Wednesday 19th December 2018



It was raining quite heavily when we first awoke this morning. There is something quite cozy about being in a warm bed on the boat, listening to the rain on the roof.
We opened our last bag of coal today. Of course it is all a learning curve, we call it evolution, but we do not know how long a bag of coal lasts, how many fills of the scuttle per bag, or how many we will use in a winter. We will have to take more notice.
We got up at 8:30 once the rain had stopped and after breakfast, we left Snarestone. We had been here for over a week excluding our little trip to Snackerstone. There would be worst places to spend a week. We have quite enjoyed ourselves here but are now headed back down the Ashby to be off it by the 9th January, the rescheduled date of the stoppage at bridge 6.

A strong sun was shining directly in my eyes making it difficult to see ahead, but also creating wonderful effects with sun rays and mist rising from the water.   

Going over old ground we came upon the boaters we had spent the evening with at Snarestone. They intend to spend Christmas here and are staying on the Ashby overwinter. We would have liked to have spent another evening with them, but they only frequent the pub on Friday nights when there is happy hour.

We were intending to head to Market Bosworth where we are to take on fuel and coal at the marina and complete our Christmas shopping. Brenda has been in touch with the butcher there and ordered turkey but it won’t be available until Friday.

However, we came as far as Congerstone and decided to moor as we had not visited here before. We have been to Market Bosworth so thought it best to moor and explore here and complete the journey to Bosworth tomorrow. After all, it is only 2miles away.






       Bilstone Village Centre
 Bilstone Mill and Sluice




We went for a walk to the village. Our guide describes it as a scattered settlement of small interest. We had passed through it and came to the next village of Bilstone before realising it. Bilstone was a lovely little place. Tiny. We walked down a footpath to the mill on the River Sence and continued across the fields back to Congerstone. The War Memorial was a simple affair but the engraving was virtually illegible. You would have thought that either for the Millennium, or the 100-year anniversary of the First World War Armistice, they would have improved on this and had it re-engraved.







                                                                Congerstone War Memorial



We called in to the Horse and Jockey but found it more of a posh eatery. Service was diabolical and we had to search and find one of the three young girls serving each time we wanted anything, as did every other patron.    

Returning to the boat, we had early showers and had a relaxing few hours.



Weather: a lovely day after rain this morning.



Day Total: 0 locks; 4 miles; 0 Tunnels; 0 Swing Bridges; 0 Boat Lift; engine running hours 1.7

Overall Total: 323 locks; 638 miles; 30 tunnels; 5 Swing Bridges; 2 Boat Lifts; engine running hours      391.1






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