Extortion or what!!….

While in Willington over the weekend we thought we might take the train into Derby for a look around.  It’s only a 10 minute journey.  We looked up the times on the internet, and discovered that there is only one train that stops here on a Saturday, and that’s at lunch time, then we looked up the price.  Eight quid!!  Yes, you heard right, eight quid.  Well, that decided us, no way were we paying eight quid each for a 10 minute journey.  And while we are on the subject of train fares, we’ve been looking up how much it will be for me to get down to High Wycombe to go and keep daughter Emma company while Ben is away in December.  That one is £75!!!  I know it’s been  a while since I had to travel anywhere by train, but I had no idea that fares had gone up so much.  We managed to get the price down to about £41 by looking on a site where you book early, but can’t do it yet as I don’t know the exact dates yet.  I’m not surprised that people don’t want to use the trains.

We have been moored just outside the entrance to Mercia Marina since Sunday, and we went to have a look at it yesterday.  Although huge, it seems very well appointed.  There is a shop which sells a small amount of provisions, plus chandlery, gifts and newspapers, sweets etc, and a small cafe, where we had a really nice latte.  There is a building being built at the moment which will house Midland Chandlers, and there will be a pub built beside that before too long.  All the normal services are available, diesel, water, pump-out etc, plus there is a boat-fitter on site who will do alterations.  Also there is a nature reserve just outside the Marina for dog walking.  We were quite impressed at the set-up.

We will go back to Willington tomorrow to fill with water and empty loos, and then move on a bit and go to Stenson’s to fill with diesel, then moor up and head on to Shardlow on Thursday or Friday.

Next week we will return to Willington to collect No1 son (Russ), who is coming to spend a couple of days with us.  There is a good car park there where he can leave the car.