Monday 29th September
Bumblebee Lock to High Bridge 79, Newton Harcourt
We set off early, and the first four locks were empty in our
favour, but the final two were full. A
lovely morning with a slight mist in the air.
A good view of a buzzard sitting in a field.
Early morning cruise
Top Half Mile Lock
We moored on piling just after High Bridge, with a good view
of the valley, and sunshine to dry our washing.
Lots of dog walking going on. One was a German Shepherd who
was interested in Hugo. The owner told
us that Newton Harcourt manor house by the church was up for sale, and they
were going to build houses behind it.
He then walked on, and an elderly lady came into view a minute of two
behind him, saying: “I don’t know why I go along with him on these walks!”
Hazel put out the washing to dry. A rain shower started. Hazel took the washing in again. The rain
stopped. IS THIS A TEST?
We walked along a bit of towpath, over bridge 78, across two
fields and along a road to Wistow Garden Centre, which includes a few craft
shops, a farm shop, a pet accessories shop, a tea room and a model
village. We looked at the model
village, which is a little tired, and bought a frappe and an ice cream, before
walking back another way.
Model Village at
Wistow
This route took us up a lane, and over a new bridge, and
past the manor house (not very old) where they are building new homes in the
grounds. We guess that the new bridge was to allow works access to the
site.
We visited the church of Newton Harcourt, and signed the
visitor’s book. Very dark and not often used.
Back over bridge 80 and along the towpath. James spotted a bank vole running along a horizontal branch in
the hedge.
Back at our boat we found another boat moored in front: Skylark.
Two buzzards in a tree nearby. This seems to have been the
year of the buzzard. We have never seen so many.
6 locks, 2 miles, 1 live bank vole in hedge, 1hr45
Tuesday 30th September
Newton Harcourt to Smeeton Westerby
Apart from one or two trains, this was a peaceful
mooring. We set off at a leisurely time
after consuming some Aldi croissants. Skylark
had not moved.
Rural views near
Wistow
Crane’s Lock
Crane’s Lock and Pywell’s Locks were both in our favour, but
19 and 20 Kibworth Locks were full and needed to be emptied. Kibworth Top Lock had a boat in it coming
down, so we went in after it had left..
We paused for lunch after bridge 74, and phoned the Old
Crown in Fleckney to check that the music session was happening tomorrow (first
Wednesday of the month). It wasn’t – my information was old. We scooped up Hugo, who was enjoying life on
the towpath, and moved on to the moorings for Fleckney at bridge 73. Skylark
arrived soon after. We walked across a medieval field with undulating bumps and
made our way to the Co-op for some essentials.
We moved on through Saddington Tunnel, which has bats, but
all we could see were bat boxes on the walls.
Saddington Tunnel
Lots of good moorings after this – one local boat had
reversed in the feeder from the reservoir.
We found a place with a good view of Smeeton Hill.
It was a lovely evening and we sat out on deckchairs on the
grass. Not bad for the last day of September!
5 locks, 4 miles, 2hr35
Wednesday 1st October
Smeeton Westerby
A sunny morning after a breezy night. We had a lovely cooked breakfast with
Anabel’s bantam eggs.
Djinni is a smart boat we have seen moored
occasionally. Today they went past
fairly early, and if we hadn’t seen them we would not have known. They hardly put out any wash, and the engine
was very quiet.
Skylark went past around midday.
James adjusted the setting on the thermostat on the
immersion heater. We’ll try in it a few days to see if it works.
Caught up with blogs.
No boating today
Thursday 2nd October
Smeeton Westerby to Market Harborough
A lovely sunny day. Our first stop was the water tap just
before Foxton Locks. There are three here, and the pressure is good. We thought there might be boats waiting for
it at Market Harborough.
Foxton Junction
There were no boats using Foxton Locks as we passed. There is a small manual pedestrian
swingbridge at the entrance to the Market Harborough arm. The instructions say
to insert your key and turn it, but it wouldn’t turn. There is also a handle to lift to release a catch and it is all
very fiddly. The bridge swung without
difficulty, and when James swung it back it would not catch in the mechanism,
which is probably why the key would not turn originally. He left it as he found
it.
A little further on there is a road swingbridge. It has
barriers which can’t be released until the key is turned. The bridge can’t be
swung (manually) until the barriers are across. It is all complicated due to
health and safety.
Foxton Swingbridge
We passed Djinni, and asked them whether they had an
enclosed insulated engine, but they said they just had a hospital silencer and
trad stern. We cruised slowly along,
making notes of possible moorings, and looking at the fish, as the water was
clear. At one place we found the head of a child’s fishing net entangled in a
bramble, so we cut it away to use the material as bait bags for the crayfish
traps. While we were doing that, we
spotted a bullfinch in a nearby bush.
We haven’t seen one for several years, so it was very exciting. We used to see them quite often years ago.
On arrival in the basin at Market Harborough, we headed for
the facilities, where a Canal Club boat was moored in the middle of the
moorings, and they were washing the boat with a hose. We managed to reverse into a spot round the corner where we could
tie on with the stern line and the centre line, with the bows sticking out
across the bows of the hire boat. “You
realise you’ve blocked us in?” said one of the two Canal Club staff. The boat
had nothing behind it, so was definitely not blocked in.
“We only have two more boats to do, and then it’s all yours”
the other one said. We only wanted to
empty our cassettes and dispose of our rubbish. Thankfully we didn’t need water
as we had filled up earlier. This is a
C&RT facility, but the hire boat base seem to think it is for their
exclusive use.
Market Harborough
basin
We left the basin and moored on the visitor moorings, two
boats in front of Skylark.
We went shopping in Market Harborough. They have a Lidl, Aldi, Waitrose,
Sainsbury’s and a small Tesco. We
pottered round the market, and some of the other shops, had a latte on the
square, and took a taxi back with our trolley full of provisions.
A very warm night.
This is supposed to be October!
0 locks, 8 miles, 2 swing bridges
Friday 3rd October
Market Harborough to Foxton Step Bridge
We needed to leave and come back again, because these are 48
hour moorings and we want to be back here on Sunday for church.
We wanted to get some more milk so James went to the local
newsagents and convenience store across the main road. It had “closed” on the
door; a little odd at 10am on a Friday.
Closer inspection revealed that the shelves were empty. Closed DOWN
would have been a better phrase.
He wandered over towards the Canal Club office to see if
they sold milk. Before he got there a lady approached and asked him if he was
from Gabriel. It turned out that
she was from Silent Lights, the company from which our angel lights came, and
had remembered that we had entered an illuminated procession with them. She had just had a week on a hire boat. With not enough space for them on the boat,
the lights are now at Weybridge Methodist Church, where, hopefully, they might
be erected this December for the public to see as they pass by.
The man in the Canal Club office said they didn’t sell milk,
and then a voice piped up from the doorway “But we have some!” The Silent Lights lady gave us a half full 4
pint bottle, straight from the hire boat fridge. The Lord provides.
It was a pleasant day for boating, although there was a fair
breeze. We wanted to go out into the
countryside for one night, to sit out the rain forecast for tomorrow, and
cruise back in the forecast sunshine in late afternoon.
Woodland just outside
Market Harborough
We cruised 3 ½ miles to a winding hole, where we turned
round and reversed a further half mile through two bridges to a mooring by
Foxton Step Bridge. Thankfully no boats
came along while we were making our manoeuvre.
The bow thruster really helps to keep the boat going straight. Just after we had moored up, three boats
came past.
Enjoying the wildlife
We finally managed to put our canal map into the frame we
had bought, and we hung it with sticky Velcro-style fixings. The plan is that we can take down the whole
frame to show people canal routes, and put it back up again.
Hugo seemed very happy with the place, and to demonstrate
this, he brought us a live field mouse, which James had to return to the wild.
We noticed a sign which said 6.43kph. Presumably this is the equivalent of 4mph,
but as boats don’t generally have speedometers, two decimal places is little
excessive in the accuracy department. Who has wasted money on such a futile
sign?
6.43 out of 100 for
intelligence
Evening near Foxton
Step Bridge
Reflections at dusk
0 locks, 4 miles, 1 mouse, 1hr35
Saturday 4th October
Foxton Step Bridge to Market Harborough
The rain came in the morning as forecast, and then stopped
at about 3pm, so we set off back towards Market Harborough, and very soon we
had blue sky and sunshine.
We passed the only sight of industry in the area – JG Pears.
Apparently they try to find uses for animal carcasses, and bathe the neighbours
in sweet aromas on warm summer evenings.
JG Pears factory
We moored on the visitor mooring bollards and as we were
finishing off with the ropes, a couple came past, with two dogs and a cat. They had all been for a walk along the
towpath.
James suggested we went to the Mexican restaurant we had
spotted in town. Hazel said it was too
far, so instead we had fajitas for dinner on board.
There are water taps on the visitor moorings, so we filled
up later on, in the dark, without moving the boat.
0 locks, 4 miles, 2 mice, 1hr20
Sunday 5th October
Market Harborough to Foxton Locks
After a peaceful night we had glorious sunshine and a slight
mist in the morning.
Early morning at
Market Harborough
We took our shopping trolley and walked into Market
Harborough and found the Baptist Church, where we had a warm welcome. We were half expecting to see Jeff and
Margaret Bonser, one-time BCF members who have since sold their boat. Sadly they were away in Dublin this weekend.
Market Harborough
Baptist Church
The worship was led by a very good keyboard player,
accompanied by a guitarist and a drummer.
There was no-one leading the singing, but the congregation were in good
voice. The message was about self-control,
well delivered by Nick, the pastor.
After the service, coffee and biscuits were served upstairs, where there
are several large rooms – a good facility.
We popped into the Co-op to buy a few things before catching
the bus back to the basin. We used the
facilities before setting off for Foxton.
It was a lovely sunny day as we cruised this now familiar
stretch. At the first swing bridge,
there was day boat approaching from the other direction. James opened the bridge, Hazel took Gabriel
through, and the day boat came through slowly. The traffic was building up
either side, and James swung the bridge back again after the day boat. After replacing the road barriers and
removing his key, he saw a hire boat just stopping on the bridge bollards. Bad
timing!
After the second swing bridge, where we had several young
children watching our progress, we were hoping to visit Foxton Boat Services,
possibly for fuel, depending on price, but also for toilet blue, and coal. The
place we thought was the boatyard seemed to have become a gastro pub with a
large open air seating area where things like fuel pontoons used to be. The other side of the locks entrance was a
café and a shop.
We went to tie up on the lock bollards to discover that this
was reserved for a trip boat! Where
were we meant to queue for the locks? The notice said queue other side. Other
side of the notice? Other side of the canal?
Just then the trip boat returned, and there was lot of gesticulating for
us to get out of the way. We realised
then that the notice was for people to queue for the trip boat, not for boats
to queue for the locks. We pulled back
to some bollards on a bend, so our stern was sticking out into the bridge
hole. While Hazel went to find the lock
keeper, James spoke to the man on the trip boat and expressed his surprise that
trip boats were allowed to use the lock bollards. “We’re not blocking anyone,” he said. “You can take your boat
straight in.” “Not without stopping
first to report to the lock-keeper and open the gates!” James replied. Apparently they have been operating like
this for 55 years.
At that point Hazel returned to say that we could go into
the locks. Hazel took the tiller, while
James cast off the ropes, despite being told by the trip boat man that we
should not untie until the gates were open.
James emptied the first lock and Hazel took Gabriel in. Very soon we had a crowd of people round the
boat as it was a hot Sunday afternoon.
The locks have side pounds, and there are two types of paddles. The red ones empty the water from the side
pound in to the lock. The white ones
empty the water from the lock above in to the side pound. We have to open the red ones first to stop
the side pounds getting too full and overflowing, wasting the water.
Plenty of people to
talk to
Extra crew
We had a team of small children pushing and shoving on the
lock beams with great excitement. The
lock keeper was a CRT volunteer, who mostly just monitored what was going on,
except at the gap between the two flights of locks, when he went ahead and set
the lock for us.
At the top, we stopped at the first available mooring after
the water points and the disabled space.
At about 7pm we took our instruments, drinks and torches,
and wandered down to the museum. We found two people there already, with
concertina and melodeon at the ready. A
few more turned up, and there were thirteen altogether in the end, two of whom
were spectators and raffle organisers.
It was all good fun, with each taking a song or tune in turn. We sang: Long Way Down; Well, Well, Well;
Low Bridge (Erie Canal); and Dorset Juggernaut. There was more enthusiasm than talent, but they were a friendly
bunch and it was worth going.
Night in the museum
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