Leicester to Shardlow - river navigation!
As I mentioned in my last post, in Leicester the canal joins the river Soar. The Soar then heads north and joins the Trent near Nottingham. I was advised not to stop anywhere after the city centre until I got to Birstall, a village to the north of Leicester. It was another hot day and at the lock in Birstall, there was another - this time larger - group of kids playing in and around the lock. They were a little bit more unruly than the previous lot. It was like herding cats keeping them from climbing all over the lock gates, getting in my way and even jumping on the boat (one did manage it at the end). Onlookers on the bridge were amused by all this, but I was quite stressed. Fortunately the visitor moorings just after the lock were very nice. They are located right where the river joins again after having gone over a weir. Birstall - lock to the right, weir to the left Unfortunately, my time on the Soar coincided with quite a lot of rain and I got a taster of what the Soar is capab