Lots of lovely cruising along this final part of the journey before we joined the Trent.

We cruised straight through Loughborough, but came across some pretty villages

With gongoozelers

I had quite a lot of hard work to do

But we were rewarded with some lovely mooring

There’s some impressive houses, we wondered which country we were in at one point, this developement even had it’s own private marina

And some very impressive bridges. This is Mountsorrel mineral railway bridge. It’s a grade II listed building and as it helpfully tells us it was built in 1860

The nearer we got to the Trent, the more dire the warnings became about the potential for the river to flood. These wooden railings are the final emergency mooring facility before the Trent. And surveying the low lying ground around I hope that bungalow is built on stilts. I can’t imagine how terrifying it would be if we needed to use such a facility, but I know how grateful I’d be if I did.

Our final night on the Soar was at Sutton Bonnington tucked in the bend known as the Devil’s Elbow

Our final morning on the Soar saw us cruising past the coal fuelled Ratcliffe power station. It’s been churning out electricity for 50 years, but it’s days are numbered.

We saw these cooling towers last year when we looked south from the mouth of the Erewash canal.
