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 16th 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
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 17th 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
Sunset at Aylestone
No boating today
Mon 18th 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
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 19th 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.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.