham was just too hot to do an awful lot, although I did manage a swim, skate and  bowling session (on the grounds that all of the venues were either air conditioned (bowling), were a good way of cooling down (swim) or were just pleasantly icy (skating).

It was interesting going in to skate as I went in quite a bit early so that I could enjoy the cooler temperatures for longer. In front of me was an elderly lady, I would guess aged over 75, who looked like anyone’s granny. Rather patronisingly I was thinking to myself,”She’s a game old bird if she is going ice skating at her age”, as I later found out, never judge a book by it’s cover.

When the time to skate came on I then got to realise that she wasn’t quite the frail old lady I’d first thought. The clue was when preparing she got her own skates out of her bag, not 1960’s skates, but the current bee’s knees of skates complete with sparkly bits and blade protectors. When she got onto the ice, she clearly knew what she was doing, including skating backwards, so it would be fair to say that in her ability she rather ‘tanned my hide’ with her skating. I shan’t make such ‘judgements’ again.

We’ve got as far as Cranfleet moorings today and would expect to get Zouch Lock by tomorrow night, with just a short hop into Loughborough on Wednesday.