Hello and welcome back to my blog 😊.

Today, I enjoyed an 11.4- mile circular walk that took in The National Watersports Centre where I found that there was a lot of activity on the water.

As is my way, I had an early start, parking close to The Grantham Canal at Bassingfield. I headed off along the towpath for a short walk then turned towards the village.

Passing through, I headed across fields to reach the A52. I walked past a field containing yellow oil seed rape – not as common as it used to be. The final field that I crossed was a wheat field and my boots / trouser bottoms got a good soaking from the morning dew. Still, I was hopeful for fair weather, so they would soon dry out.

After crossing the A52 I headed along Sandy Lane into Holme Pierrepont passing fishing lakes which were lined with Anglers – competition day!

I was soon arriving into The National Watersports Centre – on previous occasions when I had walked there, it was like the Marie Celeste, but this morning, it was a hive of activity. I was delighted to watch. Men on bikes, cycling along, shouting encouragement into megaphones, was the order of the day. I stopped at a bench and enjoyed my scotch egg and coffee whilst watching all the rowers.

Rowing is clearly a very popular sport these days. I walked along one side of the lake and then down the other side and crossed a bridge to reach the slalom course.

I walked through the Slalom course, crossing another two bridges. Canoeists were out on the course enjoying the choppy waters. Towards the end of the course I heard drum & bass music – greeting canoeists at the start of the course. I saw some ‘stubby’ canoes – these are playboat kayaks- and youngsters were doing somersaults in them! This is new to me – I think they are used for freestyling.

I moved past the Water Sport centre and joined the banks of the River Trent.

Walking along there were rowing boats out on the river and you could hear the Cox shouting instructions – maybe they were warning up for a race later in the day.

I was on the Trent Valley Way.

I passed apartment blocks with a view.

Eventually, just by Nottingham Forest Football ground, I turned into Trent Lock and the start of the Grantham Canal.

This section of the canal is redundant, cut off by urban development in Nottingham. I followed the remaining sections of the canal in Ladybay, where they exist – some of which were dry.

For a man who likes canals this was hard to see. As I walked further I found that there was water in the canal at Gamston.

Where there was water there was life. New arrivals from the Ducks and Coots were being chaperoned carefully by their mothers.

Soon I arrived back at my parking spot. I had enjoyed seeing all the activity at the National Water Sports Centre – it had made my day!

Happy Walking! 😊🚶