Sunday, July 01, 2012

Leicester Ring - Days 4 & 5



Thursday was a day of busyness. Up early – Colin was up even earlier to be with us – and moving the boat across the canal from where we were moored up the night to tie up alongside Roy's “Wells Fargo”, the narrowboat on which he lives. From then on, it was work; Colin fitting the battery charger first, then replacing the hinges on the aft deck hatch, and fitting a handle to it; Roy measuring up and cutting the six boards which are the seats on the foredeck and also the lids over the lockers.
The finished job...

I took a walk up the towpath to the ruin of Wolfhampcote, a medieval village standing alongside the River Leam, of which little remains now apart from a squat Norman Church of St Peter which is still in good repair. I was unable to look inside since it was locked, and the guardian of the key in a nearby cottage told me that the lock had been changed, and she did not yet have the new key. I shall have to go back some time, and look around. The pictures below are taken from sources other than my camera.


At the end of the day, we moved back across to our former mooring, and ate at the nearby Boathouse pub restaurant. The plan was to collect the finished lids from Roy the next morning, and continue on our way around the Ring. The needed time for varnish to dry overnight. Come morning, however, we were greeted by torrential rain and very strong, continuous wind, and we were going nowhere.

Friday, too, the weather at 7:00am was wet and windy, but we went ahead anyway, collected and fitted the lids from Roy, and moved off up the Oxford Canal. And we were not disappointed. The rain stopped, the cloud cleared, and we enjoyed a warm, sunny day. The countryside is lovely, and cruising was delightful.

We didn't travel for more than a couple of hours, however. Going any further would have meant that we had to overnight in Rugby, and we didn't really want that. So we moored in a quiet, pleasant spot just south of the town. Today we'll move on a bit, and moor close to Tesco for some shopping, before continuing north.
We are moored across the canal from the Rugby Radio Broadcast Station – the tall, thin masts in the photo are just a few of the many such masts which remain since the facility was decommissioned some years ago. The other mast in the photo is a comms mast – we have excellent mobile phone and broadband connection here!



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