Weekend trip to Aylesbury

SATURDAY - The weather forecast for the weekend looked fine, so we thought we'd go to Aylesbury, which we haven't done for a couple of years.

As always, we were later getting started than we intended - mostly getting things sorted a bit before we left home. It was misty in the valley, and over the marina - which didn't burn off until quite late in the morning. At the marina we went and bought another cylinder of gas - and then set off just after 11 am. As the trip to Aylesbury is about 7 hours, we were a little apprehensive about possible hold-ups and maybe ending up travelling after dusk.

It's late September, the trees are still green, although the green is turning to a yellower shade, and a couple of the trees on the hillside overlooking the marina had flame red tops - but only the first few leaves were beginning to drift down onto the canal as we went across the summit. The summit was quite chilly, although the weather forecast was predicting 21 degrees - but by the time we were working down the Marsworth flight the sun was on our backs and jumpers were quickly discarded. The hedgerow was heavy with autumn fruit - I can't remember seeing so many blackberries, hips and haws - but I didn't see any sloes until we were on the Aylesbury arm, and no damsons anywhere.

Incidentally Bluebell's cafe by the last lock in the flight sells excellent ice cream, as well as a balsamic vinegar flavoured ice cream (I kid you not!) - quite the most disgusting flavour I think I've ever experienced.

We worked quickly down the Marsworth flight, and I said to Alan that I'd walk the couple of hundred yards along the towpath from the White Lion down to the Aylesbury arm. Passing the garden of the pub I saw bench tables groaning with massive ploughmans' lunches, and huge jugs of beer - the reason quickly became obvious - there were ready for the two 'teams' of morris men who were entertaining the customers. I took a couple of photos - then sprinted along the towpath to arrive panting and wheezing just as Alan was bringing the boat to the side by the first lock of the Aylesbury arm, and wondering where I was.

As we took the boat down the first two locks - a staircase - at the beginning of the arm I looked up to see a pair of red kites wheeling overhead - twisting and turning by a slight turn of their distinctive forked tails. They were too far away for me to take a photo, but this is what they look like - they were re-introduced to the Chilterns a few years back and have flourished.

The first mile of the Aylesbury arm the locks come thick and fast - nine in all. The next seven locks take another five miles. The arm is beautiful, rural and remote, it doesn't pass through any towns or villages until you get to Aylesbury itself. At this time of year the fields are empty, some filled with stubble, others already ploughed. Often with a lone heron standing, or a staghorn oak, and fringed with Corot willows, their characteristic silver green turning yellow. Here on the Herts/ Bucks border, where the canal crawls slowly away from the still misty Chiltern hills, you can look to the west and see the cars and lorries scuttling by on the distant A41 - seemingly a hundred years away.

We ate on the hoof, grabbing a mug of soup, and a bite of baguette when we could - we didn't want to have to slow down. Strangely the locks are wider than most narrow locks - leaving a good 18 inches room at the side of the boat. However, the bridges seem extremely narrow - we took our chimney off to ensure it didn't meet the same fate as it's predecessor.

As we approached Aylesbury we went through a section where there is only about 6 feet between the reeds on each side of the canal. We've been down here before, and the reeds have been rampant, but nothing like this, with reeds brushing both sides of the boat. We were a little apprehensive about meeting another boat in this long section. Notice the missing chimney in this photo

Aylesbury arrives, as does the need for a key to operate the locks. Two of the locks on the final run-in to the town have anti-vandal locks requiring a British Waterways key. As I've left my keys behind in these types of locks before now I detached my BW key from my keyring and tied it to my jean's belt loop by a long piece of string, then tucked it into a pocket.

We arrived at a little after six, still with an hour or so of light. The Aylesbury Canal Society's basin was completely full, so we turned the boat and reversed into the mooring outside the Inland Revenue offices. We each had a shower then headed into the town.

There was something quite surreal about the town. The streets were empty, and there didn't seem to be very many restaurants where we were. Then in the square in the middle of the town was an ambulance, with it bored looking paramedics waiting for the night's work - making us somewhat apprehensive about what it would be like later. We wandered on, and we found the streets where the restarants and bars were - rejecting the possibility of a Portuguese restaurant. Pizza Express said that unless we had booked then they couldn't accommodate us for at least an hour and a half. We were beginning to feel that the only possibilities were KFC or a takeaway pizza, and Alan had already turned to go back towards the boat when I spotted Prezzo. They could offer us a table quickly, and we had excellent pizza and pasta meals with good service, and good coffee afterwards.

We went back to the boat, half expecting disturbance from the town during the night, but quickly fell asleep and heard nothing.

SUNDAY - despite having set an alarm we really couldn't be bothered to get up early - it was cold and very misty outside. Eventually Alan got up and lit a fire, then we made coffee and porridge before setting off through the fading mist at after 10 o'clock.

Chalice moored opposite nb Chiswick, and next to the IR offices in Aylesbury

Aylesbury Canal Basin in the morning mist.

We moored up after the first lock, and went into Tescos.

Looking at the tins of soup in Tescos I decided that it would be far better to make our own, using the heat from the boat's stove to cook it. So I went back to the fruit and veg section and picked up a wide selection of vegetables. Then back to the boat and the next few locks - by now we were in full sunshine.

This heron was on the towpath opposite factories or warehouses in Aylesbury, and seemed fairly unperturbed by me walking along carrying a boat hook to allow me to push the both the bottom gates open without having to cross the lock.

Once out of Aylesbury I cut up the root veg and put them on the stove with some stock and a tin of tomatoes to cook. Then we got to some more locks and I was needed to help with them. After those I put in the other veg - beans, leeks, mushrooms, peppers, etc and put the soup - now looking very chunky - back on the stove to finish off.

We worked on until about 1 pm, and decided to stop for lunch - quite unusual for us - so we moored, and ate what was far more like a stew than a soup with some cheese and crusty bread from the supermarket.

There was lots of water, often pouring over the gates, as seen in this photo of Black Jack's lock (No. 4).

Near Puttenham I saw one of the red kites again, but this time being mobbed by angry seagulls.

We were finally out of the Aylesury arm by about 4:00 pm, and had good luck working up through the Marsworth flight - with many of the locks for us, and many spectators out in the autumn sunshine. Several times I was asked if we wanted help with the gates on the other side of the lock, and people seemed quite surprised that we only needed one opened. We got back to the marina at soon after six, tidied up, loaded the car, and off home. A great weekend - time to spend together - time out in the fresh air - but very tired after 20 miles and 46 locks.

Summer Cruise - Thrupp Wharf to Cowroast

Thrupp Wharf to Leighton Buzzard
14th August 2008
A strange day weather wise, everything from sunshine to pouring rain. We were now trying to get home as quickly as possible - well, seriously, how long would you leave an 18 year old in the house on his own? It's not quite as bad as it sounds, apart from the fact that we know he's sensible, I had left my mobile number with several neighbours "in case of an emergency". I knew that if anyone was concerned, for any reason, I'd get a phone call, and that I could be home by train in a few hours. However, we knew we'd been out a long time, and despite Michael being happy to be left on his own for ages, we felt it was time to be back.

A long slog through lockless miles around Milton Keynes, we took turns steering, while the other stood or sat at the back while we talked. We decided we wanted to find a last meal out before getting home, but the only place that we knew of in Leighton Buzzard that would feed all of our very different tastes was the Lytton Tree - a place with large TV screens showing sports. Not the kind of place we wanted to find ourselves in in the evening. So we were faced with finding somewhere for lunch. We stopped at the Plough in Milton Keynes, and I went in to check the menu was OK. When I went in the place was full of people eating, but by the time I had gone back to the boat, and we'd finished locking up the pub was almost empty and were only just in time to order food.

When we got going again it was just taking turns at steering through more miles. Through the locks at Fenny and Stoke Hammond and on towards three locks at Soulbury.

At Soulbury there was a boat going up in the lock and a lone figure was sitting on the balance beam drinking a pint of beer, so we pulled over to the moorings below the lock and David and I jumped off with windlasses ready to help if needed. From where we were moored it was easy to see water turbulence below the bottom gates - a paddle was partly up, so David ran across the gate and dropped the paddle quickly. The single hander who was drinking the pint had only one top paddle half up, but said to us that the lock was taking forever to fill - undoubtedly because she had a bottom paddle half up too.

Once she had gone on we emptied the lock, and were joined by another boat that seemed to have problems with its gearbox - they shot into the lock and braked it by wrapping the centreline around a bollard - an interesting process, but a very cheerful and willing crew. At this point we saw the state of the short pound above the lock - perhaps two and a half feet down, with little more than a ribbon of water through the mud.

I wandered up to the top lock of the three since I knew that I'd need to let some water down as the other boat in the lock with us was very deep draughted. At which point the dog on the boat ahead of us decided to abandon ship over the back. It was harnessed, with a short lead, so that it just hung in the water, unable to swim, or to get back on. "I'll go and get it out," I offered, starting to climb down the ladder, somewhat concerned about the dog as it was only a short boat, which was banging about quite a lot in the lock. But no, she wanted the dog left, to teach it not to do it again - I have to be honest I was somewhat concerned that it wouldn't get the opportunity to do it again.

When we had filled the lock and the two boats attempted to cross the pound we were accompanied by screeching noises as the boats tried to cross the cill and drag across the bottom of the pound. Now, I know it's easy to miss the fact that someone else has not completely dropped a paddle, but if you are sitting there for ages with the lock failing to fill while you watch the very short pound ahead of you emptying.... you might think that the penny would drop.

Near Old Linslade we passed the boat of a former teaching colleague, Barbara, who is now retired, and who was setting off towards the north on an extended trip with her husband. I shouted news about our trip across, saying that I'd catch up properly later. Just around the bend, where we'd moored on the first night of our trip was a BW boat across the cut. Now, most people would just push it out of the way, but somehow... Well, David likes to do things right, so we 'rescued' the boat, making the only use of our boarding plank during the whole trip.


David rescues "Blaby"







Only two hire boats moored outside Wyvern Shipping, and one of those was "Ocean Princess", the sea going narrowboat. Virtually every boat was hired out.


Anyway, on to Leighton and we moored up at Tescos. I went to get essential supplies, while Alan did various checks on things. Back at the boat we were exhausted, so we moored where we could, ate, and fell into bed.

Daily Total: 20.66 miles, 7 locks
Running Total: 331.3miles, 346 locks, 19 tunnels.

Leighton Buzzard to Cowroast
15th August 2008
So, our last day, with very mixed feelings, both wanting to be home, but also wanting to continue cruising for much longer. "Why don't we just keep going when we get to Cowroast?"
For us this stretch is very familiar, across the flat plain north of the Chilterns, seeing the white lion of Whipsnade Zoo carved into the hillside to the east.

We had some burst of bright sunshine interspersed with the threat of rain, which thankfully held off. We made good progress, working through most of the locks with a boat from Harefield.






Outside the White Lion at Marsworth in sunshine


We went up Marsworth in good time, and then the three miles of the summit, which I used to strip beds, load bags into the front cabin and unload perishables from the cupboards in the kitchen. We turned into the marina, refilled with diesel, emptied the cassettes, and made the final trip down the marina to our mooring - at which point the heavens opened and drenched us completely. Home again.

Two days later, we were passing the marina so went in quickly to drop something off at the boat. I saw another teaching colleague and her husband just leaving their boat after a trip out. "I saw Barbara while I was out," she said, "she told us you were out for three weeks, and you'd had a great time". Towpath Telegraph.

Daily Total: 11.83 miles, 18 locks
Running Total: 343.1 miles, 364 locks, 19 tunnels.

The figures for miles and locks for this trip don't agree with those suggested by Nic Atty's Canal Plan AC - so I'll check these when I've got a bit more time (Cath)

Summer Cruise - Watford Gap to Thrupp Wharf

Tuesday 12th August 2008

Watford Gap to Thrupp Wharf

Once past Norton Junction we were back onto canal that we have done before, and what for us feels like 'home territory' as we have to go through it to escape from the southern Grand Union. So we didn't want to hang about, we'd already been out longer than we felt we should have done.

Coming down Buckby locks we were joined in the second lock down by a remarkable crew. The owners of the boat were a retired RN officer, who I was told confidentially by one of the crew members, was 84, and his wife who was in her 70s and did all the steering as she has a bad back and finds the locks too difficult. Both seemed as fit as a fiddle, and very game for everything, the gentleman was very happy to stride out on the long lock pounds, as well as seemingly having little difficulty with the paddles and very heavy gates. With them were friends who were visiting for a few days. They stopped at Whilton Marina and we carried on.

BW were doing some of piling of the new edging to the bank - since it seems to be based around wooden pilings rammed into the canal we did wonder at what kind of lifespan it will have. BW pile the dredgings behind the front row of pilings which seems to have some kind of mesh stretched over it, and which is braced by wires to the rear pilings.

Through Blisworth Tunnel, then down the flight at Stoke Bruerne, where David and I watched the clouds piling up rapidly from cumulus into whispy topped cumulo-nimbus as we worked down through the locks. Then I rather stupidly took a tumble down a grassy slope. Having recently removed the elastic bandage from my knee I decided to run towards the next lock to get it ready for the boat - and put my foot down a rabbit hole in the bank. I went head over heels and fell heavily against my arm on my right side, and trapping my arm against my chest. At first I thought that an injured ankle would be the main result of this - in fact that took very little time to recover, the bruising to my ribs was so bad that it disrupted my sleep more than a week - ah well, don't run!

We moored at Thrupp Wharf, Alan and I went for a well deserved pint. If I haven't said so before -David at 19, while he is very welcome to drink with us, doesn't like alcohol, and so tends to stay on the boat and surf the Internet - it certainly means that he has fewer budgeting problems than many students do while at university. We sat in the pub watching the gathering dusk and the panorama of clouds of all shapes and sizes at many layers of the atmosphere as they changed colours in the fading light.

A strange day weather wise, with sunshine mixed with drenching rain, and unfortunately the wind that has dogged this part of the trip.

Daily Total: 22.32 miles, 14 locks & 1 tunnel

Running Total: 311.6 miles, 339 locks and 19 tunnels

Summer Cruise - Foxton to Watford Gap

Monday August 11th 2008
Foxton to Watford Gap
Clear weather, although windy still - many miles of lock free cruising, and perhaps some of the most beautiful quintessentially "English" scenery I've seen for a long time.

Just steering, and passing by distant villages - the canal doesn't pass through any towns or villages, but through two tunnels - Husbands Bosworth Tunnel and Crick Tunnel.

Just to show how dense we can be - we spent ages discussing the Battle of Bosworth Fields. Was it a Civil War battle? What happened? Who won? Would there be any point in looking at it? Isn't the Battlefield Steam Railway nearby - that might be interesting? We couldn't find it in the pages of Nicholsons on Husbands Bosworth. Then we realised that the Bosworth Fields was at Market Bosworth, on the Ashby Canal - several days cruising from where we were. Well History and Geography were never our best subjects - obviously.

Just before Crick tunnel a bloke sitting by the bank said - "It's wet - well the first half is anyway", and it did indeed seem to be wet for the first part. Alan disputes this, but I was sat at the front with an umbrella.

British Waterways were dredging a lot of the pound near to Watford Gap - we've seen a lot of this new restraining edging while on our trip. It seems to be set up in front of a weak and broken up bank, then BW seems to fill it with dredgings. Here there were big 'dumb barges' filled with dredged slurry, as well as the dredger itself, which seems to be propelled by pulling itself along by the dredging arm.





Suddenly we arrived at the top of Watford Locks - the roar of the M1 motorway was absolutely deafening. We went to find the lock-keeper who was painting some paddle gear, and told us that a boat was working up - we could start down as soon as it arrived. Once again, despite warnings of long waits we got going through the flight almost immediately.


Watford Gap flight is one lock, a staircase of four, then two more single locks. Like Foxton, it's red paddles first then white on the staircase.


I said (loudly) to the lock-keeper "It's very attractive here, but the motorway and the railway are very intrusive. "YOU GET USED TO IT," she answered. I'm not sure that I would.
Looking up Watford Gap Staircase - beautiful, looking so peaceful, and ruined by the constant roar of road and rail.

After a refill of water at the bottom lock we passed by the noise and bustle of Watford Gap Motorway Services behind the hedgerow. then looked for a place to moor for the night where we wouldn't be kept awake by the noise. The motorway and railway parallel the canal for several more miles, including Buckby flight of locks - we just wanted to tie up. About a mile past the bottom of the locks, near a small marina, is a section of canal which is somewhat shielded by a slight hill - we moored up overlooking farmland, and with very little noise to disturb us.

Daily Total: 22 miles, 7 locks & 2 tunnels

Running Total: 289.3 miles, 325 locks, and 18 tunnels

Summer Cruise - Kilby Bridge to top of Foxton Locks

Sunday 10th August 2008
Kilby Bridge to Foxton Locks
The rain mostly held off today - although there were some short and heavy showers , but the weather made up for it with wind. Wind for narrow boats is not good, making steering and mooring very difficult.
The countryside south of Leicester is very attractive, and really very remote. The canal seems to miss most of the few scattered towns and villages, making getting supplies quite difficult. Being Sunday we needed to get supplies before 4 pm and decided to make a stop near Fleckney and walk across the fields to the town for milk and food.

Foxton - We were quite keen to make Foxton flight before the evening. Several passing boaters had told us that you might have to wait several hours to get a passage up the flight, or even wait until the next day. If we couldn't make it on the Sunday, we at least wanted to be in the list for the Monday. We knew that there would be a lock-keeper to help with understanding how to use the side ponds.

At Fleckney the three of us struggled to moor the boat in the strong winds, then Alan and I set off across the fields to the Co-op in the local town. We managed to get quite a lot of suitable food, but half way back to the boat we realised we had no milk, so I went back into the town.

Saddington tunnel is famous for the bats living in there. Alan remembers being quite disturbed by the bats flying past him when he made a journey through the tunnel with his brothers in the mid 1970's, but we saw nothing of any bats, although there were lots of bat boxes up in the roof of the tunnel.

We arrived at Foxton in bright sunshine sometime after 4 pm. The lock-keeper was standing at the bottom of the flight, so I wandered over to ask how long we would have to wait to go up. "You're ready to go now? OK, flight's ready for you, are you doing the gates?" He explained "You do the paddles red before white, then open the gates, drop the paddles while the boat moves to the next lock, then shut the gates - easy." David found a windlass and we went straight in to the flight.
Near the bottom of the flight, overlooking one of the pubs














Up Foxton - It was enormous fun, David and I raced to be the first to open the Red then the White paddle (it has to be admitted that David managed far more than me), and push open the gates. There were crowds of gongoozlers (onlookers) watching and helping (or sometimes hindering) our progress up the flight. Families blocked the narrow bridges over each lock making it hard to get back to the paddle gear, or stood peering into the lock where we were trying to move the gates and burly men got their shoulders against the lock gates. This was perhaps the most unexpected - having spent two weeks straining against almost impossible gates while onlookers watched bemused we found that just as you leant onto the gate it would be almost snatched from you by eager helpers.

This is from the top chamber of the bottom staircase, just below the middle 'pound' looking up to the top staircase. Cath talks to the lock-keeper on the right. Notice the red colour coded paddle gear on the left.



David watches while the lock fills, the lock keeper has got the next lock ready, and eager helpers are ready to push against the balance beam.


















Inside a lock chamber, looking up at the very tall gates that you have in a staircase lock.














________________________________
A bit of Canal History - Foxton flight is famous, it consists of 10 locks, arranged as two staircases each of five locks. It's only possible for boats to be making the trip up, or down, a staircase at any one time. You can have more than one boat in the same direction, but boats can't 'cross' in a flight. A few boats can cross in the 'pound' in the middle, but it is a notorious 'traffic jam' at busy times. In 1900 the flight was replaced with a steam driven 'inclined plane' as part of the improvements that were supposed to bring far more narrowboat traffic as well as wide boats to the Leicester branch of the Grand Union Canal. However, instead of the theoretical 200 narrow boats a day the average was 8 per day, and the wide locks were never built in other parts of this canal to allow wide boats. After 11 years the expensive and little used inclined plane was abandoned and the 10 narrow locks reinstated. The Foxton Inclined Plane Boat Lift is now a Scheduled Ancient Monument with plans to reinstate it to working order.
___________________________________
It took about 40 minutes to get from the bottom to the top, we moored up thinking we'd go for a walk and a well deserved ice cream, but a sudden downpour drenched everything. Cath and Alan went for a walk to have a look at the inclined plane.
Foxton in a downpour - the red brick building is the museum, where the steam engines were installed. To the side you can see the side ponds which allow saving water while locking through.

Fortunately the rain did not last long, by the time that we had walked to the inclined plane behind the museum the sun was beginning to show. This photo shows the inclined plane where two caissons were hauled up the hillside. The boats at the bottom show the lower level of the canal, and the large ponds are where the caissons for the boats entered the canal.














Looking down an inclined plane towards the canal

Looking up Foxton on our way back from the pub "Bridge 61", where there is a tiny bar and various other things are also on sale from a shelf in the corner (cakes, etc). The tiny shop next to the pub has books, some chandlery and essential supplies - it really felt like the kind of shop I haven't been into for about 30 years.

Daily total: 10 miles and 22 locks (including 10 Foxton) and 1 tunnel
Running total: 267.3 miles, 318 locks, 16 tunnels

Summer Cruise - Mountsorrel to Kilby Bridge

Saturday 9th August 2008
Mountsorrel to Kilby Bridge.
A miserable rainy and windy day. We set off from Mountsorrel and at the first lock a miserable bloke who didn't like the order that I wanted to do the paddles in lectured me while the lock was filling - would he have been so rude to a man I wonder? This put a cloud over the first part of my morning, but I decided that I wasn't going to let him ruin my day long after he'd passed by, so decided that he was just a stupid old fart, and felt much better.

We didn't want to stop early at the secure moorings in the centre of Leicester, and had been told that some parts of Leicester were not great for mooring. We needed to press on and get right through Leicester before the evening - a lot of miles and a lot of locks.

No power to the prop - The first problem we encountered was at about 10 o'clock, when we were approaching a lock. As Alan put the boat into reverse to slow the boat as he approached the landing for the lock nothing happened - it was if the propellor had dropped off (boats don't have brakes - you stop or slow down by going into reverse). So we hit the side hard.

Trousers - Once we were moored Alan opened the weed hatch (which allows you to look at the prop). In our boat this is not an easy thing to do as there is very little room and means lying on your stomach in a very restricted space next to the engine (which was of course, hot). We avoid this if it is at all possible, but with nothing happening there was no alternative.

It turned out that there was some kind of cloth wrapped very tightly around the prop and the prop shaft. David, being very much skinnier and more flexible than either of us crawled into the narrow space with a pair of scissors, and hacked and ripped at the cloth until he emerged triumphant with a pair of jogging bottoms (so what scenario gets a pair of jogging bottoms into the canal?). This took about 40 minutes out of our schedule.
On through Leicester passing various landmarks dimly glimpsed through the persistent rain. The National Space Centre - I long to visit, but doing so would have meant mooring up in Leicester, and another day later home - by this point we really felt that we had pushed leaving an 18 year old (however sensible) on his own far too long.











The roar of a crowd told us that this building was something to do with football. Much of the southern area of Leicester is very attractive, but we found the anti-vandal locks still in use well into the countryside beyond the town. We were surprised at the vigour and energy of anyone who wants to walk that far to leave graffiti or empty locks.

No vandals - It must be said that despite approaching a number of towns with some trepidation as 'bandit towns' we met nothing but courtesy and friendliness from the young people on the towpath.
The weather eased a bit towards the evening, but with the possibility of a shower at any time.
We eventually moored at Kilby Bridge, I was far too tired to head for the pub, so we prepared a quick meal, and went off to bed.

Daily Total: 18.66 miles and 21 locks
Running Total: 257. 3 miles, 296 locks, 15 tunnels (still)

Summer Cruise - Alrewas to Shardlow to Mountsorrel

Thursday 7th August 2008

Alrewas to Shardlow

An intensive day, with long gaps between the locks. Very attractive countryside, but the presence of nearby roads (A38) and the railway for much of the route was really oppressive.

There were huge numbers of hire boats, in particular Canaltime. One hire boat we came across the steerer had missed the 10 minute 'training video' while he was parking the car, so had very little idea of what was going on as his family tried to get him through the locks.

Through Burton on Trent, home of brewing, unfortunately not spotting the moorings for the supermarket, although we managed to find a small Co-op later.

Later in the day we spotted the boat Squeers which used to belong to a Canal World Forum member, and took photos to let him know the progress of his boat. Then we waited interminably while a couple filled a lock on minimally open paddles, dropping them completely at times. We couldn't really work out what was going on - despite the paddles being only just open the steerer was struggling to hold the boat, and when it was pointed out that it would take the best part of an hour to fill the lock the steerer just nodded and said "yes, it will". I'm all for a laid back attitude but waiting an hour for a lock really messes up my schedule, and if I don't want to moor by a noisy road it means I've got to keep going later into the night. Eventually we managed to persuade them to open a couple of paddles a bit more, at which point the boat became much easier to control.

We moored in Shardlow, by the boatyard, and after dinner David and Cath walked up the canal to the marina to check out the town.

Daily total: 23.87 miles and 11 locks

Running Total: 238.6 miles, 275 locks, 15 tunnels

Friday 8th August 2008
Shardlow to Mountsorrel (River Soar/ GU)

A fill of diesel at 81p a litre (cash and cheques only), the new people have only taken over the boatyard a few weeks ago, then off through the open flood locks by the marina at Shardlow.

Down onto the River Trent, which stunned us by it's size, and then under the M1. Then right at Trent Lock onto the River Soar towards Leicester.

We went through several flood locks that operate as ordinary locks from October to March, but the rest of the year are left open at both ends.

Kegworth Deep Lock AKA Kegworth New Lock took a very long time to fill. We were told that it used to fill faster but that it had been 'got at' - not sure why.

We finally moored at Mountsorrel, where this beautiful 1860 bridge crosses the river. However, being a river there is no towpath to moor at - not something we are used to. We finally banged pins into the edge of a field opposite the weir, where we were pestered by aggressive hissing swans bullying us for food through our side doors.

It's quite strange looking out of the window and seeing the grasses at the edge of a field at eye level.

We went to the pub for a pint (very good), and were kept awake at night by the weir (not possible says David, as it's 'white noise', but he wasn't awake at 5 am trying to shut the windows).

Daily Total: 17.45 miles and 12 locks (although some of these were flood locks)

Running Total: 255 miles 287 locks 15 tunnels (still)