The Leicester ring

Wind, sun and rain, is what we expect of our summers.
That is exactly what we experienced on our trip around the Leicester ring.
If anyone knows me they will also know that I do not like rivers!
So when we arrived at Fradley locks and waved to some people we know at the Swan they shouted out, “you are not going on the river are you?”
So it was with some anxiety we eventually arrived at Sawley and Trent lock.
As you know this spring has almost broken all records for lack of rain, my logic said, the river would be as low and safe as it could possibly be.
First to work out how this large automated lock worked, lots of buttons and no instructions that I could see, so what do you do, well you let your son do it !
Out onto the wide expanse of the river, the wind blowing and the waves coming towards us almost caused “white horses” I just hope we get to the narrow part soon!
Every change in the sound of the engine was imagined to be a problem and I mentally rehearsed the deploying of the anchor. My crew thought it a hoot and played on my concerns constantly.
After travelling for a while I realised that it was no further to the edge of the river than I could comfortably swim and so I relaxed and began to enjoy the lovely scenery.
The small GRP cruisers whizzed past us and with the entrances to the Erewash and Cranfleet past, we were entering the narrower River Soar. The Radcliffe power station was getting closer and memories of the IWA show held there were discussed between us but hang on we have reached the first lock, someone coming out that’s handy.
The River Soar passes through some wonderful scenery and we looked enviously at the houses on the bank, “who can afford a house like that?” was often intoned.
Well we need to moor up for the night so where?
After negotiating Kegworth Deep Lock, we entered a sheltered, narrow area of river. Well this looks a nice spot and we duly moored up, it was an interesting mooring, very quiet, we thought until we found ourselves becoming friends with Ryan air pilots on their descent to East Midlands airport. In the morning the wind was worse as we struggled to enter Zouch Lock, accomplished with the aid of some other boaters, when we became welded to the side of the lock moorings due to the wind.
On route we teamed up with “Spider” and her crew and who we followed into Loughborough basin, we were awaiting extra crew, our nephew, to provide the extra muscle power to help us through the locks up into Leicester and beyond.
If you have been to the Loughborough basin, which is perfect for topping up of your shopping requirements, you will know that the designer was probably not a boater.
To place the water point above cabin height and behind railings is not maybe the best position for most boaters. Well extra crew on board and off we go along a mixture of river and canal and passing through such a wonderfully beautiful areas.
At Cossington Lock we met up with Amethyst and joined them in the ascent into Leicester.

At Belgrave Lock, with its reminder of its city location provided us with plastic bottles and rubbish as a companions in the locks. Lime Kiln lock produced a Sari around the prop. but after North Lock the canal improved and the rubbish lessened and by the time we left our friends on Amethyst at Castle moorings, the city scenery began to give way to a greener environment. Freeman’s Lock weir was very impressive with its long curved aspect with swans standing on the precipice, totally fearlessly perched. By the time we arrived at Kings lock  it had start to rain so we decided to moor up until it passed, half an hour and  a cup of tea later we set off again. Reaching Double Rail Lock, in the early evening, where we found the pound had been partially drained, with only the very centre of the canal navigable with care and low revs. At Kilby Bridge we ended the day and tomorrow we would say good bye to our nephew who would cycle back to Loughborough.
The next day we had  a lovely rural cruise to Foxton Locks and back to narrow locks, the comment was “I can do these one handed!” Now it was time to say goodbye to our son who had left a car at North Kilworth Wharf. Pumped out and fill up with diesel, we set off for Crick.
Crick boat show was our destination and after a lovely cruise we moored up alongside of Otter and several other boats all of whom made us very welcome.
On Saturday evening, a football match pending and no TV Signal, Oh dear what could we do?
The boat in front had satellite and the camaraderie of boating came to the fore and they kindly said that our new crew could watch their TV, although they themselves did not want to watch the game. In the morning I gratefully thanked them for their sacrifice and how lovely and quiet our boat had been.
After the show closed on Monday it was raining and moving did not seem very appealing, so we decided an early start would be best.  By 5.30 am we were up and by 6.30 ready to go, we slipped our moorings and drifted away from Otter and then started our engine, arriving at Watford locks by 7.30, 5 days with no water and our boat was very thirsty so we filledher up and we were ready to go  again and start our long cruise back to Bromley Wharf. Braunston, as ever, was very busy and at some points chaotic but soon we were travelling down the north Oxford and towards Hillmorton Locks. There were lots of boaters due to half term hoildays but withto the duplicate locks we went straight through and plodded on to Ansty where we moored for the night.
We were making very good progress, until we arrived at the Atherstone flight.With 6 boats in the queue and it took us 3 hours to negotiate the 11 locks. Arriving at Alvecote at 7.30 we decided to moor up for the night. By 7am we had set off on our final leg of the journey back to Bromley Wharf.
The Leicester Ring was a wonder mix of rural, urban, river and canal, with rain, sun and strong winds but did we enjoy it? Very much so and with two strong lock winders aboard it was a wonderful trip.

If you have undertaken a journey that you would like to write up and place on the blog, please send it to linda@ownasharecruising.co.uk