Earwash

Actually, it's Erewash.

It's one of those names that you probably never see, until you become a boater. And then you don't know how to pronounce it until you hear someone else.

It starts where the River Soar runs into the Trent. We hadn't intended to go up it today – that was supposed to be for another time. But I want to get someone to do a 250 hour service on Erin Mae's engine, and we'd heard there was a good boatyard just up the Erewash, so we made the turn and came up the first lock.

As it happened, the mechanic in question was elsewhere, but on the phone he recommended someone else, who we might visit tomorrow. Meanwhile we carried on up the Erewash to find somewhere to wind. It's quite odd to be on a stretch of water where you can't simply turn round wherever you want.

Slowly up the canal we went (it's rather shallow), and came to a set of traffic lights showing double red. Very odd, as there was plenty of room under the bridge the train was rumbling over. The lights actually related to the flood gates just before the bridge, but there seemed no reason not to go through. So we did, and are still here to tell the tale. In fact we went up, winded and came back through them.

So tonight we're tied up just inside the Erewash, and will go down off it in the morning. They say the further reaches of it are delightful. Those delights will have to wait.