North again: Day 6

We had the best of the sunshine by starting early today.  With the run into Leicester to do, we wanted to be away in good time, so we’re ready to set off just before 8.  It happened that the boat moored behind us, which had also been behind us at the Crick show, were also just about to set off — so we were able to share the locks.  The first one was just around the corner.

The first three locks all needed filling, but the plus side was that the countryside all around was very pleasant.

We’ve seen plenty of back garden bars, but one in South Wigston has really gone for it with the signs.

At Bush lock we met a boat coming up.  It was one I wrote a boat test on nearly nine years ago, although it’s no longer with its original owner.  As there was a bridge above the lock and not much room, Adrian came into the lock as he went out, so we avoided having three boats all trying to get round each other.

This meant the next few locks were all in our favour, some with at least top gate open.  At one point there was a mill across the fields.

There are lots of water meadows around this area, and there were lots of people out walking in the sunshine.  At King’s Lock the lock cottage is a tea room with rooms.

After King’s Lock, the River Soar is used as the navigation, and parts of it are narrow, twisty, and rather overgrown.  But as you head to Freeman’s Lock, the last one of the day, it really opens out.

The weir next to Freeman’s lock is very wide, and Leicester City’s stadium is on the other side of the river.  The first time we came up here, on a hire boat in 2006, it terrified us!  There were some kayakers who wanted to go down the weir, so as we filled the lock they carried their kayaks over.

The Mile Straight through Leicester comes next, with some interesting bridges.

Our companions, Tina and Duncan on Fyssch & Chipper, were planning on stopping at Castle Gardens  and there was plenty of room on the pontoon there.  We wanted to carry on to Friar’s Mill, because it’s a bit more open.  We were pleased to find plenty of room here too, in fact there’s only one other boat here, a plastic cruiser at the far end.  As we moored up, the wind was incredibly strong, and we had a bit of a battle to get the boat tied up before it was pushed out across the river.  When we’d achieved our aim, it still wasn’t yet 1pm, so we’d made good time.

After lunch, we went for a little top up food shop, and walked through Castle Gardens.  But the conditions haven’t really been good for doing much — very windy at times, with occasional gusty showers.  People on the towpath haven’t known whether to wear t-shirts or coats.  I’ve done some cooking, watching the wind make waves on the water.

8 miles, 12 locks.  (36 miles, 34 locks)

North again: Day 5

It was beautifully sunny first thing, and we set off just after 8 — at which point it almost immediately clouded over for a couple of hours.

I walked ahead to set the first lock.  The house there is having major work done.  We were now back to wide locks.

One of the few things we remembered along this stretch was Bridge House Barn, with all its tipis.  I suspect they had an event last night, as there were quite a few cars in the field.

We were having to set every lock as we went down, and the gates have a habit of swinging open on their own.  Only occasionally did this work to our advantage; it was mostly a pain!  I got back on the boat after the first five locks, as it was then a couple of miles to the next one.  There’s some pretty countryside, and this house, which we weren’t entirely sure about.

At Newton Top Lock there was a boat coming up, doing the Leicester Ring from Yardley Gobion.  From then on the locks were full or fullish.

Bottom Half Mile Lock was not only full, its top gates were open, and it was a similar story at the next, the very pretty Turnover Lock.

Only Bumblebee Lock was empty, and it was a real struggle to get the bottom gates to stay shut so I could fill it.  Fortunately some runners had arrived and I got them to re-close one gate for me.  We got to the moorings at Kirby Bridge at around 12, so it had taken four hours.

This afternoon, I shortened the rope on the new side fenders we bought at Crick, and (having got the idea from Robbie Cumming one one of his Canal Boat Diaries this series) got my kitchen blow torch out to melt the ends.  Then one of Adrian’s former BA colleagues, Gina, who lives nearby, came to see us with her dog, Maisy.

Later we walked up to Wigston to pick up a parcel from a convenience store.  We had an ice cream to eat on the way back as it was now very warm.

5 miles, 12 locks. (28 miles, 22 locks)

North again: Day 4

Remarkably, there were only two boats on the moorings at Foxton Junction last night, us and one other beyond the water points.  That’s in spite of there having been a stream of boats past all afternoon.  This morning, we thought we’d wash the towels so started the machine before we set off.  As the tap was only a few metres away, we topped up the tank again too.  We got under way just before 9.

We haven’t been beyond Foxton since 2016, so quite a lot of this route feels new.  I have done a few boat tests at Debdale Marina, but even that seemed further away from Foxton than I expected.  Just after the marina, the canal is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, and the reeds take up quite a lot of the canal.

I liked the way a tall white House sat up on the ridge of a hill, and then there was a horse enjoying a field of buttercups.

There are occasional breaks in the reeds, and boaters use these for moorings which must be very quiet and secluded.  We crossed the Smeeton Aqueduct and headed for Saddington Tunnel.  It’s not that long, at 881 yards, and is also wide; but it’s the overgrown approach to the tunnel where you’d have more difficulty passing another boat than inside it.

We stopped after Bridge 73, choosing the second of the places marked on the Waterway Routes map as it was more open and sunny.  We’d done less than two hours boating, but that’s the joy of being retired!  We needed something for lunch, so we walked from the bridge across the fields to Fleckney, where there’s a very good Co-op.  The village also has a duck pond, and a village sign which uses the medieval spelling of its name.

This afternoon, I have done more podcast work and tweaked an article I’ve written.  Then we thought we’d try out the tiny drone we bought at Crick, taking it to the field between the canal and the village.  More practice is needed because neither of us could keep the thing airborne for very long, and then during one of my flights it ended up in the reeds on the far side of the canal.  I went over and investigated, and having got the boat pole from the boat, managed to fish it out.  It’s had a dunking but all its lights were still flashing, so we’d let it dry out and see if it still works.

A bit later we spotted two Spitfires going over, and they were followed by a Lancaster.  Adrian found they were on their way to the Midlands Air Festival, so we might well see them come back again.  Not the best photo, because it was getting further and further away — but you can still see the shape.

5 miles, 0 locks.  (23 miles, 10 locks)

Totals since moving on board: 62 days, 319 miles, 238 locks.

North again: Day 3

Another lovely mooring.  Last evening, we were watching a wren (or possibly two) bobbing about in the tree opposite and repeating going to where their nest must be.  This morning, as we were on our own, we got the washing machine going before we set off.  We had only a couple of miles to do before reaching Foxton Locks, and although it was fairly sunny it was also very breezy.  When we got to the locks at around 10am there was no-one waiting, so we had hopes of going straight down.  But on checking in with the lock keeper we found there were three boats about to start up.  We walked down to the shop at Bridge 61 to get some bread, and found that two more boats had been added to the uphill convoy.  It was therefore a wait of about an hour and 40 minutes before we started down.

The whole place was really busy, both with boats and people.  There were two more to follow us down, five more waiting at the bottom, and two more arrived at the top.  Plus there were lots of families on half term, with many of the kids eager to push gates.  It was all good material for a future podcast!

Once we got going, it only took about 40 minutes to get to the bottom.  We’d thought about going down the Market Harborough Arm, but we know a lot of boats that were at Crick were heading that way.  Instead we went through the bridge on the mainline towards Leicester, and stopped on the water point.

We had lunch while the tank filled, and then just pulled back a boat length onto the two day moorings nearest the bridge.  This afternoon I had an appointment at the Inclined Plane Museum, which is only open at the weekends, to do a podcast interview.  The Inclined Plane was a boat lift which replaced the locks briefly from 1900.

The area around Foxton Junction has some of the most confusing mooring signs I’ve ever seen.  How a mooring can be lock only, service only, and one day all at the same time I have no idea.  

3 miles, 10 locks.  (18 miles, 10 locks)

North again: Day 2

The moorings at Mountain Barn Bridge are really quiet, but perhaps because of the rain we didn’t see the bats in the evening like we normally do.  This morning was much sunnier than expected, and we set off at 8.30.  No-one was in the open air hot tub at the glamping place a couple of bridges along.

A couple of bridges further on the A14 tries to impose itself, but it’s only a brief interruption.

There are often rolling fields of crops alongside the canal (a lot of oats, I noticed), but there are also occasional glimpses of far reaching views.  I liked the line of wind turbines in the distance.

At Welford Junction, the canal appears to come to a dead end, but in fact there’s a right turn to Welford or a left to carry on towards Foxton.  We turned left.

A little further on, we thought we should get some diesel with a stop at North Kilworth Wharf.  There was a boat already there having a pump out, so we waited on the towpath side until they’d finished.  While we waited, about four boats went past.

We topped with diesel at a flat rate of £1.10 per litre, which seems to be a 90/10 split. We’d just untied and were pulling away from the wharf when a boat appeared coming past the moored boats, so they probably thought we’d deliberately got out in front of them.  There’s then a long cutting before the Husbands Bosworth Tunnel.

We passed no boats inside, but one was about to enter as we left.  There’s drizzle we’d had on and off for the past half hour of so then turned into something more like proper rain.  When we got to the big corner, the boat who’d had the pump up were just mooring up for lunch, and they appeared to have caught up with Barbarella, who’d gone by while we were waiting.  Being electric propulsion, Barbarella seems to travel quite slowly, and he immediately waved for me to go past.  As I was passing him, he asked me to slow down, which seemed an odd request given that it takes long enough for one narrowboat to pass another at the best of times.  The boat behind us also came past him at the same time.

We moored up just before Bridge 52 with a view of the Laughton Hills.  During the afternoon the sun has come back out again.  Occasionally, huge numbers of cows fill the field opposite, but then all disappear.

This afternoon I have spent quite a long time making the Crick Boat Show episode of my podcast, The Water Road (available on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, and many other platforms).  It was by far the most complicated edit so far and will be out at the end of next week.  Loads of boats have gone past, so we’re a bit concerned that Foxton might be full when we get there tomorrow.  But for the first time in ages, we have a good tv signal!

10 miles, 0 locks.  (15 miles, 0 locks)

North again: Day 1

Boats started going past early this morning, trying to beat the rush away from the Crick Show.  Some were very keen to get in the queue for Watford Locks!  And in fact quite a lot of boats had gone yesterday.  We started to extricate ourselves from our mooring at around 8.15; we had a boat breasted up on the outside of us, a pair in front and one behind, so we weren’t quite sure how we’d get out.  The guy in front was about though, and helped us.  We moved his boat and the one alongside forward into an empty gap, then I knocked on the roof of our neighbour and he came out to help, moving forward and in, so we could go out backwards.  It meant Adrian had to walk round to the water point, which was our first destination.  There we got the washing machine going and started to fill the tank, which we knew would take a while after several days at the show.  We were also waiting for a Tesco delivery, for which we’d used the address of the little marina alongside.  We chatted to various people during the hour or so we were there.  The Tesco delivery was a good 20 minutes late, which was annoying, and a boat was just arriving outside of us when it finally turned up.  All in all, it was about 10.30 when we could properly set off, and it had begun to rain.  The first stretch was slow, because we were passing the remaining boats who’d been visiting the show.

The next stretch was slow because we caught up with one of a pair of boats travelling together.  Even out of gear I seemed to be going faster than she was, and then at a bridge hole she stopped so she could lift a big tyre fender from one side of the boat.  Fortunately she then let us pass; the other boat also stopped a bit further ahead.

We passed the Tidys getting water at Yelvertoft, and then out the other side of the village the canal was blocked by a boat which had come free at the bow.  I pulled alongside another boat on the moorings so Adrian could get off and deal with it.

He had to unzip their pram cover in order to get to their centre line, then pull the boat in, and then get the bow line.  If the stern was anything to go by, they had just dropped pins behind the piling bar and expected them to stay there.  There was no longer a pin at the bow, so Adrian had to put the rope round the bar instead.

Before long we were on our way again, with the rain being persistent but not always that heavy.  We carried on to just after Bridge 27, where we have stopped before.  The first bit of piling was occupied so we’re on the second.  I was wet enough that I had to change a few layers of clothing.  It has rained on and off, but as the after has gone on, it’s been more dry than wet.

5 miles, 0 locks.

Crick Show: Day 4

The final day of the show. We went over to the show site first thing, and I managed to get a good few interviews done for my next podcast. When the show was open, Adrian was once again helping on the Briadbar stand. 

This afternoon the winner of the vote for the Favourite Boat in show was announced, and it was the spectacular Vampirate by Norton Canes. It’s a boat with a vampire and pirate theme, and they have really gone for it. 

Daisy by Braidbar was second (how many seconds have they had over the years?) and Breaking Bad by Ovation Was third.

In the evening, we went out to dinner at The Wheatshef with Andy and Helen.