I’m currently blessed with working mornings only. Granted I have to start at 6.00am, which means getting up at 5.00am; however, I do get the afternoons to enjoy myself and ride around the countryside. Earlier this week I took the opportunity to take a 40 mile ride in a loop through Newark and Grantham via parts of Sustrans Route 15 and The Grantham Canal. The total distance was 40 miles, but if you fancied it you could just do the Grantham Canal section or cut the loop short. The full route can be downloaded at this link or you could follow it easily enough on the map below:
The bit I want to tell you about is the stretch along the Grantham Canal. I’ve ridden this route before and even been out as far as Nottingham, where it joins the Trent. From the A1 Junction near Grantham out to Woolsthorpe is good track along the canal towpath for approx five miles. When I cycled it the other day the canal was completely green with algae for the first couple of miles and I was wondering whether the efforts of the Grantham Canal Society to restore the canal were ever going to come to fruition and in some respects wondering why they were even bothering.
As I came out from under the cover of the trees the wind picked up and the algae grew a little more patchy, with many clear areas developing and I started to look at the canal in a better light. On approaching the section next to the Dirty Duck Pub it became clear that more restoration work had taken place further along and having cycled another half mile or so up the cycle path I came across the site of one the new locks and got talking to two of the chaps from the Grantham Canal Society who had helped with the work. I couldn’t help but be impressed by their positive attitude and by the amount of work that had clearly gone in to restoring the locks. Whilst both they and I acknowledged there would be many obstacles to overcome before the canal could ever be connected back to the network via the Trent , three more locks have, or are, being restored and the volunteers are another mile or more towards their goal. If you can help them or just want to find out more click this link.
