Home sweet home

We are taking a couple of weeks break to go back to our home in Wales. We are both getting a bit boat crazy and the toilet is also not working properly which isn't great! We may need to get it looked at by a boatyard when we return. So no more blog now until 11th December.

Dex was also very happy to get home!

Kilby Bridge to Kings Lock

Saturday 25th November

It was a cold frosty morning. We had a 9.30am passage booked through 9 locks today so we needed to leave promptly at 9am which we did. We made our way to the first lock, Kilby lock.

When we arrived there were a couple of boats already there. We talked to the boaters and one of the boats was also booked at 9.30am so we would be going through the locks together which was great.

We were also pleased to hear that the canal and river trust volunteers were helping on the locks.

This is the boat we were sharing with, it belongs to Steve and his wife but she was too ill to come aboard so his friend Chris was helping out for the day. They were taking the boat to it's winter mooring.

We got through the first couple of locks without any problems, John was steering and I was helping out with the paddles and gates with Chris.

As we got closer to Leicester the rural landscape became more urban.

This house had a bar set up at the end of their garden complete with hot tub!

The trees were sometimes right across the canal, making it quite tricky to navigate.

We had to wait at this lock for 2 boats which were travelling down.

It didn't take long with the volunteers helping and we were soon able to enter the lock.

The canal was really shallow in places and we had been told to stick to the centre.

At this lock another boat was travelling down. The guy on it was alone and had broken a rib so was really glad of our help with the gates and paddles.

Unfortunately whilst we were waiting to go in, Steve and John both got stuck on the bottom! Two other boats had caught up with us and were queuing behind. A traffic jam on the canal!

John was trying to free the back end using the power of the engine.

Steve had managed to free himself using his barge pole.

John eventually came unstuck and we were able to continue.

Finally we arrived at the final lock of the day, Kings lock.

We said goodbye to Steve and Chris, they were travelling on through Leicester.

We managed to find a good mooring spot. We arrived about 2pm so not bad really. We were very glad to have managed to get through this section before it was closed for the winter.