LOVELY LEICESTER.

 

Weathervane

Well the weather has definitely put paid to us cruising for a couple of days, its wet, and more importantly its very windy. So we are sat on the pontoons at Trent Lock. How did we get here.

Well we made short work of the 6 remaining locks into Leicester, and met 4 boats coming towards us, which seemed to bode well for finding a mooring at Castle Gardens or Friars Mill in Leicester. Unfortunately the gossip from the boat crews was that there was very little free mooring on either of these sites. but we came up with a plan, if there was no space on Castle Gardens we would go onto Friars Mill, and if we lucked out there we would moor opposite Castle Gardens, (and wait for someone to move) its not ideal as its not a secure mooring.

When we got to Castle Gardens there was a space which was not quite long enough for our 57ft boat, but the boat in front had a 10ft gap at the front of it. We pulled in, there was no one on the boat in front and we took the dangerous decision to move the boat forward, just enough to get our boat in and Black Swan breasted up against us. I called it a dangerous decision as some people don’t like another boater touching their boats, so it could have caused trouble for us. Luckily when the owner returned the Captain had a word with him and he wasn’t bothered, and hadn’t even notice his boat had moved. Phew

Of course we had to head to the pub with Graham and Wendy, first the Blue Boar, a proper real ale pub were the Captain got to have one of his favourite beers, Organic Chocolate Stout by Samuel Smiths brewery, and I had their Taddy Lager.

Happy Captain

https://blue-boar.ourmenu.com/?menu=111663

Then The Corn Market, a large Wetherspoons. The Captain had Darkness by Exeter brewery, a very decent stout, and Graham and Wendy treated us to tea, which was very kind of them.

A quiet day next day, well for the Captain. I spent a busy morning cleaning and cooking before heading out to pick up the Captains prescription from Boots. As it turned out they didn’t have both of the tablets required, but said they would be in next day. We decided to have a pint in the Salmon, a great real ale pub, which I had forgotten was a Black Country Ales pub, even better. The Captain was very happy to find an old favourite on the bar, Byatts All Day Extra Foreign stout as well as their own Pig on the Wall mild.

https://www.blackcountryales.co.uk/pubs/the-salmon

https://untappd.com/b/byatt-s-all-day-foreign-extra-stout/3688800

We also called in the High Cross, another Wetherspoons, which was surprisingly quiet.

We had a quiet night. But next morning when Graham and Wendy came to say goodbye, as they were heading off, they told us there had been a body found in the park right next to us the previous evening, at this time it was being treated as murder, and they had had to be escorted to the moorings by the police when they returned about 9pm, the whole of the park was cordoned off. This meant we were unsure how we were going to keep our planned meet up with Heath and Jennifer later that day.

The Captain spoke to a policeman, and he put our minds at rest, and said someone would escort us through the park when we were ready to go.

Well, when we were ready to go there was no sign of the police, well except for one at the far end sat on a bench watching his phone, so just made our own way out. We discovered the murder had been changed to an unfortunate medical episode.

We met up with our friends and had a wonderful afternoon, ending up in the Red Lion, another Black Country Ales pub, apparently there are 55 of these pubs now.

https://www.blackcountryales.co.uk/pubs

After shopping the next day, there is a Lidl with easy access from the river, we set off to do the 4 locks to Birstall. The first of these is one of my nightmare locks, firstly its difficult to get off the boat as its a high wall with no ladder or steps to aid me. Secondly at one time it was almost impossible to get the lock to equalise, which meant opening the bottom gates was a struggle, and usually took at least 2 people. Well CRT have done some good work on this lock, and even though the gates were still heavy, it was possible for me to open mine without too much trouble, we shared the lock with NB Mai Tai, which helped as they had crew on board. We parted company at the next lock as we stopped to put water in at Memory Lane moorings. Since our last visit they have also added, bins and an elsan here, which is great, but not the promised pumped out machine, bugger. The access gates to get off the moorings have combination locks on them, so you cant use these moorings to access the town.

As I went to set the next lock I was waved back to the boat, as some volunteers offered to lock us through, I never turn down help so stayed on the boat. They had been litter picking and were doing a marvellous job.

The help at the next lock was not so good, as a gongoozler who knew no better, managed to get the pawl off and just let the paddle drop, you should always wind the paddles down so as not to damage the paddle gear. I appreciated the sentiment but not the action.

We moored above the next lock at Birstall, and did it next morning after a quiet night. We were heading to Mountsorrel, there are good mooring and a pub above the locks, and this was our aim for the day. We managed to buddy up with NB Magic, owned by a Dutch couple but I never got their names, but the dog was called Bruce.

The moorings at Mountsorrel were empty much to our surprise, so we said goodbye to Magic and headed to the pub, the Waterside Inn, it was busy. There was nothing dark on for the Captain but he was happy with Guinness zero and I had Cruzcampo. The food menu was good, reasonably priced, and the food we saw (a carvery) looked really nice.

https://www.watersidemountsorrel.co.uk/

We have been lucky on this stretch and have managed to buddy up most days to do the heavy double locks. Monday was no different, and we shared the locks with NB Byefield, again I didnt manage to get their names, but we both moored in Loughborough and we headed to a new Lidl which has opened only 5mins from the moorings just before the bridge.

Of course we went to the pub, first the Tap and Clapper, very cheap at £7.10 for a pint of Murphys stout and a Madri, but it got very noisy, so we headed and found peace in the Organ Grinder, a Blue Monkey brewery pub and they had Guerrilla Chocolate Amaretto Stout on for the Captain, it was lush.

The Organ Grinder

https://bluemonkeybrewery.com/organ-grinder-pubs/loughborough/

https://untappd.com/b/blue-monkey-brewery-guerrilla-chocolate-amaretto/1265127

Yummy

We buddied up again next day, this time with Emma and Harold on NB Grumbleweed. They were heading to Newark but not stopping at Trent Lock, but we will probably catch up with them again at some point. We also met up with Magic and Bruce too, they were heading on to the Trent and Mersey at the junction so I doubt we will see them again.

The pontoons at Trent Lock were again surprisingly quiet with only one other boat on them, so plenty of room for us. We were joined later by a couple of other boats for the night. Of course once again we headed of to the pub, the Steamboat to see Simon. He always has a dark on, and the Captain wasn’t disappointed with Butter my Nuts, a peanut butter stout from Bang the Elephant brewery. We also tried the Trent Lock, a Vintage Inn. Not a lot to write home about, I looked at the food menu and thought it seemed a bit on the pricey side.

https://bangtheelephantbrewingco.com/

https://untappd.com/b/bang-the-elephant-brewing-co-butter-my-nuts/6619016/photos

So today, Wednesday, we are sat listening to the rain, very happy we have nowhere to be. Next port of call Nottingham.

Trent Lock Veiw

24½ miles 29 locks, 1 canal and 2 rivers, the Soar and the Trent.