Onwards we plod.........

The goal today was to have a longish day and reach Shireoaks...one must not have goals, especially on the weed ridden Chesterfield!!!

We left at 0830 and went through the last of the Forest locks.  Barney and I then had a couple of miles walk as far as Ranby and thereafter it was a slow plod, interspersed by several stops to clear weed from the prop, and in one case to remove part of a knitted jumper.

It is undoubtedly very peaceful countryside and the locks are well maintained BUT the enjoyment for us is ruined by the weed and this constant feeling it is hard work .

Church at Scofton

Pumping station south of Worksop

We had been warned that Worksop was `a bit rough`so had not planned to overnight there but we stopped just after town lock to get the paper.   It is very close to a shopping centre which had a lovely M&S simply food.   We attracted lots of gongoozlers as we came up the lock!

As we approached Morse lock we could see an obstruction in the water just outside the lock so we knew we would have to pause.   A BW boat then came down the lock and proceeded to do a clearing job.   They said there had been a lot of stuff thrown in over the weekend...there was a festival of the Chesterfield Canal Trust at Worksop last weekend....

We turned off the engine and had a late lunch whilst there did their clearing job.

Entrance to Morse Lock

Off again after lunch and the clearance job only to encounter further trouble at Stret lock the next one.

We couldn't get into the lock...I jammed about 2/3 of the way in!!   BW were still around and asked us how wide we were..........apparently this is the narrowest of the locks on this canal........however it was then discovered that there was a small piece of wood catching on the side and that just made the difference between getting in or not...

I backed out to allow it to be removed and the game was on again........however by the time we emerged Geoff decided he had had enough aggro for one day and since there was a suitable place to moor we decided to call it quits for the day.

We are close to a pub and a Sainsburys so we are all set for an early start tomorrow to try and reach the end........over 20 locks!!!!!what did I say about having goals???

Further back at one of the locks we chatted to a group of walkers going in the opposite direction to ourselves.  They said they had seen several boats heading in our direction....they would have been the first of the day as we have not seen a soul.   In most parts we are very glad as passing in some of the narrow and shallow stretches would have been interesting.   We still didn't meeet any...

Also chatting to one of the BW men (a lot of chatting goes on on the canals!!)  he said that this was a bad time for the weed....it multiplied several weeks ago and will die down again come September.......so we have obviously mistimed our visit!