Friday 24th Feb 2006

After much discussion, barometer tapping and seaweed feeling we departed Raynsway in light snow, bitter cold wind but with the promise of improving weather later in the day.
It wasn’t easy cutting our ties to Raynsway, we’d been made very welcome by Dave the marina manager who couldn’t have done more to make us feel at home.

We intend to return, for sure.

Our journey took us south, helped in part by a north easterly wind, into Leicester’s fascinating industrial heritage.

Birstall Lock was our first stop. Couldn’t help checking to see if the underpants were still there. Good news, someone has been back for them, I thought they looked too good to throw away and I’m glad they’ve been recovered. Who knows, maybe this Blog helped reunite pants with owner.

The Watermeadows present a beautiful backdrop to the River Soar at this point, assisted during the winter months by the attractive reds found in car aerosols.

I only wish they’d date their work while they’re at it.

Leicester’s Space Centre is very close to Belgrave Lock and looks like it might be interesting but there’s nothing suggesting we can reach it by canal. Someone needs to look at this from a tourist viewpoint.

We were pleased to see the pound between Limekiln and North Lock is almost back to normal water level. Pity about the sulphurous smelling orange liquid entering the canal just downstream of Limekiln.

Now we have two bad memories of the area.

You know when you’re in Leicester,
(1) the factories are interesting,

(2) redevelopment is unceasing

(3) and the bridges are beautiful.

It was tempting to stop at Castle Gardens, the visitor’s moorings, in the centre of Leicester but we chose to continue on this occasion. Very handy for restaurants, department stores and all year market at the Shires.

The moorings looked inviting and secure behind an iron fence. (guaranteed unclimbable by students under the age of 5) and should be safe at night providing your boat is invisible.

Soar Point – just asking for graffiti, but didn’t stop.

Lunched at Mile Straight on the south west edge of the city centre where we exchanged river level news with nb. Encore heading towards the Watermeadows,

hotly pursued by a police helicopter (coincidence I’m sure).

Just getting into this Leicester cruise and admiring the change of scenery near the Walker Stadium when we were ambushed by person(s) unknown who fired something big enough to scare the pants off us.
If this had been at Birstall I could have understood the lost item of clothing. But this was away from built up areas and, judging by the depth of the gouge in the cabin side and lack of a gunshot, it was most likely a cross-bow bolt. The groove cut in the cabin wall and surrounding paint work damage points to nothing less.

Did we report it? Yes we did.
Will this put us off Leicester? No it won’t.
Are we looking for bullet-proof vests? Yes we are.

There were no other reports of cross-bow attacks between 2 pm and 10pm that day, according to the local constabulary, just a firearms incident which may explain the presence of the helicopter that afternoon. Most reassuring.

For those interested, this all happened while passing the Twelve Arches Bridge, between Freemen’s Lock (41) and St. Mary’s Mill Lock (40) on a Friday afternoon (3pm) a week after half-term.

The canal scenery in the south of Leicester has its contrasts.
Small factory units,

gas storage tanks

and beautiful end of garden moorings

all within yards of each other.

Moored for the night at our usual spot – Kings Lock. We are looking forward to Easter and the resumption of refreshments here at the weekends. Time it right and this could also be a water point says Tony.
You are guaranteed a friendlier towpath walker in these parts and the occasional dog scrap for amusement. Sorry, the camera wasn’t to hand when I needed it.

Saturday 25th

After a late start for paintwork repairs we continued south, admiring the way Gees Lock remains standing with all its bricks removed. Didn’t dare throw a rope over this bollard for fear of pulling it down onto the boat.

There’s plenty of evidence in these parts that BW have progressed with their canal veg cutting promises. Pity the trees aren’t more substantial, the shrub trimmings have all gone through the shredder.

Found BW’s boat at the southern end of its travels, looks like the pair of boats we saw leaving the marina last week.

And so we called it a day. An eventful journey, not quite as smooth as we would have liked but there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the canal, it’s clean, it’s quiet and a great deal of it passes through open countryside along the Soar Valley. The crumbly bits in town are equally quiet – the remains of knitwear and shoe making businesses of previous centuries.
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While lock repairs progress around us we are reduced to cruising the Grand Union, Leicester Line between Birstall and Cossington. This period of relative inactivity has given us time to monitor battery drain, measure our water tank capacity and complete the builder’s final touches (the snagging list – special thanks to Sandhills, M&G).

While the weather changes every day there has been no repetition of the ice and snow that we experienced in January as we branched towards Leicester from the Grand Union main line. True, the storms forecast in these parts after the freezing weather across the Atlantic were a concern but nothing, apart from a couple of heavy downpours at night, disturbed the calm.
Weekends have seen visitors (T&C from around these parts, followed by John and Jean from Southampton) and the excitement of negotiating the only working lock for miles around and refreshment at the Hope & Anchor with its Hungry Horse meals.

In company with T&C we partnered the two ends of the boat, T working the tiller while I operated the engine controls. This gave added interest when entering and leaving the lock because one had to guess the intentions of the other. Scratches were noted for a later paint party.
Girls sat in the pointy end and did locks. This is only natural as it’s not as technical as men’s work and doesn’t interfere with solid conversation.
Further on down, the upper reaches of the River Wreake looked inviting but a well placed footbridge meant we could only wind and return the way we came.

With J+J it was a little different. Same lock, same Hungry Horse but the place was packed and we resorted to taking our plates to the boat where we ate in style with “free” wine.
As you can imagine, Balmaha’s dinette struggled with four huge HH plates and it was a relief not to have to wash up. Judging by the extensive moorings this is a popular place in the summer but on this day it was just us and a BW boat loaded with old lock gates. Too big for our stove I’m sorry to say.

Passed nb.Ardea near MGM’s boat yard (ex Nimbus Narrowboats).The owners had been kind enough to show us around when we were looking for a boatyard to build Balmaha. Nimbus came highly recommended and took second place on our favourites list 20 months ago.

Having married a teacher I recognised the activity of a young couple, with a primary school child, photographing a Teddy Bear at the lock. I discovered that Teddy had been around the world with parents and teachers and there was very little he hadn’t done but he’d never been on a narrowboat. Well he has now and when he returns to school after half term his album will be the richer for having sat on Balmaha’s bows.
An unavoidable encounter with a group of bored pre-teens on the way back through the lock gave us some tension but trouble was avoided by channelling their energies into lock gate closing.
The challenge of a race along the tow path gave us space to leap aboard and disappear out of sight.

Funny how you always think of solutions to problems an hour or two after the event. Perhaps we’d let them down by not taking an interest in their world. Vowed to give them a jolly good listening to next time we meet.

We were privileged to see BW going about their business with the tree shredder and butty, keeping their “Veg Pledge” along the Leicester Line.

The morning of 14th February saw Mike and Pat (nb.Hyperion) visit us on their way back home from a shopping trip.

They were kind enough to bring us shelves from IKEA and cold germs from Stockton (get well Mike),

We certainly enjoyed our time with them, sharing a light lunch over an exchange of views on solid fuel stoves, LED lights and of course the ups and downs of narrowboat loos.

We took the decision early on to fit LED lamp clusters wherever possible, using parts from Midland Chandlers for general lighting and LED light strips from IKEA for under cupboard lighting. Compare 30mA for a ceiling light with 800mA for a 10W conventional lamp.

We may not see Mike and Pat before the summer season since we are heading different ways in preparation for the May holiday (us to Brookwood on the Basingstoke Canal, them to Crick) If you spot Hyperion buy them a drink, get yourself invited back to their boat, enjoy excellent hospitality and of course use their loo. They’ll love you for it.

Our marina “holiday” will soon be over. Repairs to Birstall Lock are complete and we feel the urge to travel south. Despite official assurances that Leicester is a much safer place than it used to be, we have succumbed to popular advice not to travel through Leicester on Saturdays and Sundays. This decision was reinforced by the news that a lone boater encountered serious bother at Belgrave Lock last November. This will be our second lock going south.

Recent rains had noticeably raised river levels so a visit to Birstall Lock was in order to check the coloured marker post.

Well outside the green band and fast approaching the red “danger” level we were minded to watch the weather forecast before setting off. Water overflowing the new set of bottom gates showed they were doing their job.

Don’t know what the locals do in these parts but someone had left a perfectly good pair of underpants on the grass next to the canal. Not my colour.

On the way back to the marina we made a note of Birstall Locks’ watering hole “The Mulberry Tree” which looked very inviting.

Pity we couldn’t say the same about the attractive picnic site opposite.

After a very pleasant stay with Foxton Boat Services for a short rest and our first engine-oil change we set out northwards towards Leicester along the Grand Union Canal.

With a new boat we couldn’t be sure how long a tank of water lasted, our drinking and washing routines were still a little fluid. From here on it would be countryside so it made sense to top up while we could.
Our first winding point was about 2 miles in the Market Harborough direction so the crew agreed to save time by reversing the way we had come from, the Foxton flight. A wonderful display of boatmanship was quickly followed by a bloomer – tying up and unravelling the hosepipe only to find I hadn’t read the notice announcing closure for the winter months. Another complicated manoeuvre placed us next to the shops and a working water point just as the rain descended.
Away from Foxton by 9:30 (which brought a well deserved comment from Tony Matts about early starts) we headed for Saddington Tunnel, passing a sleepy but very attractive Debdale Wharf on the way. If we were going to take up permanent moorings anywhere this would be one of our favourites. At 880yds Saddington tunnel was one of the shortest we’d encountered since our start at Tardebigge but it had its moments and I could have sworn it kinked twice before we were out of it, but we still didn’t touch the side.
Helped by son David we were met at the groups of locks by his Mum and we whistled through in spite of the continuous rain. A very friendly chocolate coloured dog with a coat met us at Kibworth locks near the road from Wistow and she/he wouldn’t go away unless thrown a stick.
We all tried to ignore it but with no sticks to fetch it went foraging in the hedgerows and brought back an assortment of small branches. If ignored again it nudged your leg to get attention, very cute but it was raining, the towpath mud was getting thicker and no one was in the mood. At the final lock it ran to the bottom of the steps and tried to board. The look on its face as we motored away was a sight to behold, I almost went back to say sorry.
Dredging was in progress as we passed Wistow.

No shortage of water on the way to Leicester as we found the top lock gates overflowing. Had to open both bottom gate paddles before the water levelled enough to open them.

Saw a friend’s new wide beam sail-away as we passed Kilby but we couldn't raise him and with darkness falling we staked our claim on the towpath after Double Rail Lock (thought to refer to the two hand rails fitted after a woman fell in and drowned).

Next day up early but never early enough for joggers and dog walkers (did we see a professional dog walker this morning?) and took our first coffee break at Glen Parva. From Blaby Bridge it's an easy run through open countryside, under the Soar Valley Road down to our next night's stop outside Tony and Julie’s place at Kings Lock Cafe. In season they serve excellent food, real coffee and take a pride in their place. Keen to appeal to boaters they can even supply water if it's needed. There's space to moor just before or just after the lock and they're dog friendly if you pop round the back and eat on the patio. Be sure to sign their visitor's book and help yourself to back numbers of the most popular canal magazines.

Met Steve, on his way south from a business call up north and we ate and talked until it was time to collapse, Steve taking the converted dinette for the night.
Next day after saying farewell and a quick visit to the Farmshop just up the road from Packhorse Bridge we cruised down stream on the Soar past Aylestone Mill Lock with its dodgy paddle and into St Mary’s where we had to move a complete tree, albeit in a dozen pieces, before we could open the lock gates. Made a mental note to look out for this wood if we return in the next couple of weeks. St Mary’s looked so beautiful bathed in sunshine in its winter isolation.

Had to pause outside the Leicester Football Stadium and ponder the fate of the Foxes.

Off through Leicester city

passing the rowing club, students apartments and the official town moorings. Remembering the stories we’d heard of nights spent here it all seemed very quiet today.
Further on signs said beware “Work in progress” which probably refer to the refurbishment of old knitware factories on the east side, a fashionable occupation in north Leicester as the commercial interests give way to the spread of private accommodation close to the city centre.

North Lock gave us problems, the top gates wouldn’t open. After much pushing and reopening offside paddles a passer by was kind enough to add his weight to the gate.
We found out why the gates wouldn’t open once we were through. Grinding to a halt immediately outside the lock, under North Bridge we thought we’d hit something large. Couldn’t see any coping stones missing from the bridge parapet so assumed we could get over it with a little more effort. We reversed and tried again, plenty of groaning and scraping sounds and we were on our way. Not for long, constantly hitting the bottom we were forced to take it slowly. Passing a traffic cone on its side and only half covered the cause of the problem was now apparent. The green stain on the towpath piling confirmed our suspicions that water levels were down about 18” (flashbacks to the Basingstoke Canal). Thinking this was due to naughty youngsters we approached Limekiln Lock expecting to see paddles up. All was in order and we were wondering where all the water had gone as we passed through Limekiln and set off towards Belgrave locks where we knew BW were making repairs.
Had to slow for a right turn, the weir was straight ahead and she wouldn’t turn fast enough at 4mph. Glad we didn’t come down here at night, scary.
Saw Belgrave lock in the distance and BW’s working flat departing. This was good news, they’d finished by midday on the last day of repair stoppages so we checked it out and apart from lack of paint on the new wood everything was in order so we parted the plastic bottles and floating carrier bags and checked out BW’s work.
We caught up the BW boat just before Birstall Lock and found a nest of them clogging up the lock. Chatting to one of the guys there we heard they were pushing the office to let them start the work on lock gate replacement a few days earlier than scheduled. This might upset our plans to return to south Leicester in a week’s time so we vowed to call the main office before setting off on the journey.
Returning to the boat I found an anxious pair of hands straining at the centre rope. The wind should have kept the boat against the bank but she was slowly running astern. Leaping aboard I discovered the prop was still turning in reverse. Lucky she has strong arms, I thought.
We finally reached a safe haven at Raynsway Marina as the day drew to a close.

Taking the visitor moorings

we were made welcome by Dave the marina manager who explained the extensive facilities and local (Thurmaston) amenities including the local chippy.
For now we needed nothing more than a hot meal and the comforting warmth of the Bubble stove. Tomorrow was another day. We would take on diesel, fresh water and perform our first pump-out. What that sounds like to non boaters I can’t imagine.