Prairie Adventure : Debdale boatyard to Market Harborough

Friday 17th November

We stayed at the boatyard all day Thursday waiting for the new fan to arrive but it didn't come. It eventually turned up late morning on Friday but the engineer couldn't promise to fit it until Monday morning so we decided to make the 7 mile trip to Market Harborough.

Before we left on Friday I took Dex for a really nice circular walk along the canal and then followed footpaths to Gumley and over more fields to link back onto a different section of the canal. Beautiful scenery.

Also saw some pigs!

We set off after lunch on Friday. We would just go back to Foxton today and make the rest of the journey to Market Harborough in the morning.

Foxton locks is really pretty lit up at night.

On Saturday we set off about 10am. It was sunny but cold but we had plenty of warm clothes to wear. Our first task was to go through the swing bridge past the pub. John opened it for me and I took Prairie through. We only had 5.5 miles to travel to Market Harborough https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_Harborough and it was lock free so quite an easy run.

Soon after we came to a road swing bridge and John got off to open it. Luckily another boat was waiting to go through and there was someone already in the process of opening it. I went straight through and John then took Dex for a walk.

Some parts of the canal were quite narrow with reed beds on either side. It was really shallow too in places.

I passed some old warehouses. Originally this section of canal was going to go as far as Northampton but they ran out of funds and so this section terminates at Market Harborough.

As I approached the outskirts of Market Harborough there were some nice views across the open countryside.

Market Harborough is quite a wealthy town and this is reflected in some of the canalside properties.

Soon we arrived at the basin. I had already stopped to pick up John and Dex. John had to turn the boat around in the basin and we then found a mooring spot along the towpath.