Oct 29th – Sunday - Bridge 32/33 GU, Leics Line
It’s a sunny day and quite warm out of the breeze. With one day left of the school half term holiday, hire boats scuttle back to base, followed by private boats out to clear the cobwebs before mothballing ready for the cold winter months.
Clocks went back one hour but the early sunshine didn’t help the transition and we were itching to get up at 6.30am. Miles from anywhere there isn’t much to do except chop wood, attempt the odd job around the boat and perform the bi-annual wardrobe change - summer clothes for winter woollies.

Oct 30th – Monday - To Foxton Locks
Leaving the sounds of the A14 behind us we set off again.
Cruising the summit from the A14 to Foxton is always a pleasure. There’s hardly any traffic on the canal, few moored boats to slow down for and plenty of open countryside with inquisitive farm animals lining the banks.
Ducks and swans are few and far between, moorhens out-number coots, willow and ash give way to dogwood and hawthorn bushes.

Passing the Welford Arm and North Kilworth Wharf we were on our own. But just as we began our run up to Husbands Bosworth Tunnel we ran into Mike and Jo on nb.Sarah-Kate, last seen near the milk float incident on the Coventry Canal. Drifting mid canal we exchanged news including Leicester branch IWA info and learned that Ian McD’ had done his shoulder in. Poor old Ian, making a good recovery we hope. Poor Carol, chairing and nursing at the same time.
Through HB tunnel, with a tiny spotlight and another engine humming far behind us, we emerged onto gentle slopes with Market Harborough somewhere across the valley to our right. This might be our winter cruising canal, somewhere we’ll kick iron on days we feel the itch to move. Plenty of steel piling (sorry Sue), no locks and few continuous cruisers, with plenty of overhanging dead wood waiting for a windy day to drop in our laps. But today we are just passing through.
Arriving at Foxton Locks with plenty of time to refill the water tank, we swallow a sandwich and take first place in the queue to descend the ten locks.

Remembering there can be a problem crossing the pond between the two 5 lock rises I proceeded with caution but still whacked the concrete at the entrance to the opposite lock.
Decided to sort this out once and for all and prised the secret from the new lock keeper. Shall try his “trick” on the way back up in a couple of week’s time and report on any success.
No sign of nb.Granny Buttons and locky didn’t have him on his transit list for the last two days so he must be either north of Leicester or hiding down the Harboro’ Arm.
The inclined plane (IP) arm is still closed off while BW’s work progresses and as a consequence the 48 hr moorings have been taken over by long term permit holders. I’m afraid the “mooring prohibited” notice was so faded that we couldn’t read it and we needed a spot for the night. No one was put out and no words were exchanged so we became long-termers for one night.
There was a fresh notice stating “Water point above the locks is out of action” – Oh no it isn’t.
Made a note that the lower water points, other than the one outside Bridge 61 pub will be closed down from November to March. Must be something to do with the frost risk. I wonder how the displaced IP moorers feel about that.
A walk down to Foxton Boat Services saw us restocked with engine service consumables to carry us through the winter, by which time it was getting dark.

Oct 31st – Foxton to Wistow
Re-learnt the trick of keeping the fire going all night.
After a couple of failures I’ve got the hang of it again. It’s alright for some people (M&P) who can afford to chuck a whole bucketful of coal on before retiring but for those of us who only put one or two lumps on each hour it’s not so easy. There’s a rumour going around that we name each piece as it comes out the bucket but we’re not quite that sad.
An occasional shower was predicted as we left Foxton but without a cloud in the sky we set off in jubilant mood. Passing Debdale Marina we remembered our gas situation and reversed in to get a refill. Diesel at 45p/ltr will certainly see us back here again.
Off we chugged, through Saddington Tunnel without touching the sides and out into a different climate with cloudy skies above Kibworth Locks.
Passing through woods was a treat for us ex-townies as colours were changing and leaves blowing high into the air spiralled down onto the boat. Ash, willow and poplar leaves coated the roof as we emerged into open fields.

But any plans to reach Kilby Bridge today were scuppered as heavy rain descended just as we came out of the trees onto the Wistow slopes. There was no time to marvel at the landscape where the medieval village of Wystowe lay before the time of the great plague, we were getting drenched.
Heading for the canal bank at a rate of knots we grabbed a space in front of another boat and practically lassoed the piling before diving below in our sodden coats.
No walkies today I was relieved to hear, rain has set in. Had this been a river I would have had concerns because it came down with a vengeance all afternoon.
No sign of Trick or Treaters all night, but wasn’t that fireworks we heard far away in Leicester?

Nov 1st – Wednesday, Wistow to Kilby Bridge
Fire went out during the night, must have done something wrong. And it has definitely got colder, the butter wouldn’t spread until it hit the toast. But the sky is clear again and the sun is shining so we set off humming a merry tune.
After the rain the fields looked fresh and green with sheep lying on the grass doing whatever sheep do.

Now that half term is out of the way we have hardly seen another boat on the move, one a day seems to be about it.

New notices have appeared since we passed here in July, inviting reports of bad behaviour along the canal. Someone must be collecting statistics.

Passing a friendly, shivering fisherman we finally arrived on Leicester’s southern doorstep – the Navigation pub and the British Waterways base at Kilby Bridge.

Nov 2nd
Another fine day. Lots of activity across the canal meant an early start and one of those rarely captured moments - the launch of a new BW work boat - and no one was there to record the happy event. No champagne, no cameras and no reporters for this workboat. Nothing to celebrate the beginning of its working life on the south Leicester Grand Union Canal.

A short interview revealed there are to be no redundancies to bank staff this year, it was the turn of the office personnel. But they are cautious and wonder what next year will bring.
Moving across to the water point we topped up and checked with BW that their sucking machine was working, then we hit the road with backs to the sun towards Leicester’s back gardens and old factory walls.
A brief stop at Crow Mills Bridge for a Tesco shop and a free display by passing children showing off their fireworks before we moved back into gear towards the infamous Bush Lock.
Shouldn’t laugh but we followed the kids' progress from Crow Mills to Countesthorpe by the whoosh of rockets and banger explosions as they picked their way across the meadows. Nothing secretive or subtle with this generation.
Stopped after Bush Lock to trawl the canal with a magnet for our chimney cap. This drew a few comments from walkers but it had to be done and we succeeded in retrieving our own piece of iron without pulling up trolleys, beds or car wheels. Also trimmed the tree because we have to come back this way one day.
Arriving at Dunn’s Lock we were reminded that this was the scene of a drowning earlier this year. Steph or Stefan lost his life here and is still remembered with flowers and permanent cards in the form of white paint on black backgrounds and black marker pen on the white beams.

A hole in the steel palisade fencing (just one upright missing) marks the point that lads and lassies cross the lock on their shortcut along the towpath to Blaby. You wouldn’t think the gap was wide enough but two lock side fishermen complete with rods, tackle box, and keep nets disappeared through this gap as we arrived.
A lot of money went into making this area vandal free and it has certainly quietened down from the days that cars were rolled across the playing field and into the lock. Anti climb paint has also had success but like most ‘solutions’ it needs constant maintenance.
Generally speaking this is a quiet area, we’ve moored here on and off for ten months and the locals have been very friendly. Dog walkers like to stop and chat and tell you the canal history. One resident lived at the old lock house with his father, a canal lengthsman, in the 1940s. Rumoured to have photographs of that time I am doing my best to bump into him in the hope he will share his family’s canal history with us.
The night was accompanied by helicopters going to and fro and punctuated by the sound of explosions as Leicester sends its money up in smoke to celebrate Guy Fawkes almost succeeding in blowing up Parliament. Sigh.