Thursday 26 June 2014

Summer tour first leg Kegworth to Debdale Wharf

After plenty of spring and winter cruising we have planned to do a tour of the summer historic boat festivals starting with Foxton Locks, then Braunston and finally Audlem festival of transort. Due to family comittments the first leg was done singlehanded, pretty much my first time doing any distance singlehanded. Friday 6th June arrived at the boat around 7pm  and set off heading towards Loughborough, passed Mark on Callisto coming down through Loughborough town lock and made it through to Pillings lock in the dark, at least I now know that the headlamp works!

Saturday morning 5am start and I make it through to Birstall before the rain starts, the river is pretty high but just out of the red, Bison is quite at home forging upstream. After a couple of hour break to let the rain clear I continue up through Leicester which is not one of the nicest canal cities up toward the space centre where the river is definitely in the red. Very few boats moving but we're through the worst of it and pass through onto the canal without incident. It's clear that there has been very little trafic as the canal is crystal clear and you can see the bottom. With the chance of making Kilsby Bridge I forge on to complete a mamoth days boating arriving about 8.30pm. England are playing their warm up match but I get chatting to another boater and gran a few well earned pints.

Not so early start on the Sunday but I push on to get to Debdale. Enjoyed the singlehanded boating and managed to get pretty efficient with no real problems. After a tiring couple of days I jump on the bike and cycle to Market Harborough, jump on the train to East Midlands parkway before driving home for a barbecue with friends.

38 miles and 38 locks

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