Our plan was to take it a little bit easy on Tuesday - a rest day, if you like - that's a day where you don't do too much at all - that is the theory, right?
She had a bit of a hankering for a Chinese meal so we ventured back from whence we had been the day before - having seen a lovely buffet available - The Real China - not so sure that the name necessarily was an accurate reflection, but the food tasted pretty good and the price was also good.
After that we needed to get a bit of exercise in and walk off some of the food we had just consumed. Diane's old phone needed to be unlocked, as this will be the one we will use back in Australia later in the year - probably also in New Zealand and the US.
We found a place to get it done; left it whilst they sorted it out; went to another phone shop to find a new case for her (the first one didn't have any for that model).
It had been suggested to us to take a look at the New Walk section of Leicester for the Georgian architecture - as this involved a bit of a walk we looked at it favourably - the "street" itself is lovely - it really is a "walk" - no traffic at all with the houses and buildings facing out onto the street; visited a museum there - a mixture of many things without any in great detail.
The architecture was Georgian for some of the buildings but really a bit of a hotch-potch of styles.
We wandered back to pick up the phone and then found our way back to the boat to collapse and rest.
The following morning after a quick trip to Tesco (to replenish the milk reserves) we upped ropes and headed off.
We were a bit in pursuit of a boat that preceded us by 5 minutes so that we could share the locking with them.
We managed to just catch them as they were about to exit the first lock and thereafter shared the remaining 11 for the day on our way to
On the other boat (a hire boat) were Mum (never did find out her name) with partner Dave and her son, Tom and girlfriend Gemma. They had set off from King's Lock earlier in the morning towards Leicester so that Mum could see the city, turned once they got there and started heading back (that was when we saw them) with the intention of making it to Market Harborough - by our calculations this was something like 24 miles and 28 locks (double locks at that).
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| It all is starting to look lovely again in the spring sunshine |
We enjoyed the travel with them as far as
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| Kilby Bridge services |
We needed to rest, water up and use the elsan (not necessarily in that order); the eagle-eyed skipper spotted a lunch-time special at the pub and for ₤12 we had lunch and drinks and shared a dessert.
The rest of the day was just that - rest.
Thursday came - blue sky, warm sunny conditions - perfect for a little cruising.
We noticed after we had set off that one of the boats moored up the previous night and pointed our way, had left already - no likelihood of any locks in our favour.
They were all big and heavy and with almost half of them having top gates that wanted to stay open the progress was slow.
Eventually we were through the 12 locks and with the Saddington Tunnel negotiated we were ready to moor up just after the Smeeton Aqueduct, on the off-side (where we stayed last year) - and will spend 2 nights here as well.
With those 24 heavy locks behind there will be 2 of us looking forward to a bit of rest.
16 Miles, 24 Locks, 1 Tunnel
Totals: 2460 Miles, 1786 Locks, 78 Tunnels, 32
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