The Leicester Ring Part 1
Sunday 14th June 2020
Lockdown is over and it’s time to leave Weston-on-Trent with Captain Bob and Lady Rosemary who joined us last Friday after picking their boat up from Preston Brook.
As we are still unsure of what will happen next regarding Covid we have decided not to travel too far afield and have decided to do The Leicester Ring.
We had a lovely sunny cruise to Sawley, where Rosemary and I had a walk to see the church.
After an overnight stay at Sawley, which was lovely, we pumped out and filled up with water and set off about 3pm and the weather was glorious.
We had a lovely cruise along the Trent and past Trent Lock before turning onto the Soar.
Just as we were about to moor at Kegworth shallow lock the heavens opened. We had awful weather while we were here and were very close to going over the edge at one point!
Moored with the lockdown crew and we had some lovely walks. We walked to Kingston on Soar, which is a very pretty village nearby. We then continued to Ratcliffe-on-Soar.
Both these villages have beautiful churches but just unfortunate that we couldn’t go in due to lockdown restrictions.
19th June 2020
Paul’s 61st birthday today and we had a Greek night. We all cooked a Greek dish and Chan cooked Paul a lovely birthday cake - really good night.
22nd June 2020
We left the lockdown crew (very sad) and cruised to Loughborough.
The first lock is Kegworth Deep Lock where you can still see the remains of the original lock. This was replaced with the new lock as part of a flood prevention scheme.
We cruise through Zouch and Normanton-on-Soar where there are some very beautiful houses. Our mooring at Loughborough is lovely - Wide towpath - close to lots of shops - aldi, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, M&S, Lidl - just take your pick!!
There is a wharf at Loughborough where you can moor for 24 hours. There are services there and room for 4 boats. It’s very handy to moor here and get all your shopping done as you don’t have as far to walk to the shops.
I found a fabulous little shop here called Baan 57. I treated myself to a lovely Buddha incense stick holder and some incense sticks and San Paulo wood for Chan.
Chan and Winston came on sat till Monday - lovely chilled weekend and we watched mamma Mia sat night for the umpteenth time!
Monday 29th June 2020
We travelled 7 miles today through 3 locks to Sileby Mill. There has been a mill here since 1608 but it is now restored to private residences.
Tuesday 30th June 2020
Today we left Sileby Bridge and cruised 15 miles with 15 locks. We weren’t going to travel so far but we needed to get in and out of Leicester before it went back into lockdown. We set off at 8.15am and moored up at 5.30pm so it was a long day but it was good weather so that helped. We treated ourselves to chippy tea.
Wednesday 1st July 2020
A short and easy cruise today of 3 miles and 5 locks. We moored at Kilby Bridge where there are good services - showers, Elsan, rubbish and water.
We are on the 48 hour moorings but as this area is back in lockdown we can stay here for the duration of lockdown. We are literally only 2 miles and 5 locks away from freedom.
Kilby Bridge has a good selection of supermarkets and a really good butchers within walking distance. There’s also a pub right by the services which is supposed to be really good but obviously this was shut.
During our stay here we have rubbed down, treated the rust and primed the well deck.
We have rubbed down and painted the gunwales and also cleaned the pram cover and the cratch cover.
The veg are growing well and so far we have had spring onions, leeks, carrots, lettuce, rocket and potatoes. We also used the rocket to make an Italian drink called Rucolino.
There are loads of lovely walks around this area too so we made the most of them while we were here.
