On our way again

After another peaceful night in the centre of Leicester we set off on our way again this morning. What started dull & overcast with a threat of rain ended as a beautiful sunny afternoon and it was good to be travelling again. 13 locks & 1 load of washing later we moored up for the night just below Double Rail Lock. That makes 250 locks since we set off this year and 810 in this boat. I wish I’d kept a total for our last boat as well but didn’t think at the time.

Just after setting off we passed Leicester City Football Stadium which is beside Freeman’s Lock and weir. The river level is well down at the moment and there was hardly any water running over the weir.

At Whetstone Lane Lock I was cursing BW as I couldn’t get the ground paddles to open. We carefully used the gate paddles (they can make quite fierce water currents) but as the bottom gate leaks a lot it was a very slow ascent…… until Roger got off and noticed that there's an anti-vandal lock on the paddle gear.  On the back side of the paddle is a BW key-hole, out of sight and totally unmarked. Stick a key in it and the locking mechanism pops out freeing the paddle. I felt a right plonker!  But hey, we live and learn!


With all the sunshine we’ve had lately the roof garden is coming on a treat. The avocado stone I planted a couple of months ago, just to see what happened, now has a 3 inch shoot and we have our first tomato of the year. It’s still about the size of a garden pea but I live in hope that the blight or the caterpillars don’t get it.