To the Ashby Terminus

We had a nice mooring at Congerstone and found out that there was some live music in the pub on the Tuesday night. So during the day Al caught up with the washing and Del cleaned Derwent6. On the Tuesday evening we went out for a drink at the bar and ended up having some cheese and biscuits with the live music, and very good it was too.

On the Wednesday we set off from our 48 hour moorings and took a slow journey up to Snarestone.

Tooty was thinking here we go again onto pastures new!

The water levels still aren't good, but the scenery sure makes up for it.

We soon got to Shackerstone passing the steam railway on the battlefield line.

There was a lot of debris floating around in the canal from all the strong winds we have had recently, but that means a lot of wood as well. We then got to Snarestone and its 250 yard tunnel..

This is a one way tunnel which has a little kink in it and gets lower as you get to the other end. We got through ok and then winded at the canal terminus.

We had to wind here but the Ashby canal now goes on for another quarter of a mile.

The problem is that it only has a 50 foot winding hole at the end so we would have to reverse up there.

We got a good mooring at the terminus and then took a walk up to the new section.

 A lot of progress has gone on here with a new bridge at the end.

You can go and walk round the shop and make a donation for anything you fancy. Al picked up a few bits and pieces.
You can now walk past the old pumping station, which has been turned into a house.

 

What has been good to see while we have been up here, is that we have had our number taken by CaRT three times.. Sorry! but we have no choice but to backtrack here, as we can't go any further so please don't take our number on the same moorings on the way back .

Onto Congerstone for an equinox

So we have sat tight again for the weekend and watched some football, boxing and of course Strictly. After Al had watched Strictly we did take a walk up to the Three Horseshoes in Stoke Golding and saw a Freddie tribute which was fun.

It has been quite wet which has helped with the water levels on the Ashby canal. On the Sunday Tooty didn't want Al to get up.

Al then cooked a lovely roast chicken Sunday roast and it nearly made us both fall asleep we ate so much..

On the Monday we were up at 8.00am and made our way towards Sutton Wharf, a little place close to our hearts.. Its a café on a winding hole which does some lovely food. We tried to make breakfast but we had to go so slow as we were still kicking up mud. It was so pretty on the way..

 Two boats got in trouble passing us too fast and one nearly hit a bridge.

We held Derwent6 and Al walked up to check out the moorings..  There were a few so we got onto the visitors moorings of 24 hrs.

Al had arranged a Tesco's delivery at the café so we got ourselves a table outside in the sunshine and had a nice Jacket potato with a drink..

This killed some time and on queue our delivery arrived..

We topped up with water and got rid of our rubbish here, so we were all set to continue.. 
It was the perfect late afternoon and this canal is so pretty when you have it to yourselves.

The first shock was the visitors moorings at the Battlefields. These used to be on the starboard side and have been changed to the port side with no mooring rings, there is also no directions on where you need to go, strange!

We were also a bit shocked at Market Bosworth. The water point has moved and the marina are charging five pounds for some of the moorings..

It was difficult to stop as the sun slowly began to set, but Al kept reminding Del that "It takes two" the Strictly show was on at 6.30pm.

We managed to get to Congerstone and found the visitors mooring empty..

You might spot a black dot on the towpath, guess who that was?

 We managed to set up telly just in time.. It was a lovely full equinox moon tonight and the moon was rising bright orange from the suns rays as it set..

It was a great setting to finish the day on..

It looks like we have a nice week ahead..

Ashby Canal Blocked

We have been sitting tight over the last few days due to the wind and rain we have had.. Its good news for us to get the rain as the canals were in need of it, but we have got so used to this good weather.
We get a bit of an itch to move when we are static for three days, so we thought we had a window to move this morning. It was going to be windy at around lunchtime so we got ready to set off at 8.00am when we realised we were missing our mop from the roof. The strong winds must have whipped it right off and dumped it somewhere!. After a quick hunt for it we set off and could feel the winds picking up again.. It was good to see some dredging work going on as it does need it on the Ashby.

Being protected by the hedges and trees helped but we did worry when going through a wooded section the something was going to fall in front of us.. Doing this section all you could hear was the engine and the electricity cables singing as the wind blew through them.

We saw a few trees down on the way but it didn't obstruct our path.

We got to Hinckley and topped up with water, as the water points are a bit scarce along the Ashby.

We then pushed on past Trinity Marina and past the Triumph factory and it began to rain.

We don't cruise in the rain if we can help it but the brolly came out and we carried on. It was only showers but the rain was heavy when it came.

We reached Ashby boats and the wind was getting so strong we felt we were taking too much of a risk.. We moored up at Stoke Golding and took things off the roof as the leaves were falling all around us.

Tooty had his look around and soon came back in after being blown around a bit. We needed food so we got the bags and walked across the field past the church and to the store in the village..

We then heard that the canal had been closed at bridges 35 and 36 due to a tree down, good job we moored up here, we thought.

We then walked down to the Farm shop nearby and it was loaded with meat and veg.

We bought loads of organic veg and a fresh free range chicken which will be for our Sunday lunch..