Today's Blog is not very interesting! Not, that is, unless you revel in the details of boaters' struggles with water levels and locks that have minds of their own.
When we left our overnight mooring the sky was quite grey and there had earlier been just a few (ie 6) drops of rain. Nevertheless it was pleasantly warm and only a gentle breeze. All this just as well as we had a target of 7 locks by lunch time, the a possible overnight mooring at Newton Harcourt, on a longer pound before the next set of five locks for tomorrow.
The first lock is named Bumble Bee Lock, no idea why and a departure from most names along here which are either place names or some local individual, typically xxx's Bridge. In addition, the creature thus named usually only forms one word not two.
And so the problems began: a marked shortage of water but not one that is behaving consistently. Some pounds, such as the one above Bumble Bee was clearly well below recent level, perhaps down as much as 200mm to 250mm. Certainly this was enough to mean that we travelled very slowly until arriving at Tythorne Lock.
The bypass weir here was almost running over!
At Bottom Half Mile Lock, the water was even flowing over the top of the gates when we arrived. (In between there had been some much emptier stretches)
This lock also demonstrated the other problem for today: locks with a mind of their own. In some case we would arrive at a lock to be greeted with both bottom gates open. Welcome though an empty was was, both gates open means that Mike had to go around and over the top gates to shut the offside bottom gate. (Almost all of the accommodation bridges below these lock did not offer access to boaters) We always make a point of closing all gates and paddles before we leave but this one decided otherwise, even before we had gone very far at all! No point in going back and shutting it again as it is very likely to repeat its performance.
Here again at our penultimate lock of the flight, the level was well down. We had heard rumours of a boat grounded in this pound but when we passed we suspected that it was a tactical grounding, for sure there was no boater desperately seeking CaRT assistance!
At the top lock we had a short chat with a member of CaRT staff who was trying to manage the levels. However with boats coming through, us and two following close behind, he could not balance all the levels so went off to fix a problem elsewhere. Fortunately the next level in the long pound before the five Kibworth Locks, was about full so we could make steady progress.
In any event we did not go very far and pulled onto a good mooring with a view across the fields towards Wistow. Long enough for Christine to raise the option of tackling the next five locks this afternoon to give us a little leeway on our schedule, recovering the day off on Saturday.
The unusual house across the first field was built around 2012 and aimed to be especially eco efficient. Apparently it featured on an episode of Grand Designs. According to Zoopla it last sold in 2018 for £440K, less than for the Lock Cottage at the top lock in 2024. However, a comment on a Geograph page suggested it was being offered in 2024 for £3.3 million. In any event, the agent's site says that it has been withdrawn and is no longer for sale.
After lunch we took the plunge and set off for the top of the long run of locks from Leicester.
Shortly we had a view of Wistow Church - the bright yellow of rape seed in the fields alongside we spotted in May has now disappeared. We read this morning reports that farmers are harvesting crops this year up to six weeks earlier than 'normal'
Working through these five locks was much the same except that Mike soon discovered that he had forgotten to put his phone camera on charge over lunch and so it now shut down!
Did manage a shot of the penultimate lock: Gas Pipe. Unimaginatively named after the large gas pipe that cross over the canal just above the lock. Camera refused to take a picture of it - must have some taste at least!
Once through the flight and with some relief at Kibworth Top we only had a short distance to the nearest overnight mooring.
4.6 Miles - 12 Locks
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