Friday 9 October 2015

Back Down The Ashby 1

Monday 21st. Patience has been moored quietly at Snarestone for a week while we rest up at home, but now it's time to head back down the Ashby and get Patience to her moorings at Welford.
Leaving one car at Welford we go on to Snarestone, arriving at midday, unload the car and off we go, leaving the tunnel, the newly opened extra mile and The Globe behind. It's raining heavily but there's nothing to be gained by mooring up (though The Globe is tempting) so we trundle on, pausing only to pump out our foul tank in a nearby marina between bridges 42 and 43. Foul explosions averted, eventually the clouds clear and the sun starts to dry us out as we slowly retrace our path down The Ashby towards Braunston.

Approaching a bridge we spot eight people in a newly hired boat struggling to avoid us, the bridge and everything. Five of them are on the tiller, which presumably is part of the problem as they career across the canal. Whatever advice they've been given about steering seems already to be lost. Note - take especial care where hire boats start out. And to new hirers: it looks easy but it takes a bit of practice!


Elsewhere, on what is the most peaceful and beautiful northern section of The Ashby (eg bridge 20, pictured), I spy a solitary fox on a field edge 50 yards from the boat. Unaware of us he basks in the sun, trots up and down a bit, red pelt glowing in the afternoon sun. As a poultry keeper I have a special loathing of the fox, but here, basking innocently in the afternoon sun (and therefore nowhere near my hens) it is a sight to see.

At 6.30 we arrive back at Lime Kiln, mooring up just yards from where we were on the way up, by the water point near the bridge (15).  Again a lengthy boat or two has taken the quieter section opposite the pub car park, but we're happy to have made the distance, survived the rain and to be well fed at Lime Kilns.

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