Here we are at last at Kilby! The trip from Market Harborough to here has been fraught with incident!
Monday morning, after a very pleasant weekend with Mum and Dave, we left Market Harborough to make our slow way back to Thurmaston. This would have been a whole lot easier if we hadn’t have become frmly grounded! A serious amount of rocking the boat, pushing with the pole, revving the engine and swearing was needed to get underway. Eventually we managed to leave the mooring!
The rest of the trip to Foxton was relatively uneventful, even the weather was not too bad! The wind did get up a bit towards lunchtime but we were nearly there then so it didn’t matter. Safely moored, we decided to take George to the pub (you know how he likes to go!) He was very enthusiastic and we walked there quite quickly, arriving (as we so often do) at exactly 12pm! Unfortunately, as we discovered, the Black Horse doesn’t open on Mondays, much to George’s disgust! It took some persuading to stop him camping on the doorstep! Having dragged him, kicking and growling, back to the boat, he refused to get back on! He wanted to go to the pub, of course! Making sure that he was allowed in to Bridge 61 and that it was indeed open on Mondays, we went there instead. George was happy. Ken was not though because the beer wasn’t very good. Never mind at least we had a contented dog!
Tuesday was a really lovely day weatherwise. Bright and sunny, perfect for cruising. We had a good trip to Fleckney. Fleckney is a handy village for shopping, with a Coop, post office, newsagents, chemist and there is a good pub too, how lucky is that? All just a few hundred yards across a field. We went in to get supplies (beer mainly) and just happened to end up in the pub sampling their baguettes (cheese and mushroom, very nice!) Good job we didn’t take George as the landlord’s rottweiller appeared from behind the bar and cuddled up to Ken. Could have been nasty! That afternoon the wind really started to get up so we didn’t move on any further.
Wednesday there was a howling gale and it looked like rain so we decided discretion was the better part of valour and stayed put. A blowy walk down the towpath to the group of locks was in order to suss out the water levels as we had had to fill the canal on the way up. Sure enough they were low so we knew, when we did move, we would have to do it again. George didn’t seem to notice that there wasn’t a pub involved in this exercise and we left him at home when we went to the ‘shops’ again later!
Before we went I, in my wisdom, decided to hang my washing out. I figured I could save a tumble drying session as it was so windy it was bound to get dry. I put it on the linen horse and secured the linen horse to the tiller on the back of the boat………….Or so I thought! On hearing a strange noise outside I rushed to the back of the boat to see the whole linen horse submerged in the murky depths! Ken had to drag it out (still complete with washing) with the boat hook! I was laughing so much I couldn’t help! Fortunately there was no one else about to see this debacle. Needless to say, far from saving a tumble drying session, I have had to wash it all again!
Today (Thurs) after our enforced stay at Fleckney we really did have to get to Kilby. We needed to empty the elsan and fill up with water. Although it was still really windy, we set off. Ken struggled valliantly with the tiller to keep off the bank as we mostly had a side wind. At one point, near Newton Harcourt, we were going along diagonally just to keep straight, if you see what I mean! Getting in to locks was a bit dodgy, even though I opened both gates, as the wind just kept blowing the boat off course. I had to walk most of the way here too as it was easier for Ken to keep going than risk getting stuck on the bank picking me up between locks! En route we met the BW chaps who were doing the work on the locks in Leicester last week. They were on their way to start work on the Foxton flight. This meant the rest of the locks on our journey were in our favour, for which we were grateful!
Hopefully the weather will calm down for the rest of our trip home!
