Smeeton Westerby

Today's Canals : Market Harborough Arm, Grand Union Leicester Branch

We awoke to find a very grey day which, by the time we were ready to start the departure process had turned wet, albeit only a fine drizzle for the most part. We needed to take on more water before leaving as there will be no certain option later on. (There is a water point at Foxton Junction but it is often occupied by boats that are either waiting to get the call to enter he bottom lock or who have been confused by the ambiguous signage about mooring)

Once the tank was full we could begin to stow way the hosepipe which we had left out on the roof for this refill. A visit to the waste disposal bins followed but the elsan unit remains closed so we will have to stop for this chore when we pass through Foxton.

We were then ready to leave - our mooring had been the one just to the right of the two Braidbar boats with the mouse-ear stern door decoration.

This huge hedge at the canal side end of one house's garden caught our attention. We can only assume that they particularly treasure their privacy. (We also reported on it on our last visit in 2018 but the excuse for repeating it is to say that this time we realised that we would not want to be the person who keeps the foliage in such good trim as the space between the hedge and the water is rather narrow!)

Almost at the edge of town one proud home owner is trying to outdo (or at least out spend) their neighbours with a substantial professional re-modelling of the canal end of their garden. Let's hope that they find both the time and the sunshine to enjoy it once completed.

At Bowden Hall we took a closer look after researching it for Saturday's blog. We could now see the buildings on the opposite side of the road which seems may have been part of the farm and estate at one time. Perhaps the reason we overlooked it on the way in was that the restoration of the canal-side building was so detailed and 'perfect' that at a glance it seems as if it is a recent modern build!

At the swing road bridge close to Foxton we struck lucky as a boat had just come through and was starting to close the bridge when they spotted us and very kindly let us through. We could not even get off and offer to help!

We again paused alongside the swing footbridge to make use of the elsan point.

At the junction we turned right to continue en route to Leicester. The long established Vagabond trip boat moors just after the turnover bridge. Whilst its trips are still advertised on the web, we wonder from its condition if it has perhaps been retired. Since it was built in 1972, perhaps it is entitled to take life a bit easier now!

We suddenly spotted some blue sky - there were some really pleasant breaks over the next couple of hours although greyness was never far away. The temperature remained on the chillier side of cool.

After our failure to top up our diesel tank at North Kilworth we were now quite keen to do so and called at Debdale Marina. Also, whilst competing the cooking of our roast dinner last night we had to change over gas bottles. The marina was busy today. As we turned in they were just completing the transfer of one boat from the water onto a trailer. Another was expected imminently to be lifted onto the hard standing and we were asked to keep clear (this meant we could not access the fuel point at first) and wait until staff were available to serve us. So, we started to prepare our lunch and, of course, as soon as our baguettes were ready we were given a call. Fuel remains expensive at £1.38 a litre (plus propulsion duty at a declared proportion) and the gas bottle was £43.33.

We could not hang around (although Mike did manage to finish his lunch) ass yet another boat arrived wanting access to the service wharf and another was waiting to be moved out of the dry dock! Busy day . . .

As we have discovered before the SSSI status of this section of the canal means that moorings are infrequent so we were keen to find somewhere before they were all taken for the night - tunnel and locks are a thing for the morrow. 

This photo is included only to show that we did have some brighter spells!

The mooring just after bridge 70 already had four boats so it was fortunate that it is also surprisingly long. That did mean that what was left was the curved part so mooring comfortable took longer than usual.

8.1 Miles - 0 Locks