Now I know why I hate Leicester!

It's depressing, dirty, paddle gear impossible to work, some missing altogether, locks full of rubbish, gates heavy and lots of youths!!!!

Lets start from the beginning. The alarm woke us at 6.45. Its still dark!! Okay,.... have a cup of tea and take Jade out. 7am its snowing!!! Have porridge and toast, and it's still snowing. By 7.15 its light enough for us to get underway.



7.15 am

  Journey to Birstall goes like a dream. Then we head toward  Leicester.  And there is ice!!!! Lots of it!!! Over half inch thick. This slows our progress considerably. The River sections were fine but as soon as we went on the canals it was like hitting a brick wall. At Belgrave lock Ian had to break the ice at the back of the gates just so he could open them and that was the start of many! While I'm waiting for the lock I spy a large landmark in the distance. It's the Space Centre gracing the Leicester skyline.



The Space centre 

 Then came Limekiln Lock.  Now what can I say about Limekiln Lock. Disgraceful!!  I'll let these pictures tell the tale!



As you can see. The Azolla weed was still present.




Ian pushing rubbish away from the boat. There was just too much to remove!!




This is what Ian was pushing away. Looking beyond the gate the ice stretches away in the distance.




Not a brilliant picture but that 'stump' in the middle is what is left of the ground paddle!!

Onwards towards North Lock. Rubbish got worse along the banks and ice seemed to get thicker. We also had to contend with low water. It was at least 18" down. Definitely had to stick to the middle. That was hard enough with the ice pushing us in all directions.

By now not much of our blacking was left. We always said we would never again travel in ice knowing what it does to the boat, but once we had committed to travel to Kilby we had no choice. Thankfully because its 'Leicester' no boats ever moor on any of the length not even on the so called secure moorings at Castle Gardens. So we didn't have to worry about pushing the ice against their hulls. Every lock we came to had its own problems especially trying to open gates against the ice, but none more so then Kings Lock.



Kings Lock

  This was the only lock that was empty and the bottom gates open. We knew why when we wanted to exit the lock at the top. The water levels would not equalise. The leakage from the bottom gates kept up with what we were putting in at the top. No wonder BW put restrictions on that lock. It was continually draining water from above. Also we notice, piled high at all the locks from Kings lock to Kilby, mounds of coarse ash. In the good old days this was used to stop leakage from the gates by dropping handfuls in the water by the leaks. The force of the water would push it into the holes thus sealing the leak. Didn't seem to work here though!! Oh I should also just mention that the restrictions between Kings Lock and Kilby have been lifted due to a significant amount of rainfall. I think they need rain every day to keep up with this locks leakage!!!! Anyway in the end ( and against every grain in my body ) I had to nudge the gate and keep some power on just to help Ian to open it. It worked thank goodness, otherwise we would probably still be there!!!
Then just as we had nearly reached Kilby we got stuck fast just past Double Rail lock. It has a long sweeping left hand bend as you come out of the lock and I just couldn't bring the front round because of the thickness of the ice. By now it was over an 1" thick!! With a lot of reversing and Ian trying to break the ice at the front with the boat pole, we finally got under way.



Double Rail Lock

Finally after a harrowing 9 hours we reached Kilby Lock. While the lock was filling Ian walked on to see if any moorings were available. All the mooring after the winding hole toward the pub was full but there was plenty of space for us just before. I am so thankful to be here. At one point I honestly thought we would have to do abandon the attempt and moor somewhere in Leicester. That did not bare thinking about! Anyway,  how long we will have to stay here in Kilby is all dependent on the weather but you couldn't wish for a nicer place, so both of us are very happy to have a safe secure mooring with the facilities near by in case we get iced in for quite some time.