We set of for Leicester City, with a formidable number of wide locks to negotiate, but by the time we arrived at the first lock, Anne & Tony on NB Englands Dreaming had joined us and although the weather was wet and windy the journey was very enjoyable with their company. Industry did not intrude very much as this area is mainly residential and many home owners had made the most of their canal-side gardens, There was only one lock from which Anne and Jacquie had to recover a load of plastic barriers that some little twit had thought fun to lob into the cut.
As we joined the River Soar, passing Leicester City football ground, the final approach to the city centre, was rather elegant, with several attractive ornamental bridges to pass under. We both found space on the pontoons at Castle Gardens. There is only room for four boats, two already being tied up, but with a little adjusting of their mooring ropes we fitted in. It is obviously OK to moor, up to three abreast in busy times, as the river is still wide enough for other traffic to pass.
There are plenty of moorings on the tow path side of the river, but any old Tom, Dick or Harry can access your boat there. The pontoons are only accessible through locked gates from Castle Gardens and the garden is locked at night, but can be unlocked with a BW key. The city centre is very close, but we had an undisturbed night, which was very necessary as the whole journey had taken over six hours, which was the longest time we had been on the go for a long while and we were knackered.
No comments:
Post a Comment