Join me on a misty morning alongside the River Trent at Trentlock in Derbyshire. My plan is simple – follow the river downstream to the city of Nottingham, using a combination of country lanes, bridleways and riverside paths. Then cross over the river and head back along the opposite riverbank. The mist lifts and the sun begins to shine, but a closed path forces me to take an unplanned diversion through the beautiful wetlands of Attenborough Nature Reserve.
hi everyone it’s Dave here welcome back to the channel and for another cycling adventure and this morning I’m on the banks of the river Trent I’m at a place called Trent lock this morning and this is a a really important Junction on Britain’s waterways from here you can head along the AA wash Canal into darbishire you can head Upstream along the river Trent into stafire or take the River Saw into leerer but I won’t be doing any of that this morning what I’m planning on doing is heading Downstream along the river Trent towards Nottingham I’ll get on the bike and I’ll tell you all about my plan let’s go [Music] So the plan for today’s ride is fairly straightforward I’m heading along the South Bank of the river Trent easterly towards Nottingham I’m then going to cross over and head back West along the north Bank of the river but I’m on the North Bank at the moment so what I actually need to do is to head Upstream along uh the river so that I can find a bridge to cross once I’m over onto the South Bank the plan is to pass through rackliff on saw Bon and Clifton as I make my way into the suburbs of Nottingham eventually I’ll find a bridge to cross over onto the north bank and then I’m going to head back out of Nottingham back upst stream towards Tren lock through atenor Nature Reserve hopefully by the time I get there this uh mist and fog will have lifted and it’ll turn into a lovely spring morning here’s hoping let’s get riding oh this is narrow so shortly we’ll be coming across the a453 which is the main draw carriageway from the M1 into Nottingham now alongside the jaw Carriage Way is a cycle way which will help us uh on our trip eastwards towards Nottingham it’s not great biking alongside a jaw carriageway but uh it’s a bit of a necessary evil and very soon we’ll be back on the lanes again so uh it’s still quite Misty and foggy here as I pass over the Midland Mainline Railway here at East Midland’s Parkway station and I just wanted to show you something because adjacent to the railway line here is Ratliff on saw Power Station hopefully you can make out through the Mist cooling towers here at what is the last remaining Coal Fired power station in the UK it was supposed to stop producing electricity in 2021 but was given a bit of a stay of execution following the whole energy crisis and uh it’s actually now due to close down later in 2024 and after that there’ll be no more cold fire power stations remaining in the United Kingdom so as we leave the village of Bon we now need to look for a left hand turn and a brid way which will take us back towards the river Trent towards Clifton and here it is well this is lovely along here so peaceful and here we are back at the river Trent and we’re now going to head through Clifton and into the suburbs of Nottingham wow so I’ve just crossed Wilford Bridge which uh takes me now onto the North Bank of the river Trent now there’s bit of bridge here for a couple of hundred years most recently it was widened to allow the Nottingham Express transit tram Network to uh extend south over the river towards Clifton now I’m going to stay on the North Bank of the river for a little while and I’m going to carry on Downstream along the Victoria embankment to the famous Trent Bridge than so I’ve just passed under Trent bridge and uh I’m about to leave the river behind for a while now and head into towards Nottingham City Center and to do that I can take the toe path of the Nottingham Canal uh but just before I go just another thing of note to have a look at on the other side of the river here is the city ground which is home to Nottingham Forest FC for cheers well that was a cool little stop in Nottingham but I’m heading out of the city now I’ve uh rejoined the path alongside the river Trent but this time I’m on the North Bank so on my way into the city I was over there somewhere but now I’m heading back West towards Trent lock SP a better push now well I’ve made it past beast and lock which is always very busy although there was a lovely Cafe there and uh that’s uh going to be a stop for next time definitely um I’m now heading into atenor Nature Reserve which is the last leg of the ride today and uh we’ll follow the river Trent all the way back to the finish at Trent lock well before I get back to Trent lock and uh complete the ride I thought I’d just stop for a minute here in this lovely location next to the river Trent and uh I can see in the distance over there the cooling towers of Ratliff Ona power station which were engulfed in Mist earlier today but it’s really brightened up and it’s been a really lovely day for a bike ride alongside the river here what oh okay so best laid plans and all that the uh Last Leg of my route alongside the river Trent is closed so we’re going to have to do a bit of a diversion through aten BR Nature Park [Music] well I’m hoping this comes out at Trent lock cuz I’m a bit lost to be honest I wasn’t planning on coming this direction back on track well that’s another ride completed uh I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have I’m just trying to shelter now out of the wind it’s uh it’s been a bit of a blustery day but the Mist dead lift eventually and the sun came out which is what we like to see it was great to uh be able to uh ride pretty much into the center of Nottingham without going on any roads uh I hope you enjoyed the adventure as much as I did if you did don’t forget to subscribe to the channel give the video a thumbs up and leave me a comment too because I love reading them and uh hopefully you can join me again on the next adventure until then from Smiles per hour I’m Dave and I’ll see you soon [Music]