Photo post from the mammoth day, and the couple of days before it

We are at Kilby Bridge after 2 hours of boating today. A beautiful morning to be up and out - one of those misty mornings with bright sunshine on the water, autumn leaves turning and no one else about. Even the dog walkers were still abed.

Wednesday and Thursday nights:

We were moored at Kegworth Shallow Lock for two nights as it persisted down with rain one day and we weren't in the frame of mind to get soaked.

The lock is left open except during flood conditions. In the dark of the evening I noticed white mounds on the water and thought it was swans. But it is foam. I had to ask Mick what it was - my imagination went to effluent from a factory ... Apparently the foam is created as the water goes over the many weirs. It looks quite white on the water but is a bit beige when it dries on the boat - ooky.

Bubble bath in the lock ;-)

Lovely sunny day, still water - what could be better?

Autumn colours starting to appear.

The boffin is checking something out.

Had to have the sunglasses on

Some beautiful properties in this area

See? And the front is around to the left, so lovely views both ways of the river and fields on the other side.

Lovely, eh?

This boat was moored on the lock landing where there was also this -

- burnt out wreck. Getting in to let David off to prepare the lock was tricky, as was exiting to go into the lock. There are few moorings on the River Soar, so I understand people mooring on lock landings overnight. But not as a long-term thing**, and certainly not when doing so means only ONE boat of no more than 62 foot can get in. It may look like there is space in front of Waka Huia, but actually there was a submerged chrome frame just in front of my bow. ** It was clearly a long term mooring (at least longer than overnight) as the boat was locked up, no one was on board and it was the middle of the day.

 Yesterday on the mammoth run:

This is Mick and Julia's old boat Mecca, the one they had when we first met them back in 1994 at Norton Junction where they thought we were Australian!!! There is documentary evidence of this as Julia wrote in her log that she met some Australians at the rubbish point. Not sure how a friendship flourished after that devastating mistake, but it did and it has. And a damn fine thing too! By the way, nb Mecca doesn't look as spiffing now as it did then!

This weed is ubiquitous along the Soar - looks like giant watercress. The stalks don't seem to go down to the bottom, so I am thinking it spreads outwards from the bank. Any ideas, anyone? I don't remember it from our last trip on this stretch. Is it spreading like Himalayan Balsam? Does it need to be eradicated?

This is the beginning of the crap around the prop at the bridge before Limekiln Lock in Leicester. An extension cord, half a sari, rags, plastic bags, wire, twigs. Thankfully we have a pair of loppers on board which I used to cut through the electric cable so I could pull it out. Thanks, Tim and Marta, for that most useful xmas pressie from a few years ago!

I am not sure what these people were doing but it looked like the adults and the kids were having fun. as part of the watersport expo.

These kids were part of the watersport expo thingie. See the guy at the back? As we passed them, he started rocking the raft/board violently side to side. I did think, in my risk averse way, that it was not the most sensible thing to do when a boat is coming past with a prop that pulls water and anything in the water to its orbit. However no kids were harmed in the filming of this incident...

Not sure what you call a conglomeration of kayaks and canoes. However, these kids and the adults with them were having a blast. Wonderful to see them out doing physical stuff, learning new skills. Full credit to the adults instructing/supervising/assisting/guiding

 

 

What is this building? It looks like the Michelin Man's play house!

This is Toby and his Mum Emma with David. Toby was a star lock wheeler. I mentioned him in yesterday's post. He is cool!

The water was well down above Gee's Lock.  I calculated (with the eye of a person who assesses the amount of gib board needed for any particular patch) that it was at least 600mm (2 foot) lower than the high water mark. I stayed in the centre all the way through to the lock, and I travelled at all of 1mph. I was in tickover, but the water was SO shallow that the boat was extremely slow. I wasn't really worried as we were still moving, but it was the slowest I have had to cruise for a long time.