Bandit Country…..

Grand Union Leicester Section/River Soar – 14 miles – 17 locks – 10 hours

On Wednesday evening, while we were moored up at Watermead Country Park, nb Trundle came by.  Trundle is owned by the Manager of Raynsway Marina – it was nice to meet you both, sorry we didn’t get your names, but here is the promised photo on the blog. Yesterday morning we left our mooring nice and early so that we could get through Leicester before mooring up again.  However, when we reached Thurmaston lock, there was a BW work boat in the lock entrance, putting up a new bridge to enable wheelchair access. “30 minutes”they said.  However, this was a BW ‘30 minutes’ – an hour later we started the engine again!

What can I say about Leicester that hasn’t been said before?  Not a lot, but it certainly was ‘Bandit Country’!  The approaches were very pleasant, but as we got closer, the canal got dirtier, and smellier.  The only bit worth taking a picture of was the floating pontoon at Castle Gardens, and that was full up with boats.

17 locks (all but one against us!) and 10 hours later, knackered, hot and sunburnt, we finally reached Kilby Bridge, our stopping place for the night.  We went to the Navigation pub for some food, then put the news on the telly – we were both asleep before it finished.  10 hour days are definitely too long for us these days!