Barrow upon Soar is still lovely

We're still here and its still lovely.  The river mooring is gentle in a different way than the canal, mostly with the clear water.  As we have posted in the past, canal water is largely still water held between locks and only refreshed by rain.  River water flows from source to sea, refreshed by rain and cleaned by its movement.  That means that when we look in the water in this mooring, we see reeds, fishes and depths.  The plant detritus flows by.  When we look in the canal water, we see mostly brown opaque water, fishes only just beneath the surface and the detritus seems to hang about.  With the flowing water comes a freshness of air and a sense of being connected to further climes.  We love the canal for so many reasons, but it is a refreshing change to have river for a while.  The downsides of course are the potential for flooding, the difficulty in finding mooring places and the unknown water bed.  But it's nice for a while!  We anticipate being here another day or so, then traveling on to catch the Trent.

Barrow upon Soar for September 4

We set out from Birstal just after lunch after trying again to work with bad communications. We then tried to moor first at Cassington, then at Silby, then at Mountsorrel. River moorings are hard to come by. But we finally found a lovely spot just up from the BW services point at Barrow upon Soar on Friday the 4th. Pete took three trains to get to Rugby on Saturday the 5th and we are now reconnected with Reg. A trip into Rugby on the Monday meant that Pete got his replacement SIM. And we're on mega FAT band connectivity. Things are already feeling better!

Out of Leicester an on to Birstal

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.

Through Leicester and aground in a lock

We often receive feedback from our blog telling us how idylic our life and the landscape looks. Regular readers will note the slight change in tone in the last few posts. Our frustration with lack of communications and awful weather have put a slight damper on our usual enthusiasm. And our journey through Leicester shows that not all the scenery is lovely. We have shown scenes from Birmingham and from Atherstone which were not quite so nice, and have certainly not always seen beauty. We thought we would film much of the Leicester journey to give other views of what we see.

The journey began at 9:30, pulling away from Kilby Bridge into Kilby lock. After a gentle drop to the next pound, Bella was aground - IN the lock. The lower pound was so low, almost 2 feet below normal, that we were just stuck. Elizabeth was at the tiller, so Pete went to open the top gate paddles again while the lower gates were open to give a rush of water to get Bella afloat and out of the lock. This worked, yet Bella was again aground just out of the lock. The wind was fierce, so every time Pete tried to close the gates again to fill the lock again, they swung open. He finally got a rope from Bella, tied the gates closed, then filled the lock again to bring more water to the lower pound. We were joined by Lindisfarne, a single hander, who allowed the lock to be filled one more time to bring more water down. Finally both made their way to the next lock with great stuggle through the shallows. With both boats next to each other immediately at the top gates of the next lock, Pete and Mr Lindisfarne then filled the next lock so both boats could go in together. After that, all was well.

We moored up in the middle of Leicester around 3pm to do some essential food shopping to find that we were right next to a Sainsbury's Local. Not ideal, but food! Yet look at where we are moored. The middle of the day, still the boating season and not one other boat moored up. We use this an an indicator for choosing moorings. Are other boats there? If not, why not? Having earlier thought we might moor up in the middle of Leicester for the night, we noted the lack of moored boats, the lack of evidence of moored boats (no exhaust smoke on the mooring edges, unworn though dirty meaning long standing but unused painted bollards, unworn therefore unwalked on grass) and decided to keep going.

September takes us to Leicester and makes us realise we need Reg

At the end of the long day with horses, we ended up at Kilby Bridge, south Leicester. Oddly enough, it was very remote. Reg had gone back to Rugby, taken back the morning when we left Welford. We realised at Kilby Bridge just how much we needed a car! The nearest small shop was a half and hour away, the nearest buses run infrequently and only on weekdays and we ended up taking a taxi to Leicester centre. We resolved to collect Reg again at the next opportunity. Elizabeth is a slight nerd with regards to train stations and just happened to own a Rail Atlas. This, next to the map of Inland Waterways, showed us that there are enough stations well placed around the Leicester Ring to be able to car hop again.

We stopped at Kilby Bridge a few days, moored up opposite a BW yard. Not good communications again... Pete took a train to Sheffield from Leicester station, Elizabeth and Levi did laundry as she tried to work and we both tried not to be frustrated by lack of communications. The weather remained dreary, hence Levi pictured under his brollies.

Foxton to Kilby Bridge 30 August

What a day. Wind, rain, shallow pounds, locks and more locks. We set out nearly 11am and thankfully were joined soon by Merlin and her crew of mum, dad, two children and a lovely Sheep dog. That meant there were teams for each of the now double width locks. The Foxton and Watford flights are single locks and with all the other locks on the Grand being double, the Foxton and Watford flights were always a difficulty in the old working boat days. That is why the Foxton inclined plane was built to try and carry more boats more quickly. So having had lovely single locks in those flights, it was a shock to have doubles again! We had quite forgotten that this would be the case. And they occurred not in spurts of say, 5 or 10 (or 20) right next to each other and then lovely miles of open pound, but the 12 locks were spaced at 1/2 to 3/4 mile intervals over 10 miles. So there was never 'time off', just what felt like relentless hard work.

A fun moment in the midst of the day, we had quite a visitor at one of the locks. Two horses graze on the grass at the lock. One of them decided that our garden looked very interesting and came for a smell, starting with the herb shrubs on deck and moving to the roof. Elizabeth, at the tiller, held the camera and Pete watched on from the lock arm. What a surprising visit!!

From Theddingworth through to Foxton - August 28 & 29

After we left Welford on the morning of the 28th, we moored up west of Theddingworth, having travelled through much more very shallow canal. It was very hard steering again and the wind was strong with the temperature dropping. By the time we moored, Pete was getting ready to light the stove. The 28th of August, late summer Bank Holiday weekend, saw us lighting Squirrel to get warm (!!!).

We waited nearly two hours in the queue for Foxton locks, but this is not unusual! A few bacon butties from the top lock cafe, a little shopping in the bottom lock chandlery and much knitting made the time go. Sadly Pete managed to lose his phone into the canal, but there we are. By the time we write this, he's already got his new SIM and a new phone. How easy these days!! At the end of the day, we took Josie for a walk to the pub at the bottom lock and we all had a lovely Bank Holiday evening.