Loughborough

Last week we continued our journey along the River Soar.  It's quite a temperamental river and can rise rapidly after heavy rain so the flood defences are quite substantial.

This is the guillotine flood gate at Zouch.

Just round the bend are the emergency moorings

A few years ago, couple of friends of ours got caught out here on their maiden voyage and had to moor on the "dolphins" for 2 weeks.

Despite all this the River Soar is really beautiful and is one of my favourite cruising areas.

Some of the houses along it's banks are quite splendid

We moored overnight in the centre of Loughborough which has changed so much over the past 5 years that I hardly recognised it. The basin used to be in the middle of a builders merchants yard but this has now been replaced by a Travel Lodge hotel and student flats.

It was a good, quiet mooring and is very convenient for the town centre and supermarkets.

We're now moored in Pilling's Lock Marina just outside Leicester as it's a good base while we go off visiting more family and friends.