On to a much smaller river – the Soar
Now it was time to transition from a big river (Trent) onto a much smaller river (Soar). The Soar will be my connection back to the Grand Union canal to get down to London.
I had already travelled down the river Soar in 2020, so this was my first time going up. In 2020 the Soar was my first proper river experience (you can read about that in my old blog post). I found it a bit intimidating at times as the river has a reputation of flooding very quickly and it has many sections where mooring is not possible. But unlike some other rivers, the Soar is a mix of river and canal sections and the designated visitor moorings are mostly located in protected canal sections, where the water level doesn’t change much.
This time the weather was much drier than in 2020. There wasn’t a single drop of rain during my time on the Soar. As a consequence the river suffered from low water rather than flooding (I was getting flash backs to 2025 already …).
Travelling from the Trent junction to Leicester
The first lock was a nice surprise. Unmarked as such in the guide it was a flood lock, which is open both sides under normal conditions. It was not the last one either.
As another great beginning I almost missed the first proper lock. Chugging happily along a straight river section I suddenly spotted a lock at 90 degrees. No sign at all. Oops! Hard stop and manoeuver backwards to the lock landing. This was not helped by a large gravel mound at the end of the landing.
The river locks are like double width canal locks, so take two narrowboats side by side. It’s always better to share locks, but I was on my own for now. Fortunately another boat turned up just as I was about to leave the lock and we agreed that I wait for them at the next lock. Going up is so much easier with two boats as the boats don’t bounce around so much.
I arrived at the next lock well ahead of my prospective buddies. This one was a real beast! At over 12ft deep Kegworth Deep lock it is the deepest on the Soar (clue is in the name). Fortunately I had plenty of time to get the boat in position and wait for them to show up.
We shared another lock, then I moored up and they went on. The next day I moved on to Loughborough. The third heatwave of the year was looming and I wanted to be near shops if I had to stay there for another week and also maybe chill in a cafe occasionally (supermarkets are great too!).
I found a nice mooring under trees which provided some shade. It was sweltering with over 30 again for three days. I am beginning to wonder how this cruise back to London is going to go if the weather continues to be like this.
While in Loughborough I visited the last working bell foundry in the UK John Taylor & Co. Their greatest (biggest) bell ever cast is Great Paul, the biggest bell in the UK, ringing out every day from St. Pauls in London. The bell, which weighs 17 tons, was transferred to London in 1882 using two steam traction engines as the railway tracks were too narrow for it. It was fascinating to visit a great place of industrial heritage which is still a working factory. I learned a lot about the making of bells and the art of bell ringing in England.
On my travels upriver I was reminded why I had found the Soar intimidating when I first came here. There are lots of DANGER signs warning of flooding and even a stretch of emergency moorings in the middle of the river in case the flood lock leading to a safe haven is closed. If you end up at those moorings, you have made a serious mistake earlier!
But the river is beautiful and this year there was absolutely no worry about flooding. Here are some more pictures of the route after Loughborough:
After Mountsorrel I soon arrived at Sileby lock. The huge weir is directly next to the lock and entry into the lock was quite tricky with strong flow and a lot of wind. As I was about to close the lock an Australian couple arrived, who I had met before. We shared the lock and I moored up afterwards (we shall meet again …). The thunder of the weirs made this place feel fresh even in the hot weather.
I continued my travels along this beautiful river and a couple of days later arrived at some pub moorings just outside of Leicester, where I had arranged to meet up with a virtual friend from a facebook group.
The evening before some young teenagers had untied a couple of boats on the pub moorings and caused some mayhem. Untying boats is a nuisance, but not normally dangerous. But we learnt that the very same boys were actually on police bail for setting fire to some shops a few weeks before and had also done damage to cars and attacked people. I moored there overnight with some trepidation and the next day almost all the boats had cleared off from the pub moorings. I made a swift exit too.
I am mentioning this as Leicester is a bit notorious in boater forums. The recommendation is only to moor on two gated moorings in the city centre. The incident with the boys slotted right into that image. In 2020 I had to negotiate kids playing around and jumping into the locks, which had been quite stressful, but otherwise had no trouble.
Onward into Leicester it is then. Before reaching the city there is still a lovely rural stretch to cruise through. I moored in Birstall, the allegedly last “safe” mooring before Leicester itself.
In Birstall I met up with a young couple who I had met at the infamous pub moorings. We had arranged to go through the last locks into Leicester city centre together. The river past Birstall is very bendy and at one point some overhanging willow branches almost swept one of my compost boxes off the roof. It was balancing precariously on the side and I had to stop in the middle of the river to rescue it.
And of course at some point a boat came hurtling round a blind bend toward me at speed. The only way to avoid a collision was to go straight on into the reeds. Ah well, some poling off and reversing send me back on the right course.
Soon we were really getting into a more urban environment. This stretch was one of the most polluted I have ever seen, much worse than most of London. It was really awful. Full of rubbish including big metal stuff (shopping trolleys, fences, bikes) just under the waterline. I wished I had a lookout on the bow, but in absence of that I followed my buddies in exactly the same channel. In one spot the canal fizzed like a bath bomb and smelled of rotten eggs. Urgh. Add to that low water and a lot of weed and this ordeal took a long time.
Leicester
As we had left really early, we arrived at the secure moorings at Friars Mill in Leicester just as two boats were about to leave. Fantastic!
I spent a couple of days sightseeing and doing chores in Leicester. When I was there in 2020, Leicester was in lockdown and everything was closed. This time I finally got to see the Richard III exhibition and grave. It was a nice connection to last year, when I visited the Battle of Bosworth site, where Richard was killed.
Here are some pictures of my explorations of Leicester:
Beyond Leicester the navigation leaves the river Soar and becomes the Grand Union Leicester line. I am now really heading home and will join the Grand Union main line in a few weeks – hopefully. The locks on the Leicester line are already on restricted opening hours due to low water again. I hope that there won’t be closures again like last year!
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