Drakeholes

Car shuffle day.

We (Mike that is) made an early start as Mike had to take buses and trains (five in total) back to Barton Marina

Shaw Lock

It was a bright and sunny morning as we set off and worked through a couple of locks.

Former Brickworks

Strangely isolated in a field stood the remains of a former brickworks.

Inside Drakeholes Tunnel

Drakeholes Tunnel is short and, provided that no-one tries to come from the other direction, relatively spacious and dry.

As we reached Drakeholes we spotted one remaining space on the overnight moorings (room for four) which was handy as we believed that a bus would pass here in just over an hour's time.

Having seen a bus at Saxilby go through several minutes ahead of schedule and with the service only every two hours, Mike did not want to miss it. So, he went out early - and, of course, the bus was quite a few minutes late!

What we had not realised is that the station in Retford is quite a walk from the town centre and, as a result, he missed the train he was hoping to catch. It is an hourly service to Sheffield and it was a warm sunny day so sitting and waiting was not too much of a hardship. He was joined on the bench on the station platform by a young lady with a 13 month old baby in a push chair.

She happily chatted away, telling much of her life story and the time soon passed. After several quite traumatic incidents in the past it was great to see how lively and cheerful she remains.

Just after boarding the train, Mike checked his ticket only to realise that he had left his credit card at the booking office. With all that time waiting, if only he had looked a few minutes earlier! However, by various mobile phone calls and some detective work by Christine she discovered that it had been found by the clerk in the office - sadly they only discovered it and reported back just a couple of minutes after she had rung to cancel the card!

From there on, the journey was remarkably efficient and the changes at both Sheffield and Derby were only three or four minutes each! After walking into Burton-on-Trent town centre for the bus back to the marina, it was only a 15 minute wait.

Having sorted out the deposit for the marina gate key and a quite chat with the engineering staff about the batteries, it was on the road with the sat nav and a ninety minute trip back to Drakeholes without incident, picking up rolls for lunch en route tomorrow.

Meanwhile Christine had packed and cleaned and was able, for the first time in a long while, to use one of our fold up chairs to sit on the bank and read in the sunshine.

Later she walked along the road to see the disused gatehouses for the former Wiseton Hall that were mentioned in the guide book. She also took a photo looking down from above the tunnel to the moorings.

Take Five on Drakeholes mooring

3.5 miles - 2 locks