We’re back at Thurmaston! We arrived about 3-30pm yesterday (Fri) having left Kilby Bridge at about 8-15am, in the rain, for the 12 mile, 17 lock journey (yes I thought it was 16 but sadly not!). Fortunately the rain soon cleared up and all the locks were in our favour, which was a big help time wise. I had a couple of mishaps during the day. I was standing on the side of the boat, getting ready to get off at a lock, when my foot slipped off the gunwhale. Ken thought I was going in but I was hanging on to the hatch and only got a wet foot! Later on I was getting down off a lock gate, garping round at a plaque on the wall, not really concentrating, my ankle gave way and I ended up in a heap! It was like slow motion, I knew I was going, but I couldn’t do any thing about it. Fortunately the office block by the canal there was disused so I didn’t have an audience! I didn’t half hurt my elbow though!
Inspite of my clumsiness and the wet start it was a really pleasant journey. It’s funny, but when you tell people you’re going through Leicester they nearly all look concerned and adopt a ‘rather you than me’ stance. Leicester seems to have a bad reputation for being dirty and dangerous. Indeed, a man who noticed we had Thurmaston on the side of our boat, shouted to us that the last time he came through here he got rocks thrown at him! That may be true but it doesn’t mean every bridge is heaving with malevolent youth, their pockets bulging with masonry, intent on stoning the boaters! He may just have been very unlucky or we may have been very lucky, who’s to know? Obviously all large towns and cities have their share of hooliganism and vandalism. The BW man who lives at Kilby Bridge told us he had just replaced all the padlocks on the locks between Kilby and Aylestone. These are to prevent the lock paddles being raised and the water being let out for no reason, draining the pound. They all had been broken off. Typical kids you may think. However this act of wanton vandalism was not perpetrated by some bored youngsters……… but by a boater! Why? Maybe he had lost his BW key and couldn’t open the locks, so he decided to break the locks off because he knew kids would get the blame.
Of course there is a huge amount of grafitti on the locks, bridges and buildings in all the towns we have visited but so far we haven’t had any nasty problems with anyone. There is also a fair amount of detritis in the canals, not only thrown in by youngsters I suspect, which may cause prop problems (remember the trouser incident in Loughborough?) and Leicester is no exception, but we only really noticed it in the mile and a half between Frog Island and Belgrave. The rest of the trip was a delight due to a great deal of canalside regeneration in the built up areas and the canal being really attractive in the more rural parts. The centre of Leicester is ok too, there are plenty of moorings really near the shops (and near a pub, which we didn’t go in!) and secure pontoon moorings at Castle Gardens if you want to stay the night there.
We will be here for a little while then we will be off again if the weather is ok. Watch this space for further unmissable adventures! I bet you can’t wait!
Cheers, B.
