The weather was idea, quite hot but a regular breeze and intermittent cloud cover. All in all a very good day.
Richard preparing for a selfie at Gees Lock - his surname apparently so it had to be done!
We had some really shallow pounds and at times it meant that it was difficult to get in and off the moorings at locks, it got better as we went down towards Leicester and once we hit the Soar there was obviously no problem at all.
John and Karen at one of the locks, having a bit of a chat, she doesn't like steering the boat so Richard and I might have had a chat or two, when we weren't busy navigating the boats, but there's no photographic evidence!
There were quite decent gaps between the locks so John and Karen were able to come aboard for the pounds. John and I couldn't believe how rural it was, this was taken when we were quite a way into Leicester on the map, and it was like this for much of the way.
For those, like me, who wouldn't recognise this is the King Power Stadium, Leicester's football ground. There was a big cycling event on today, John thought it was promoting youngsters getting active. There was definitely drumming involved! The lock next to it was horrible, and quite difficult to pick the crew up from afterwards. Richard and I became pretty good at getting in and out of the locks together, it must have been quite beautiful to watch!!!!!
This is the secure mooring that if we come again, we shall use. You need a water ways key to get onto it from land and it's a floating pontoon, so we might well use it. I'd like to come down as there's a lot to see in the city, but we'd been really put off by peoples comments about it. Generally we felt that we'd been to lots of worse places!
This was an attractive bridge that we went under in what was presumably pretty much the centre of the city.
This was more like what I'd expected, a bit more like Stoke on Trent, showing the past industrial side to the canal.
We passed a whole series of these murals. They were of different scenes and I liked the fact that they were encouraging artists to be expressive in a more positive way than the endless graffiti that we see so much of.
This one was a bit further on.
I loved this, a mill that had been really well restored and was being used. It always makes me sad when I see lovely old buildings just falling into disrepair. I know it's not cheap doing this sort of work but it's so rewarding to see it when it's done well.
The chimney that used to be used by the Wolsey factory, one of only two buildings that appear to remain.
This was the other one, hiding behind the trees, a tower of some sort. Not sure what it might have been used for, John thought water maybe, but I'm not so sure. If you know please leave a comment!
The penultimate lock and it was full and the gates were open! almost ALL the locks had been empty up to now and this was a sight for sore eyes (and in John and Karen's cases, sore arms).
Nearly there! Hooray!
This daddy swan had been ahead of us, chasing another swan, with his mate and their goslings following sedately on. We saw him and the other one in the reeds, John thought they were mating, but I believe that swans mate for life so I think that he was seeing the other one away from his mate. Whatever there was a lot of splashing and noise going on. This was after the event.
We are now moored up at Burstill and are going to stay here tomorrow so that Robert and family can visit us again. There's a pub just around the corner so we're going to check it out before John collapses!
One funny incident, someone coming up the locks at some point said that the pound had emptied because a drunk had gone through the night before and left the paddles open. Mmmm, I wonder if it was anyone we knew?
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