Leaving Leicester behind for something more beautiful

The next morning's drizzle did nothing to make Leicester look any more pleasant, so we lowered ourselves out of the fag-end of the city, happy to leave behind at last the almost incessant sirens of police and ambulance services which had been with us since our arrival. Slowly, the deserted, derelict mills and warehouses disappeared behind us, and the trees, hedgerows and fields became the scene. The Watermead Country Park and boating lakes were home to a huge number and variety of birds. The best bit of Leicester, I should think. The river got wider, grand at times, and very beautiful, sometimes merging with the River Wreake. There were several locks, remote and quiet. We saw very few other boaters, and those we met commented that they had, too, and were very eager to chat, as if they'd been parted from human company for too long.

After lunch at Sileby Lock, we moved on to Mountsorrel, where we met with a large party on a hire boat. It was all a bit stressful, to be honest. They had no idea how dangerous moving boats can be, despite warnings from others, and children climbed over it and walked up and down the gunnel as the boat was being eased into the lock alongside us. The guy at the tiller was obviously very new to the task, and struck the wall outside the lock very hard, nearly throwing two of the children into the water, and then drove into the lock gate that I had closed behind Kantara. It would have been her they'd hit otherwise.

Wood sculptures at Sileby Lock

On along the wide and beautiful river towards Barrow-on-Soar. A group of twenty or so small children stood by a host of canoes, awaiting their instructors' permission to get in and have fun. They waved their arms and paddles, cheered and shouted enthusiastically, and Grace and I passed, waving like Tim and Pru. At Barrow Mill Basin, we got the last visitor mooring. It's a pleasant, peaceful spot, the only noise being the nearby weir. We tied up for the night.

Sunday & Monday

Our departure from Leicester was not nearly as pleasant as our arrival. We came in from the south on a broad sweep of river lined with clean, tidy and impressive buildings of all sorts (many of them owned by the University). Our journey up through the north of the city and its suburbs was dreary at best, passing through the unkempt butt-end, littered with rubbish and graffiti, and lined with shabby old business properties, many of them derelict. The water smelled foul, the locks were dirty and vandalised. It was good to get out of the built-up area and move out into the extensive parkland beyond, acres and acres of water meadows, now turned into a very attractive public recreational facility.

We moored up for the night at the Hope & Anchor pub restaurant just past bridge 19. It was late lunchtime on a Sunday, and the pub was extremely busy, the car park full. We took a look at the menu, and decided against eating there, but it was a good place to stop, being far enough away from the bulk of the diners for us to avoid feeling somehow out of place on the boat, and being very quiet throughout the evening and night.

This morning was chilly, warming slowly as time passed, but never being particularly bright. The countryside was lovely, however. We spent much of our time, not on the narrow canal, but on wider and deeper rivers, the Soar and the Wreake which share their channel with the canal on and off for miles. Where they are separate, they run alongside each other, and the whole length is dotted with weirs of various sizes, often with impressive amounts of water rushing over them. The water meadows continued, and the whole scene was beautiful.

On rivers, you can't generally just stop and moor at the towing path, as you can most of the time on canals. Instead, you have to find a designated mooring, such as the one by the pub. We chose one at Barrow-on-Soar, but needed to do some shopping first, and find water and waste services.

In fact, that turned out to be difficult. As we discovered last year, it is often the case that our map books - latest editions - have wrong information regarding where these services are to be found, and, as was the case today, we have on several occasions stopped for services at marines and boat yards, to be told that we can't use them there, or they are no longer available. Today, we were finally successful at Sileby Mill Boatyard.

Shopping was also a problem. The best place we could find on our map was the town of Mountsorrel, but couldn't stop there because no moorings were provided! How much more trade the local pubs and shops would do if boats were welcomed!

The shopping was finally done at Barrow-on-Soar, where we took the last remaining space in one of the two mooring places, and settled in for the night.