Moving to Beeston

Yesterday we made the journey to Beeston along the Nottingham Canal. It was another cold day and we were wrapped up well but with an addition of sunglasses. The setting sun was blinding as we tootled towards it's illuminating glare. Ah, it felt good to be on the move again. Being in one place can get a bit stagnant, with debris clogging up between the boat and the towpath and the mind becoming slow and unchallenged. The feeling of undoing the ropes, pushing out the bow and dashing on to the stern to engage the gears is a liberating feeling.

It is a nice stretch of canal, wide and deep with a good towpath and interesting hedgerow. Due to the feed from the River this section of canal apparently, never freezes and from research Leigh has done, currently, other areas across the canal network are frozen stiff, so the truth upholds itself. As we approached the visitor moorings in Beeston we slowed down to pass the other moored boats - a gesture that all boaters are expected to do and few abide by, to the annoyance of many a boater - and we glided into the mooring point for the facilities.

We needed to fill up with water, and have a shower on board (it's that time of the week) as a bowl of hot water by the fire will only suffice 6 days a week. I did notice here, however, that there is a BW shower cubicle. I saw one of these in Birmingham near to Gas Street and was quite awed. I am yet to try it out as there is something a little off putting about having a hot shower in the BW hut and to then walk through the freezing cold back to the boat with wet hair, a bit like swimming in winter, it's not quite right.

Our mooring point is just before Beeston Lock, leading onto the River Trent. There is a lovely willow tree outside, a bus stop for Nottingham, shop round the corner and a train station 10 minutes away. To top it all, there is Attenborough Nature Reserve only 10 minutes walk through Beeston Marina and today, I took a lovely 9 mile walk around it with some very good friends. There is a rubbish point by the lock and facilities hut so it is a great accessible spot. The only down side is the close proximity to some of those awful electricity pylons on the the other side of the water. We will only be here for the allocated 14 days and then move on, but there are permanent moorers opposite and winter moorers too.

After a good dinner of Spanish omelette, beetroot and runner beans we are warming by the fire and I'm pondering a nice movie on the laptop before I consider my plan for getting sorted for work tomorrow.