When the boat is a rocking...

Tuesday night was very windy; at some points the boat was rocking so much that the pots and pans hanging from the wall were clanging together.  We were moored outside the Market Bosworth marina which is still being built and has started taking in tenants.  It's amazing how many new marinas are being built around the country.  The demand is obviously there.  It does seem that many people only take their boat out for a couple of weeks a year though, so hopefully the system won't start getting overcrowded.

 

On Wednesday morning we set off for a cruise as the wind had dropped.  We still cannot believe how beautiful it is on the Ashby canal.  Practically the whole length is rural with only the odd tiny village.  There was still the occasional gust of wind as you can see from the wavelets on the water here and in the marina pictures above.

When Buddy wasn’t walking along the tow path he had his coat on as it did feel very cold just standing or sitting on the back.  Poor boy, it was Diesel's old coat (it has been washed) so is a little large for him but Karen says she's going to get the sewing machine out to make amends.

We had planned to cruise for an hour and then stop for lunch but in the end cruised for a couple of hours and moored about a mile before the current end of the canal.  We walked the final mile and this is the winding hole at the end.  There is also an information hut and bric-a-brac shop in aid of the Ashby Canal Association.

There is a further ½ mile that has recently been restored and now ends at a point where they will be rebuilding a swing bridge.

They do hope to restore a further eight miles to the original terminus at Moira.  There is a four mile section that collapsed into coal mines in the 1960s so it must be a daunting task to restore that section but I believe they are looking at running the canal through a length of disused railway line for most of that section.  We may well have a walk up there tomorrow.  

Just before the current end the canal runs through a tunnel with a kink in it and the roof lowers as it gets to the northern portal.  I'll try and get pictures when we go through there tomorrow. The village of Snarestone sits above the canal.  We had a walk around and it has some very fine old manor houses and a grotty looking pub.