Tuesday 25^th September 2018

The mist again, was floating above the water this morning. It is always a lovely sight. Setting off, we passed Zouch village, for all there is, and, once under the road bridge, there followed a pair of flood lock gates and then a massive weir that seemed to go on forever and a huge rotary sluice gate.

The river then opened out very wide and scenic, meandering through spectacular scenery. There were many wooden chalet types homes, all mounted on stilts. Then, around a bend, appears the village of Normanton-on-Soar. Gorgeous, expensive houses, all with very long gardens that slope down to the river. This stretch, quite easily, could have been anywhere on an expensive part of the Thames.

                        

                    

Across the river from Normanton was a high wooden framed structure. This was emergency moorings for use in times of flooding. The structure must have been 15 feet above the water level. We were also treated to an amazing sight, a swan in full flight, just 4 feet above the water, and heading directly towards us. It flew right down the side of the boat, only a few feet away, before landing on the water just feet behind us.

Beyond Normaton the countryside continued, only with the industry of Loughborough showing above the trees. Once passed Bishop Meadow Lock the atmosphere changed completely. There were many boats, a lot uncared for, with a back drop of a massive waste treatment plant and other industrial sites. We had arrived in Loughborough, and not its better side.

We shared this, and the next lock, with an Australian guy and his wife who, originally from Nottingham, had lived in Australia for over 30 years. They had been hiring canal boats in this county for 25 years before, earlier this year, they bought their own and plan to spend the summers here and our winters in Australia. There are quite a number of Australian’s that do the same.  

A short run brought us to Loughborough Lock beyond which was the turn for Leicester or straight on for Loughborough Wharf. We had been told that the wharf only had space for 4 or 5 boats but we had   already decided to try and moor here. We slowly cruised down the arm to find just one boat there and they were in the process of leaving. The wharf is bounded by a Travelodge, gym, restaurant and student accommodation. 

      

We walked to the town centre. A nice feel to the place, spread out, lots of it and plenty of pedestrianised areas. We had a coffee and food and walked back to the boat via Tesco’s. Back at the boat we found four more boats had arrived. There was also a crowd of eight youths on the steps of the wharf. Nothing wrong with that of course, but they are noisy and it would be easy to see how some people would become very nervous. We have all been young though.

I walked, a long way, to Halfords to buy a hydrometer for testing the batteries, only to find Halfords don’t stock them anymore.

We had a take away Indian for dinner. There were quite a few homeless people on the streets when we were in town earlier so I went to give them the left overs, only to find they had all disappeared.

Weather: sunny and pleasantly warm.

Day Total: 2 locks; 3 miles; 0 Tunnels; 0 Boat Lift; engine running hours 1.7

Overall Total: 221 locks; 398 miles; 15 tunnels; 2 Boat Lifts; engine running hours 241.0