Out of Leicester, then, now on the river Saor. We joined it in the middle of Leicester and with it came weirs and lovely bridges. We also had the wind so strongly all day. The open river shots show the trees bent sideways and the choppy water. Yes, the river has current and this makes a moving surface compared to the stillness of the canal network. But this choppiness is not just the river. The wind was incredible.
We finally moored up north of Leicester in Birstal next to a granite stone wall. And looking for a mooring reminded us of our journey on the Avon a few years ago, moving on to it from the Kennet and Avon Canal, where it was so hard to find a mooring that we eventually tied to a tree!! Mooring up on canals is generally easy. The edges are largely managed (though bits of the Oxford canal would argue!) and it is usually easy to find a spot to either put our mooring chains on the steel edge, or hammer our pins in a bank. But the river is a very different beast. There are set mooring areas with edges like the one we found or there is open river with traditional river banks, sliding down like small beaches to the water's edge or edges filled up with reeds. Mooring on open river is not an option, so we have to find a prepared edge where there is room. Not always easy. Even in Birstal, we sat on rocks, listing to one side.
