Full English and Hinckley

We woke up to more smoke on the water but this time we planned to navigate through it...

It was clear blue skies as we set off and a very pleasant day for cruising..

  The wild flowers were setting the scene for us as we made our way to Market Bosworth..

It was busy here with moored boats, but we had no intention of stopping anyway..

We pushed on towards the aqueduct at the battlefields moorings (we still have so much to see here).

The plan was to get to Sutton Cheney Wharf as again we had organised a Tesco's shop, and also we thought we would top up with water.. As we got there we noticed the mooring we wanted was empty so we blew out the water and moored up right outside the wharf.

In the distance you might notice a little white dot on the water. It was a guy with a model boat and what a masterpiece it was too.

Everything worked on it including firing the cannons. Talking to him we found out he also owned 22 submarines which was his speciality.

While we were waiting for our Tesco's delivery it was a bit rude not to walk over to the cafe and grab a full English breakfast.

It was so well organised, tables wiped clean, staff with face guards, ordering outdoors, and the food was amazing, we will be back..
Tesco's arrived on time and we loaded up Derwent6 with grub and more beer.

The wind had picked up a bit from when we turned up but Del still reversed back onto the water point with ease..

We then set off towards Stoke Golding and passed this boat with a coffin on the roof as extra storage, and a bed for one if required..

  We then  carried on under the tight quaint bridges and under the willow trees.

We reached Hinckley late in the afternoon and soon got out the beer and nibbles out in the cratch..

It had seemed a long day, but in fact it had been a very enjoyable day. Tooty said I like it here!

Spectacular scenery

We are in such a lovely spot here, so quiet, and some spectacular scenery..

This is what we see first thing in the morning..

Yep we have had some great sunsets as well and even Tooty has been for a walk with us.

Moving tomorrow!!

Ashby in reverse

We set off at 8.00am and sneaked through the tunnel. It is low at the end as you enter, but then gets higher as you go south.

We had plenty of room when we entered as we were full of water, but we still took off the chimney rain hat as the weeping willows were very low and could pull it off..

This canal has everything, open fields, wooded sections and also some tricky tight overgrown sections, and it is very pretty..

and

You then come out of the woods and reach Shakerstone.

It was then over the aqueduct again and then a nice steady cruise towards Congerton.

We only met two boats today and yep you guessed it they were both on bridges..

We took a chance on getting the mooring we had when we came up here a few weeks ago and luckily it was free.

So we had all the signals and we settled ourselves in for a couple of days with the FA Cup and the Grand Prix on the telly...

The terminal work

All the moorings are a strict 48 hours at the end of the Ashby canal, but you can pay the trust to stay longer..  So we had a look at what had been done and was disappointed as it was almost the same as when we were up here last time and only went up to the 52 foot winding hole.

If you go further up, the canal has a very tricky path to follow and a clear one would help and encourage the public to use the path just to link the two canal ends..

So we have just enjoyed being up here, Del went out on his bike and has been flying his glider in a local field and Al has been deep into her book, it has been very relaxing. It has been quite busy with boats but they have been going in and out again. We haven't had any problems with moorings as everyone is moving very regular which is helpful.. 

Up to the end

So we have been quite static up the Ashby and it is starting to get busier now we are well and truly into the summer months..
We have to admit we have enjoyed being on our own and keeping our distance from others as much as we can, but don't get us wrong, we can't wait to party again in true Del and Al style..
It was nice where we were as after all that rain the water levels had come up and we could chain up nice and tight, but as the levels dropped down a little with all the traffic out there we could hear the gravel scrapping underneath Derwent6 again, so thought we would move to newer gardens.

We set off at around lunchtime after everyone else had got where they wanted to go and crossed the aqueduct to Shackerstone.

It always feels nice to be cruising again and with levels as they are slow is the only way to do it on the Ashby..

 

The canal soon goes into the trees and it is very pretty with its river feel.

The trees hung over us giving us a canopy through the drizzle and the bridges just made us concentrate for a bit..

Talking about concentration, you need a bit of that as you pass through Snarestone tunnel. First it has a big kink in it and secondly it gets lower as you head north, but its good fun.

Just the last couple of bridges before we arrived at Snarestone Whalf  and we could see a space as we went in and turned..

We reversed onto the water point and was surprised on how fast the tap was..

Just as we pulled away another boat pushed off and we slipped straight into its spot, perfect! We could get telly and were quite sheltered so that's our next 48 hours sorted..

The weather had been iffy all day with some light drizzle at times, but we decided to take a walk into Measham where there was a Co-Op. We took the new trolley and a brolly and set of for the 45 minute hike. We had to walk along a busy B road and were surprised that there was no footpath, so it was a bit tricky.. But as luck would have it, we stumbled across a lovely farmshop called the pop up farmshop (or the British food box) which had everything we needed, so we were back to Derwent6 inside 45 minutes instead.