Saturday 17th April

So we have now done The Leicester Ring of 172.5 miles (made up of 88.6 miles of narrow canals, 54.3 miles of broad canals and 29.6 miles of small rivers), 115 locks (45 narrow locks and 70 broad locks) and 4 tunnels. We met some people yesterday who had done the Ring in 7 days! Apparently they had 4 teenagers on board but that’s still a lot of motoring per day.

It was a beautiful day and I was way too hot in my black jeans! We started on the rest of Buckby Locks – 6 of them – all our own as usual! It seems funny that we wont do them again for a long time (if ever) as next time we are out we will be heading towards London and our summer jaunt. On our way back to Bugbrooke we passed a family of baby ducks, unfortunately I wasn’t quick enough with my camera! As usual I did the packing and started on the cleaning on our way back – I don’t think I have seen the canal between Buckby and Bugbrooke yet! As we got back to the marina I took a few photos (for posterity as Richard has now given notice to Bugbrooke and from the end of July we will be continuous cruisers with no home marina to go to!). On our way home Millie was very good in her basket, and in fact we weren’t sure if she was in there at all! She made a few quiet noises so I let her out of the basket and to start with she stood on the edge of it watching the world go by at 70 mph! Soon she settled down on my knee and fell asleep. When we got home she got out of the car, wandered around and since then is back at home quite happily.

So this is the end of our first trip of 2010. I will let everyone know when we are on the move again – it will probably be between May 21st (Richard’s 60th birthday and his retirement) and the May Bank Holiday as Victoria and a friend have booked themselves in for the long weekend!