Arriving in Leicester.

Sunday 7th July 2019 in Leicester.
Well, Karen, who we spoke to yesterday, did arrive - exactly on time (Andrew was working, unfortunately). We spent a very pleasant hour over tea and coffee, showed her over MM and then offered her a lift back to the lock near her house. She accepted with alacrity!

We shall see her again tomorrow evening as we have bought tickets for the show at the "Little Theatre", in Leicester, where she is helping out as the Props lady.
Hard to believe that we are less than three miles from the centre of Leicester City.

This is a nod to Leicester's industrial past. Dyeing was one of its key industries and the effluent from the many dyeing plants used to turn the River Soar black; now the water is remarkably clear.

For the last two locks, we paired up with nb "Sowena". The skipper told us that the handsome former hosiery mills were still working when he saw them in the 1960s. Now, sadly, they are just targets for graffiti vandals.

From here on, we are basically going to be travelling on the River Soar. At the moment it is very slow and docile but it is not always so!

The river takes us past the Leicester City Football Club with the buoys protecting the weir in the foreground.

The "Straight Mile" into the city is exactly what is says. It is crossed by a number of handsome bridges and benefits from several hundred yards of mooring bollards, sadly none of them occupied.

Three years ago, we moored on that side of the river and had no problems, but people seem nervous of using the moorings there, possibly because of the city's former doubtful reputation.

"Sowena" went on ahead, but we decided to tie up at the moorings beside the Castle Gardens.

The space turned out to be a few feet short but the kind people on the hire boat nb "Spotted Eagle" pulled us in and invited us to tie our stern to their bow. Later, we got to know all four of them, Lee, Maria, Tony and Sandy from Brighton and Newport Pagnell. They were all delightful.
This canoeist all made us laugh when he asked if we could refill his water bottle - but he said he would settle for Gin & Tonic!

You can see how far our stern was sticking out but the river is wide at this point, so it was no problem.We set off on foot to explore the centre of Leicester but we intend to do the "tourist" bit over the next couple of days.
Today: 3 miles, 3 locks and 1.4 hours.
Trip: 154 miles, 76 locks and 87.5 hours.