Kilby Bridge to Sileby

Fri 15th Apr   Kilby Bridge

Hugo had been active in the night, leaving the remains of a mouse on the floor.

We stayed put as there was a bit of rain around.  Hazel spent some more time putting chords on songs, with the plan to use her tablet instead of sheets of paper when we go to folk clubs or music sessions.

Anabel came to visit us, walking her dog Spike. It was good to catch up with her once again. We missed her last time as we had to rush on through, heading for the Erewash Mission.

No boating today.

Sat 16^th Apr  Kilby Bridge to King’s Lock

Moored at Kilby Bridge

The forecast for today has changed several times. Yesterday it showed sleet in the morning and rain in the afternoon.  This morning it showed a three hour window from 9am.

We moved across the canal to the water point and filled the tank, emptied cassettes and rubbish, and put down the hood.  None of the other boats looked as though they were about to move, so we set off on our own.

After descending in Kilby Lock we tried to close the gates behind us but they wanted to swing open again. Fortunately a man with a dog helped to close one of them, and they stayed shut.

Kilby Lock

At Ervin’s Lock, only one paddle was working out of four originally, on the top gate. It took a long time to fill.

Leaving Whetstone Lane Lock, no 35, James was distracted by a photo opportunity, and the boat had an encounter with some tree branches stretching over the water.  Sadly our flagpole took the brunt of the impact, and snapped at the base.

Whetstone Lane Lock

 Broken flagpole

We met just two boats coming the other way. Thankfully there was no rain, but it was quite cold, with a north wind.  We saw a family of young ducks.

We arrived at the mooring above King’s Lock, and had just tied up when the rain started. James went to check out the cafe, to find out where the music was to take place tomorrow, and it is outside!  The inside is tiny, being a former lock keeper’s cottage.

Heavy rain at Aylestone

8 locks, 5 miles

Sun 17^th Apr  Aylestone

There was a frost this morning, on the medieval strip lynchets opposite. This soon gave way to sunshine.

Frost on the fields

We visited Aylestone Baptist Church for their earlier service at 9am. There is another at 1045, and during coffee between the services there were quite a few people mingling around.  The worship was led by a keyboard player, accompanied by guitar, drums, bass and saxophone.  The songs were up to date, but the acoustics were very echoing.

Aylestone Baptist Church

Worship band practise

Coffee after the service

We went to the Co-op for a few items before returning to the boat.  Anabel arrived and we went to the tea rooms for lunch.  Soup and a roll plus a slice of cake. The place was busy with walkers and locals out for the day.

The music session was planned to start at 3pm, outside. In April this was a little optimistic, but the sun was shining.  The biggest challenge was a football match between Leicester City and West Ham, which kept a few regular musicians away. Leicester is top of the league at the moment and there is a lot of interest locally.

We took our instruments, and were invited to join some people at a table under a gazebo.  There was Malcolm, who had a melodeon, and another guy who played fiddle.  If we hadn’t arrived, I don’t think the music would have started.  We were using Hazel’s tablet computer for the songs, but it was difficult to see the words because of the reflected light. We had to rely on memory mostly.  We ended up singing ten songs.  It was good fun, and probably in July it would be well patronised.

Malcolm

We saw an egret in the field. There was also a large pheasant who had the nickname Dyson, as he waited until everyone had gone and then came to hoover up the crumbs.

Anabel and Spike

 The packhorse bridge near King’s Lock

Sunset at Aylestone

No boating today

Mon 18^th Apr  Aylestone to Leicester

It was mostly cloudy as we travelled down into Leicester today.  Soon after King’s Lock, we paused at Aldi for some provisions.  We noticed that the railings where boats tie up have had a long matting boom placed along the wall, presumably intended to provide some vegetation.

King's Lock

Moorings at Aldi

The first three locks were in our favour, and the final one was against us. We saw two egrets on the large weir by Freeman’s Meadow Lock.

As we cruised down the straight mile, we had planned to pause at the Sainsbury’s local by bridge 1, but we discovered that it has become Tesco Express.

There were three boats on the visitor moorings pontoon, but there was enough space for us.

Newarke Bridge

 Castle Gardens mooring

48H

Awful pun

We walked less than half a mile to a restaurant we had identified. They serve south Indian vegetarian food, and at lunchtime they offer a buffet which was very good value @ £4.95. The food was excellent. As well as the main buffet dishes, they serve freshly made marsala dosa and puri. To finish there was shavige payasa, a sweet dish involving vermicelli, raisins, cashew nuts and coconut milk. Thankfully we arrived early (1215), as later on they were packed out. Shivalli is the name.  We may return in the evening next time for their thali. This place is highly recommended. http://www.shivallirestaurant.com/

We made our way to an Oriental supermarket we had found on Google, and bought some goodies.  Then we visited the city centre Sainsbury’s, particularly for their yeast extract (Hazel) and their maple and pecan crunchy oat cereal (James).

On the way back to the boat we passed the cathedral, and had a coffee in their Christian resources shop next door.  We then visited the adjacent Guildhall Museum as it was there.

Fireplace at the Guildhall Museum

Guildhall interior

Back to the boat where we met a chap who had just bought a burger barge, called Barge Burger. We didn’t eat anything else for a long time.

Barge Burger

4 locks, 3 miles

Tue 19^th Apr  Leicester to Sileby

Early morning by Castle Gardens

Arty image

We were awake early, and we were away by 0840There was an egret by Evans weir. There are a lot around at the moment.

Swan in flight

Friars Mills

Evans Weir

North Lock

Late daffodils

It was a lovely sunny day and except for two boats coming the other way at Belgrave Lock, we saw no other moving boats. 

Belgrave Lock

Ducklings

There was a lot of rubbish in the water, mostly drinks containers – beer cans, water bottles, fruit shoots etc.  It is sad to think that all this will probably end up in the ocean.  We were brought up to take our rubbish home with us.  On the river sections, there had been recent flooding, and rubbish was caught up in the bushes all along the banks. Even in the fields there were bottles and cans lying on the grass.

Rubbish

Despite this we had a lovely cruise, and when we arrived at Birstall Lock, there were two volunteers who locked us through.  We moored up for a while, and James went to the village in search of some hardware items. He returned with some black olives, which we couldn’t find In Leicester.

Birstall Lock

Birstall moorings

We managed to get hold of the boatyard at Sileby, asking them to check out our engine belts, which are making a nasty screeching noise when we first run the engine in the morning. They said they could look in the morning, so we set off once more, through Thurmaston and Cossington. 

Entering Thurmaston Lock

At Junction Lock 47 we had some difficulty with a huge log across the lock gate. James managed to push it to one side.

Heavy log at Junction Lock

We had a good wildlife day, with egrets, swallows, 3 squirrels, the first orange tip butterfly of the season, cormorants, an oyster catcher and a sandpiper.

We have noticed that most of the locks since Foxton have had little bits of knitting attached to the beams. It brightens them up.

Yarn bombing at the locks

We arrived at Sileby Mill and moored within the sound of the weir, which smothered the noise from the nearby A6.

Moored at Sileby Mill

8 locks, 9 miles

Tomorrow we will have our belts looked at, and move on to Loughborough.  Aiming for Nottingham at the weekend.

Yelvertoft to Kilby Bridge

Sun 10^th Apr  Yelvertoft

Sunset previous evening

We had a beautiful sunset last night, and whilst out taking the photo, two little owls flew past and disappeared.  We guessed they had gone into a hollow tree on the other side of the canal.

This morning we walked into the village and visited the shop, which was fairly basic, and the butchers, which was very good. They are open from Wednesday to Sunday, but closed on Monday and Tuesday.  We continued to the Congregational Church next door for the service at 1045.

Congregational Church

We had a good welcome from Jim and Jan, yesterday’s visitors on Gabriel. Jim led the service, and the talk was based on Nehemiah and illustrated that we can still have hope, despite suffering setbacks. Jean, in her late eighties, led the worship on a keyboard.  Barry, the minister, arrived late after leading a service in the local prison. 

Jim announced the plans to organise an evening folk concert in October, plus a canal-based service the next day.  Further discussions took place over coffee after the service.  It was good to see such a small congregation wanting to reach out with the gospel to others in the area.

After the service at Yelvertoft Congregational Church

Chat over coffee

L-R Hazel, Barry, Jim, Jan, Jean

We went for a pub lunch at the Knightley Arms, which had a very basic menu. Somehow it felt that they were doing us a favour by accepting our custom.

When we arrived back at the boat, Large Marge and Maggie May had departed.

The wind increased, and Hugo rushed in a few times because he doesn’t like the noise, or the wind in his fur.

After we went to bed we heard some strange noises a bit like a cat. We had also heard them last night, but we thought it was the tropical bird they have on Large Marge.  Tonight Large Marge was no longer there, so it had to be something else. We concluded that it was the little owls.  The bird book backed up this theory.

No boating today

Mon 11^th Apr  Yelvertoft to Welford Junction

The owl tree

We left Yelvertoft today and went past the owl tree. We paused to fill up with water, and had a loud drive belt whine as went into reverse. James went down into the engine bay to see if he could identify which belt it was, but they all seemed well tensioned. The noise diminished later as the belts warmed up.  Lots of boats were coming towards us. Not many were going our way. At one point we overtook the red boat with a German shepherd dog on board. We first saw him at Watford Locks.

We had some good wildlife sightings, with an excellent view of a chiff chaff, which is a small warbler, usually difficult to see. We also saw a tree creeper, a partridge and some reed buntings.  We noticed the rape was now coming out, making a strong scent in the air.

Rape field

Apart from a brief encounter with the A14 rushing overhead, we were entirely in rural Leicestershire, with fields and spinneys and the occasional farm.

Under the A14

We moored by bridge 39, where we were fortunate enough to spot a golden oriole in 2011. The wind was still quite strong, and we were sheltered here by a hedge, although it restricted our views.

The weather forecast for Friday has changed, and instead of being pleasant, it looks as though it will too wet for boating.  We therefore planned to travel a bit further in the fine weather tomorrow.

We thought we heard a tawny owl in the night.

Our mooring near Bridge 39

0 locks, 7 miles, 1 tunnel

Tue 12^th Apr  Welford Junction to Smeeton Aqueduct

In the morning we spotted an owl box on a pole the other side of the field, so last night’s tawny owl was probably from there.  We set off past some excellent moorings with wide towpaths, and at Welford Junction we turned left on the main line instead of diverting to Welford.

Wide towpaths near Welford Junction

Welford Junction

 Welford Junction signpost

We passed a boatyard at North Kilworth, and considered calling in to find someone to look at our belts, but there was no obvious visitor pontoon, and it all looked very quiet.  The next significant landmark was Husbands Bosworth Tunnel.  This was nothing like as wet as Blisworth – just a few drips.

 Approach to Husbands Bosworth Tunnel

 Husbands Bosworth Tunnel.

Emerging from the tunnel

We saw a green woodpecker, and then were excited to see our first swallows of the season. There were about six of them, circling and wheeling above us.  We passed the picturesque Laughton Hills before reaching Foxton Locks.

Laughton Hills

At the locks Hazel reported to the lock keeper, and discovered that there were three boats ascending the lock flight, and we could go down after the second one had arrived at the top, and we would cross over with the third at the halfway point.  We went to the cafe and had a sausage roll and a sandwich between us. When it was our turn, there seemed to be about four volunteers helping at different times.

Foxton Locks

Entering top lock

Crossover halfway down

When we emerged from the bottom lock, we turned right and tied to the swingbridge bollards in order to empty three cassettes.  The sign said the bollards were for swingbridge use only. Well James was using the swingbridge as he had to walk across it to get to the elsan point!  Meanwhile, a hire boat appeared from the direction of Market Harborough, i.e. their first day.  James opened the swingbridge for them so they didn’t have to tie to the bollards.  They went onto the water point and made a complicated job of a simple task, with four people standing on the gunwale on one side, so the boat tipped alarmingly.

We turned round and set off for a further two miles, mooring at Smeeton Aqueduct.

Moored at Smeeton Aqueduct

15 miles to Leicester

Ship’s cat enjoying the sunshine

Blackthorn

 Reflected sky

Concrete aqueducts are not easy to moor to, except this one has steel rods built in to the concrete, which can take a rope or chains.  What they are actually for we are not sure, but they work well as mooring points.

Mooring points in the concrete

We arrived at about 2pm and no boats passed for the rest of the day. We couldn’t hear traffic or trains. It was very peaceful.  We had noticed some badger setts across the canal and there was a footpath crossing the last bridge just a few yards further back.  James went to find a good place to watch badgers, but discovered that he couldn’t get from the canal towpath to the public footpath on the bridge overhead.  The farmer had gone to a lot of trouble putting up barriers and barbed wire to prevent people getting from one path to the other.  If he had put in a stile or gate it would save him a lot of trouble.

There was nowhere on the canal side from where we could have a good view of the badgers if they emerged, so we abandoned that idea. The blackthorn is coming out more and more in the sunshine, and Hugo was happy with the area, which was full of rabbits.

10 locks, 11 miles

Wed 13^th Apr  Smeeton Aqueduct to Kilby

A beautiful morning greeted us as we prepared to leave.  Still no boats had passed us since we had arrived yesterday afternoon.  Just around the corner was Saddington Tunnel, which was mostly dry.  There are bat boxes in the tunnel, so presumably all the bats are in the boxes, which is why we don’t see them.

Sunny day at Smeeton Aqueduct

Saddington Tunnel

 Sunshine again

Soon after the tunnel, we paused to hang out the washing go shopping at the Co-op in Fleckney.

  

We managed to get a weather forecast, which showed Friday as being very wet.  Thursday was also shown as damp. We decided to go further while the sun shines, rather than do locks in the rain.

As we were having an early lunch, Caspar went past. We have been playing leapfrog with Caspar for the last two or three days.

When we set off, we came to Kibworth Top Lock, which was of course empty and needed to be filled. There was a man from the lock cottage there who was trying to be helpful, and telling us what to do. He said we needed to use the left gate as we left, as we would never get the right gate open.  We planned to do as he said, but when the lock finally emptied, the right gate swung open by itself!

A boat coming the other way said that there were two boats going down in front of us.  Caspar was one, and the other had waited half an hour for a boat to share with.

When we reached Wistow, which had been our planned stop before we saw the weather forecast, we found Caspar and the other boat moored up, so we carried on past.

At Newton Top Lock and Spinney Lock, we found a CRT maintenance crew, clearing vegetation, and checking the paddle gear. It was good to see some regular maintenance being done, instead of just crisis repairs.

Top Half Mile Lock 25

There was a team of contractors at Bottom Half Mile Lock, working on some posts and a willow barrier on the field opposite the towpath.  Their work boat shared the next three locks with us, until we reached our planned mooring between Tythorn and Bumblebee Locks.

Sharing with work boat – Turnover Lock 27

Moored below Tythorn Lock 28

We put out the rest of the washing. Hugo was very happy, rolling on the grass in the sun, and scampering around.  Caspar and the other boat went past.

11 locks, 6 miles, 1 tunnel.

Thu 14^th Apr  Overcast

We had let the fire die out last night as the day had been warm.  We had rain in the night but it was dry in the morning. We used the diesel Webasto heater to warm up the boat and heat the water. Yesterday’s work boat went past, meaning that Bumblebee Lock should be in our favour.

We set off round the corner, and discovered another boater, wanting to come up the lock, had already started emptying it.  He was on his own, so James helped him through. 

Waiting for Bumblebee Lock

When it was our turn we started to move into the lock, and a third boat came into view below. We told them that the boat in front had just left, and if they walked just round the corner they would find him setting the next lock, and they could arrange to share the remaining eleven locks, instead of having them all against them.  They didn’t seem interested.

When we arrived in Kilby Bridge we went first to the facilities block to get rid of some rubbish, before choosing a mooring on the empty row of bollards.  We have never been the only boat here before.  Caspar was on the water point, so presumably he and the other two boats from this morning had all been there last night.

Caspar at the facilities block

Hazel went to find out about buses, as Google Earth did not show a bus stop at Kilby Bridge, although it was clear that route 49B went past on the way to Leicester.  We were told to flag it down by the ‘phone box.

We decided to make the trip today, and we were soon on a large double decker going round some housing estates.  Thankfully some locals told us where to get off (in the nicest possible terms) and where to board the bus again on our return. 

We followed signs to the tourist office, as we needed a map of the city. The signs ran out, and we couldn’t see the tourist office, so we went instead to a large Methodist Church where they were advertising teas and coffees. What a lovely oasis this was in the midst of all the bustle of Leicester.  It was one of the first Methodist Churches in the country, being built in 1815.

As we came out refreshed, we spotted a red i on a white square background, so went over and discovered the place was empty.  You would have thought a Tourist Information office would have given some information about where they had moved to!  The clue is surely in the name!  We saw a sign to a library, and went and found someone there who directed us to the new information building just round a corner out of sight.

We obtained a map and a bus route guide, wandered through the market and found a noodle bar for lunch – excellent! Called Chinese Snack Box, in the High Street.

Leicester Market

We did some other sightseeing, finding the medieval Guildhall, and Richard III’s tomb in the Cathedral.  We also visited the Jewry Wall Museum with the remains of the Roman baths before catching the bus back.

Guildhall

Roman wall 

Leicester Prison from the top of a double decker bus

Moored at Kilby Bridge

1 lock, 1 mile

As there is quite enough in this blog, I am ending it here instead of Saturday.

Tomorrow (Friday) we plan to stay put.  Cousin Anabel may come to visit us.  On Saturday we need to move on down to Aylestone, so that we can go to the Baptist Church there, and take part in a music session in Kings Lock Tea Rooms. Anabel hopes to join us. By next Sunday we should be in Nottingham, attending the Trent Vineyard Church