We were up quite early on Wednesday so were able to set off early with our recycling and post to Sainsbury’s to do a BIG shop with our trolleys. When we arrived back at Oakfield we encountered three people leaning over the towpath to peer through our portholes! They had to lean quite a bit as we were spaced out from the side on our wheelbarrow wheels. We thought what a cheek, so Bottle asked them for their address so that we might go and peer into their home. They then apologised for their bad behaviour and Bottle answered all their questions about boats while I stowed our food away. After a nice cup of filter coffee Bottle reversed Oakfield back to turn into the narrow entrance of Castle Marina to fill up with diesel, with me acting as the bow-thruster. As there were a couple of boats already lingering on the services we had to wait, and guess what it began to rain and the wind blew up! So, we clung onto another moored boat waiting for the pontoon to clear for us, getting wet of course. Having filled up we then had to negotiate many boats without touching, then back round 90% narrow entrance to head off up to Beeston where we moored for the night. As the rest of the afternoon turned sunny we decided to have a stroll along to the Marina Cafe for a snack. We were spoilt for choice as they provided a lovely selection of homemade cakes there. We had a large chunk of their delicious Lemon Meringue Pie and Carrot Cake to share and two mugs of tea/coffee all for just over £4, can you beat that?
Their Petunias looked nice all along the terrace and Captain Hook watched over us from his Crows Nest aloft.
Beeston Lock Cottage is kept in immaculate condition by the lock keeper and one paddle on the top and bottom gates is left open to allow water from the River Trent to run through the lock. You have to operate the lock yourselves and the windlasses are welded to the spindles, so no need to use your own. There is also an information board there telling us that this lock takes 165,000 litres of water to fill it, the equivalent to 1,500 baths, apparently!
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