Karen expects to be working in the North West so this means we need
to head back up there. I finally got my
head round the winter stoppages so now know what routes we can take up the
country and when. As we want to spend a
couple of months sorting the house out from mid November we need to get up
North over the next six weeks or so. We
are heading for a boatyard near Nantwich who will store the boat for the two
months. We will then move back on board
in mid January by which time we hope to have the house rented out.
Before we
head up there we want to complete the Leicester ring which means continuing
south through Leicester on the River Soar then join up with the Leicester
section of the Grand Union. We will go
down the Market Harborough and the Welford arms to visit those places on the
way. Then continuing south we will get
to Norton junction where the long journey north west will begin up the Grand
Union, Oxford, Coventry, Birmingham & Fazeley and finally the Trent &
Mersey canals. We have covered these
canals before during this year but we want to take the
most direct route before we get stuck by the stoppages.
This is the
route we will follow - it covers 186 miles and 130 locks.
We left
Loughborough on Saturday morning and continued south to Leicester on the
delightful River Soar. We both agree
that this is the prettiest of all the rivers we have been on.
Most towns
seem to have boats run by local volunteers for the disabled and/or
disadvantaged. This is something that
would interest me but whilst we are moving around the country it is not
possible. We saw the Loughborough boat full
of people every day we were there; here it is at its moorings.
The bridge
plaques on this river have a nice design and have both the name and number.
The first
lock of the day, Pillings flood lock, which was fully open as water levels are
currently low.
These residential
moorings are in a very pleasant spot coming into Barrow upon Soar.
This is the
road bridge in Barrow…
…and this
sign on the bridge needs updating. It is
not obvious that turning right is forbidden and that Leicester is straight on.
Here we are
at Barrow Deep lock which has the only red painted pawls we have ever seen on
the paddle gear.
Barrow is
apparently famous for the discovery of a plesiosaur skeleton in a lime pit in
1851 and is nicknamed the “Barrow Kipper”.
Karen and Buddy walked for a couple of miles from Barrow and had to cross
the river at Sileby.
This
coniferous garden is the sort that you would see featured in gardening books
but is rather boring as it will look the
same all year round,
During the
day we saw several kingfishers but they are too quick to get decent pictures –
the one at the top of the page was the best Karen could get. After leaving Barrow we came across these
children on modern versions of pedalos.
Mountsorrel
also has some pleasant residential moorings…
…and a
conveyor bridge built in 1860 – you can just make out the date on each side of
the main arch. It was originally a
railway bridge but now carries crushed stone from a local quarry into Barrow on
the conveyor.
There were
gongoozlers galore at Mountsorrel lock.
A mile or so
further on we went through Sileby where our friends John and Sue overwinter on
Nuthatch. This is Sileby lock.
As we are on
the river , moorings are few and far between and tend to be on the canal cuts
built to lock boats past the weirs. This
is the last lock we went through - Cossington lock – where there was one spare
mooring space just above it.
We sat
outside until dusk and this was our view whilst cooking dinner.
Sunday
We were a
little concerned about cruising through Leicester as some areas can be pretty
rough. There are some secure moorings
right in the centre that have been built next to Castle Park with a locked
gated entrance to the moorings from the park.
The same key fits the park gates which are closed early evening – this enables
boaters to go out in the evening if they want to. So the plan for Sunday was to head for the
centre of Leicester. As it was, when we
got to Leicester and strolled around the city it was so much improved from what
I remember from 25 years ago.
Our friends
Stuart and Cheryl who live in a village outside Leicester were going to visit
us this weekend but as we weren’t sure where we would be we have decided to
meet up later in the week somewhere south of Leicester like Foxton.
Karen took
this picture soon after we set off and before I disturbed the water – it was
amazing to get an upside down picture on a flowing river.
As we got
closer to Leicester we had to keep our wits about us for kayaks etc.
This was the
last day of the Hindu festival Ganesh (Ganesh Chaturthi to give it the full
Hindi name). We saw several boats
chartered for the occasion – the celebrants were wearing bright clothes and
making fun music. These locals were
celebrating Ganesh with a barbecue.
I wasn’t sure
which arch to take here or which way led to Leicester but fortunately took the
left hand one.
For those of
us who can remember Wolsey Knitting, this is all that remains of their factory.
The bridges
became more ornate as we neared the city centre…
…and, like
Birmingham, many of the riverside wharves have been converted into apartments.
Here is a
massive new apartment block being built – reminded me of driving from the airport into Kiev in The Ukraine where
nearly every finished block looks like this.
This was
confirmation that we were in the centre.
At the last
lock of the day an Indian businessman started chatting to us. He had just arrived in Leicester to check on
his brother’s business – his brother was in Spain for a while. This guy didn’t have a clue about canals and
thought we lived in the lock. Once we
explained, it was like a new world had opened to him. He lives in London and had never realised,
for example, that boats in Paddington basin could travel to Manchester. He was clearly a clever chap but had never considered the canal systems and how they worked.
We had to double moor at the pontoons in the
centre of Leicester.
We were
moored next to a lovely couple, Jane and John, who live and travel on their
boat. We loved the way they coiled their
centre line on their hatch.
We recalled
seeing their boat, which is an unusual purple, in the middle of Birmingham in
February. We looked through our
photographs and found a shot of them in Cambrian Basin which we emailed to them. After mooring up we had a wander around
Leicester centre which, as I said earlier, was rather a pleasant place. Here are some random street shots.
A lot is
being made of King Richard III and every so often we came across sand
sculptures in commemoration. Here are a
couple – they’re really very good (the sculptures, not the pictures)
We found a proper market place so will visit it tomorrow before we set off on our
travels again.
On the way
back to the boat we went past the cathedral and saw the local version of a
cross-dresser (on the left) talking to people at a function that seemed to be going on.
These are the
six locks we went up today.
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