Kilby Bridge (River Soar/Grand Union – Leicester Line) – Tuesday 3rd September

I didn’t bother to write a blog entry yesterday as I didn’t even get off the pontoon.  I did, however, sit on the pontoon and Diane came and sat with me and we chatted.  Ray joined us later and then we retired to Ferndale to see their very new, posh, space age diesel stove.  The others had a glass of wine but I stuck to apple juice!

I am sorry that I didn’t get to see Leicester but with our new mooring on the North Oxford I’m sure we will be doing the Leicester Ring again and I do so like the River Soar.



Castle Gardens Moorings

This morning was a different day – the sky was blue and the sun was shining and that was before 7am!  By 7.30am I had thrown my clothes on and was off to Tesco for a few supplies and a USB memory stick (but more of that later).  We left Leicester, along with Ferndale, at 8.30am – I had managed to shower before we left but still had my breakfast to eat.  We had 12 locks to do today and I managed to give the boat a good tidy and clean between them.

Banjo snoozing

Today has been a day of bloggers!  Firstly we passed NB Windsong – if I hadn’t been so behind with my blog reading I would have noticed that they were on the Soar!  Next it was NB Petroc – I knew they were coming so that wasn’t a surprise.  But it was NB Epiphany that we were due to meet at Kilby Bridge.

We had a good cruise though we were following a hire boat so all the locks were against us.  Richard did the locks today but Ray and Diane took it in turns.  We had a good system going in the end and it felt as if we were whizzing along   We lost Muffin between two locks – he had jumped on Ferndale and was quite happy there – I think Diane bribed him though!  Banjo thought Muffin was mad and snoozed for most of the trip.

Just before King’s Lock we left the River Soar and joined the Grand Union – Leicester Line.  At King’s Lock (named after a lock keeper and not royalty) there is a lovely lock keeper’s cottage (there seems to be a distinct lack of them on the Soar).  On the wall there is a strange contraption – I reckoned it was a hangman’s gibbet but Ray thought a sign had hung from it.  I like my idea better!

King's Lock Cottage

We arrived at Kilby Bridge and got the last two mooring places – but that’s all we needed!  We pulled in behind Epiphany and ate a late lunch.

I had a quiet afternoon – I think I overdid the housework this morning and anyway I wanted to be wide awake for our evening out!! 

When I surfaced from the boat I found Richard and Muffin chatting to Ray and Diane along with Mike from NB Isobel.  Mike is a long term friend of Ray and Diane’s but it turns out that we have quite a bit in common with him too.  His parents live a couple of doors down from my Step-mother and he also moors in Barby Moorings where Mary H will rest her weary head for the winter.

Bloggers convention

We had a couple of picnic tables beside Mary H so we invited our neighbours for drinks on the patio before going to dinner.  (Stupidly I didn’t take any photos).  We went to the Navigation Inn (yet another one) for a very nice and sociable evening.  It’s always nice to catch up with fellow bloggers but three in one room and having seen two more this morning.  We look forward to catching up with John and Fiona next year.

Castle Gardens, Leicester to Kilby Bridge

8.10 miles
12 locks