River Soar

 

I forgot to put this picture in the last blog…Its Carolyn and Fran returning from their shopping trip to Derby. They only went to get Fran a new phone , but returned with 4 full shopping bags …. Maybe the phone came in 4 separate parts ????

 

After another brilliant few of days with Stewart and Fran we pulled pins on Wednesday morning and headed out of Shardlow at 06.15 with the intention of getting as near to Leicester as we could and mooring before going into Leicester on Thursday.

 

With the flood gates open and no warning lights we dropped down onto the River Trent.

 

Oops I'm in trouble. We are at Sawley locks and as it is so early in the morning there are no lock keepers on duty , so you have to operate the electrically controlled locks yourself. So now my life is in Carolyn's hands as she operates the locks. As you can see she loves the power. After Carolyn expertly operating the locks it was then through the locks along the Trent and then a right turn and onto the river Soar.

 

Is this the smallest numbered bridge on the canal system ???

 

You certainly have to have your wits about you as some of the locks on the Soar are very fierce.

 

Hope we don’t need one of these in the next couple of days.

 

Here…..  Carolyn is training the volunteer lock keepers at Ioughborough the the finer details of how to operate a lock.

 

Bloody nightmare.. 15 tons of steel versus kids not having a clue what they are doing on stupid boat bikes.

 

Canal and River Trust are meant to be spending more money on cutting back vegetation , but you wouldn’t think so on some stretches of the river Soar.

After 11 and a half hours of travelling on Wednesday and being totally knackered we found a noisy mooring near a pub in Birstall which is about 4 miles from Leicester. We have been told by many people that under no circumstances should we stop in Leicester as it can be a very dangerous place. But we have been told that before about other places and have found them to be ok.. We have also been told about some secure moorings in the centre of the city, so we will get up early again tomorrow morning and go and check them out and then hopefully have a day or two In Leicester.

 

                                                                                                  Happy Days

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                  Happy Days