Good morning, it's bright and early and I'm just north of Leicester near a
village called Wanlip and there's lots of boating lakes either side of me.
Yesterday was a little bit different because every time I got to a bridge
where there was a marker, some markers said it was in red, some markerr said it
was in orange, some even said it was in green.
So either the markers are all wrong or the river was going up and down,
up and down. I've got a feeling the river was going up and down a little bit because I
sort of marked it off on a brick, when I moored up for lunch really and I
thought right, I was going to stay there for the full night and then I
went out and looked at the brick, sort of round about half past four
and it was a lot lower. It was like a brick and a half lower. So I was like
okay, let's carry on going. So I unmoored, if that's such a term and carried on
south. Now the reason why I'm wanting to do these journey so quickly, regardless
of what Minimal List say, because they always joke with me and say that I'm
rushing around but in particular this one, there's two reasons. One, I want to
get to the other side of, there's a football ground in Leicester, I want to
get on to the other side of that. I'm on a canal then, I'm on the Grand Union
Canal which is the the Leicester Branch and I'm nice and safe then and I don't
get affected by flooding. The second thing is, is because I'm going to the
Crick Show and I'm wanting to go via boat, lots and lots of viewers are saying
last year it was really hectic around Foxton Locks, as more and more people
come down the canal to go up Foxton Locks because there's 11 locks there and
because it takes so long. So I want to get past Foxton Locks nice and early so
that I don't have any queues. I don't have any problems with flooding and I
can moor up north of Crick, north of Yelvertoft and carry on doing
fit out, carrying on doing bits and pieces inside but I need to get over
those sort of two humps and then I'll be happy.
As I headed south towards the city of Leicester the canal weaves through
Wanlip Nature Reserve. The meadows here were dug for gravel in the 1990s but have
since been filled in. During the winter, the neighbouring River Soar floods the
area and creates huge lakes and pools either side of the canal. Forming a great
habitat for many birds. So just then, we nearly had a bit of an incident.
There's a very kind volunteer here helping me through the lock and I was holding
the centre line at the stern, and because the ropes are wet, the wrap
around the bollard by the side of the lock, wrapped against itself so that the
pull of the boat... in fact, it's happening again.
In fact it's happened again. Whilst I'm chatting and it's pulling the boat over.
So I'm up at Burstall Lock here and we didn't just nearly have one, but we nearly had
two incidents. The centre line of Alice is down from the centre, down to a bollard.
The volunteer here, who is very kindly helping me through the lock, indicated
that there's a bit of a push on the water and the rope got sort of caught
against itself, on the bollard, which resulted in Alice heavily listing to
one side. So we had to put the top paddles down and let water out of the bottom
gates to let it even up and then I started talking to you again and it
happened exactly the same again. So we had to close the pedals and open the
bottom ones to let the water out and let it even up and I'm now holding the ropes
but if you're not paying attention at a lock, something as simple as a centre
line wrapped around a bollard, the boat was going up so therefore the rope got
tighter, and tighter, and tighter against itself because it's wet and you can
quite quickly list your boat so much that it sinks. So lesson learnt, he was
really helpful, but be aware of what you're doing with your ropes.
At bridge 10 you can see the National Space Centre. It has a number of
interactive galleries, the UK's largest planetarium and a 42 metre high rocket
tower within the dome.
If you want to visit Leicester and you want two moor up, right in the city
centre, there's some brand new moorings on the river by the Canal & River Trust
at Friars Mill. It's ever so slightly south of bridge number four but there's
water, there's electricity via tokens here and the best bit is, it's completely
secure from land from the city centre. So if there's any doubt, or you're worried
think you know I'd love to moor up in the middle of the city but it's too
dangerous or I don't like the idea of people being able to get onto the
mooring at night, they can't. You have to have a British Waterways key to get
both onto the mooring, and into the car park but once you get through there,
you're smack bang, right in the middle of the city.
Leicester is one of the oldest cities in England with history going back at least
2,000 years. It's a very multicultural and diverse city, with an estimated 50%
ethnic minority population. Making it the first city in Britain not to have an
indigenous white British majority. Many of the ancient buildings still stand
across the city and there's a real mix of old and new, with a large shopping
centre as well as a busy city centre. After King Richard III was dug up
in a council car park here, he has been reburied in Leicester
Cathedral and a very popular visitor centre was created on top of the
original burial site.
With yet more rain forecast, I needed to get off the River Soar and up onto the
Grand Union Canal at lock 40 which is St. Mary's Mill Lock. {Molly very rarely barks}
{but here she was seeing off a nasty plastic buoy in the water! }
[Molly Barking]
This is the Leicester Line of the Grand Union Canal and the scenery quickly
becomes very picturesque. It was hard to imagine you were still within a major
metropolitan area. If you've not already subscribed please do. It doesn't cost you
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Until next time, see you later.