From andy@ist.co.uk Mon May 3 18:53:58 1999 Date: Tue, 4 Aug 1998 18:42:53 +0100 From: Andy Greener Reply-To: canals@blacksheep.org To: canals@blacksheep.org Subject: Trent/Soar/GU Leicester section Trip Report - NOT Well, it's not a log, more of a series of impressions of our trip from Nottingham to (nearly) Market Harborough and back to Trent Lock. Nottingham. Blue Heron was easy to find - moored right outside Sainsbury's in the middle of town, and looking particularly colourful and flowery (keep up the watering Judy!). The padlock and chain on the centre line boded ill, and indeed it transpired that Stan had had to chase some intruders off the roof a couple of nights ago, and a few boats were cast adrift at the same time. Better to be safe than sorry, but the intruders had not returned and the previous night was all quiet. We decide to stay the night, 'shop till we drop' in the morning in Sainsbury's and set off around mid-day. After taking Stan & Judy to the Bus Station I returned and began to unpack and settle in. A little later we went for something to eat - on exiting the boat I picked up the padlock and keys, closed the doors, slid the hatch and pushed the padlock closed. Then I looked at the keys - eeek - Stan now has two bunches, and the one with the float and engine key, BW key etc now doesn't have the padlock key on it! I've just locked myself out with Stan & Judy roaring down the M1 in a coach towards Luton Airport.... My stomach turned over, but then I remembered the "spare", secreted about Blue Heron's person for just such an eventuality - but I'm not going to let on now am I?! The nice man at Castle Marina just up the cut let me leave my car in his compound, so I felt obliged to pump out and fill up the diesel tank there. I can think of easier diesel pump points to manoeuvre into! On entering the marina (which is an awkward turn in itself) one has to rotate through 180 degrees and reverse between moored plastic cruisers - and it was windy! There's also a slip way immediately behind which you can catch the skeg on if you're not careful.... The trip up to Beeston and then out on to the Trent was both uneventful and pretty boring. The one saving grace of the river section is you can do it pretty quickly, but as on other large-ish rivers, it never seems quick enough when you're used to the canal banks slipping by much closer. Plenty of fishermen about, but we can keep pretty well out of their way. The visitors moorings on the Cranfleet cut provided a safe, if not particularly quiet, mooring for the night (the trains thankfully largely ceased come bedtime...). I quite like the Soar up through Loughborough and to the outskirts of Leicester - it can be quite picturesque and rural, and has a good variety of cruising conditions from wide deep river sections to more canal-like lock cuts and canalised sections. And of course Normanton-on-Soar, the site of this years GiG, is very pleasantly situated indeed. Some of the flood control equipment is pretty impressive - it seems somewhat out of place on such a slow, sleepy river, but I'm sure come winter time it's a very different story... I had read about the Loughborough Arm and the wharf, so like a good chap I dutifully cruised into the basin on both legs of the journey and winded. Shame that the only bollards are along a side from which there is no escape into Loughborough - they are fenced in by a builders yard, tantalisingly close to the Sainsbury's across the road. On the return journey I eventually moored tied to a tree half way along the arm - if someone wants to preserve the wharf and basin, I respectfully suggest they do something to encourage boaters to use it! Loughborough does not seem particualarly welcoming to boaters, unlike Leicester. (Yes, I do mean that). Leicester seems to have a bad reputation, but for the life of me I can't see why. Ok, so parts of the city centre waterfront are scruffy, and there's a bit too much rubbish about on the northern approach, but at least they've made an effort in the centre, with nice pontoon visitors moorings and a waterside walk with seats and some landscaping. We were warned by numerous people to avoid the southern side of the city and pass straight through. This impression of "bandit country" is re-inforced by the anti-vandal locks on the paddle gear on this section. But we had no trouble on either traversal. There were a few kids around fishing, and some grumpy older fisherpersons, but that was the extent of the hassle. We didn't even see any smoke signals emanating from the surrounding hills ;-) We passed up on a Sunday afternoon, and back down on a weekday afternoon. The canal between Leicester and Foxton is quiet and rural - in fact I don't think there's even a minor settlement near to the cut, which makes getting newspapers, fresh milk and other odd items a bit difficult. I get the impression that it is not a heavily used piece of the canal system. No one seems to tout for trade - I don't recall seeing bridge signs indicating shops, etc., like one sees on many other waterways. Foxton is well worth a visit, and is an oasis of all things canally in a dessert of green countryside (if you see what I mean!). We did not have time to head any further south, so we headed off along the Market Harborough Arm to find a quiet mooring for the night and to explore the Arm as far as we could (which turns out to be as far as Bridge 14, just outside the town - the Basin being closed for "re-development", whatever that means!). If the main line is underused, the arm is positively deserted! Very narrow in places due to encroaching weeds and reeds, and plenty of floating weeds - the weed hatch was well exercised on this stretch. I think only 2 boats passed us while cruising or moored up on the Arm in the space of about 18 hours. Very peaceful once you've got away from the A6! We must have passed a couple of hundred fishermen during the week, and all but a handful were pleasant and returned my nod or hello. I was very patient with one - he was sitting on a bollard by a lock, exactly where I wanted to tie up, but I restrained myself, hopped off the boat a few yards further back and said hello as I walked passed him to the lock - not a peep! He continued to ignore us and the other two boats that came down the lock before us. I suppose there's no pleasing some people - we were just about the only boats that passed through there that day according to some other locals. I invariably slow down for fishermen if the canal is narrow, especially if they have a keepnet in the water, to avoid dragging it too much. Of course, whilst daydreaming as I came round a bend I failed to do so (although I was already going pretty slow because of the shallowness of the canal at that point) and of course I had to pick the one who felt he had to comment. Fortunately he didn't have a keepnet in the water so I muttered something about that and continued on my way. There were meetings of a rather more pleasant kind - my count of list/ng members was four, which is pretty good for just over a week on a less than totally popular waterway. Nick Howard recognised me and Blue Heron before I recognised him and Little Mo - sorry to be so dense Nick! I got my own back with David Mann on Caldon above Zouch Lock, and we slowly established recognition at a lock with Bill Perry on Tophyr (is that the right spelling?). And of course there was Sean on Laplander, who very graciously left his boiler to its own devices to come and close the gates behind us at Thurmaston Lock. I got caught out in the pound at Kilby Bridge too Sean, though I didn't have the same severity of problem - why does that pound go down so much over night? It's not as if it's a short pound either. Well that was about it. A very pleasant week in which to unwind and explore an unfamiliar waterway. Thanks to Stan & Judy for making it possible. Andy Greener, Whitchurch-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, UK andy@gid.co.uk or andy@ist.co.uk or 0118 956 1248