Lyra's Travels

Thursday 2nd May 2013
I had good evening in the Retford & Worksop Boat Club bar. Unfortunately Cath is still under the weather and decided to stay in the boat, letting yours truly run free in a bar where the whisky was sold at a very tempting price.
The members were very friendly, and it was the birthday of the lady who ran the bar, (sorry don't know her name, too many whiskys) and she had put on a small buffet for all who attended. I ended up scoffing some birthday cake of course.
This morning once again dawned bright and clear, and after using the facilities we set off into the sunshine. The canal continues to meander through pretty scenery, the land around here is quite flat and we're surprised at the need for locks at all.
In two places, one a winding hole, we came across swans nesting, and in both the pen was sitting, so soon there should be cygnets swimming around.

The first lock this morning was the oddly named "Whitsunday Pie Lock". Local legend has it that a woman once baked a huge pie for the navvies who were digging the canal. But I've also heard that old maps have shown a Whitsunday pie field near the spot, that pre-dates the canal.

The surroundings and the weather continue to be wonderful, but we can soon tell that we are approaching an urban area. Lots of plastic bags and empty take away cartons start to litter the canal and towpath as we run into Retford.
We wanted to do a shop here so kept our eye out for a likely mooring spot.
A chap who happened to be on his boat moored at the end of his garden, told us that the best place would be by Retford Town Lock. On arrival here I had a look around and decided that there was a good spot just above the lock, so we penned through this, the first of the narrow locks which sets the pattern for the rest of this canal. Narrow locks, yippee!!
We're now tied up very close to the local Asda, and I've already raided the place.