Leicester

15th August 2019 – Leicester, right in the middle too !

We stayed in Kilby Bridge for another day, as the weather was forecast to be totally pants. There are 12 locks to a place called Aylestone Meadows, which we have been told is good to moor at. It is a few miles from the center of Leicester but we cannot be sure of getting in as the central secure moorings are quite limited. So the plan is to get to Aylestone and moor if we can but continue onto Leicester and try and get moored at either Castle Park or Friar’s mill, both of which are secure, but with limited moorings.
We set off quite early after filling with water and almost immediately got stuck into our first lock. The locks today are more spaced out and there are only one set which have a couple close to each other, so even though there are more of them they are a bit easier. The thing which really surprised me was how picturesque the sailing was – I was expecting lots of buildings and detritus in the water, but it was actually very serene and rural. It did start to get more urban but only when we were very close to the city.

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So when we arrived at the Aylestone Meadows area of the canal we spotted some mooring, but we thought it was too soon to moor in. We did not realise that from that point onwards there is no other mooring available until you hit the city! Doh! So, plan B, get to Circus Place or Friar’s mill and see if we can get moored there. If we can that’s awesome as it is literally right in the center of Leicester! As it turned out we did not need to worry as there was plenty of mooring availble in Friar’s Mill. In fact, there was just a single boat moored when we got there. Mind you, there is only enough room for 3 boats!

We are going to stay for 2 nights here and have a good look around the city.