NB Muleless

NB Muleless
Moored at Alrewas Sept 2013

Tuesday, 9 September 2014

Right to the top of the Ashby Canal!

Friday 29 August saw us pulling off from our mooring just as the strimmer and lawn mower arrived!

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It was only 2 miles to our destination of Market Bosworth, where we stopped to fill up with water as usual. There is the brand new Bosworth Marina here, but it is not quite open yet, the sign says opening autumn 2014.

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But there are a few boats in it already!

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After we had moored up and had lunch, we went to explore Market Bosworth.

We crossed the railway line by the station, but there were no trains running.

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We walked up the hill, and passed a very well presented fire station

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and a lovely cottage with all sorts of interesting things in its garden!

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Right next door was an old garage fuel pump!

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We also found the old village water pump.

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After checking what shops were about, it started to rain a bit, so we decided it was time for a drink and popped into the Dixie Arms.

On the way back to the boat we passed The Batter of Bosworth and treated ourselves to fish and chips for tea!

On Saturday morning we were hearing the whistle of the steam train, so it was time to go and see it run!

We arrived on the platform just before the train, so had time for Gary to indulge in some railway nostalgia first! These are: a Dogfish for distributing ballast onto the track, a guards brake van, a set of “wet beds” (technical relaying term!) and a bogie bolster for carrying rails!

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Then the train arrived – backwards!

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It left again a few minutes later, blowing its whistle and pulling away with masses of black smoke!

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As I wanted to see the train arrive the right way round, we bought teas on the platform, had a further look round and waited for the train again! (The station sign, the old waiting room complete with original benches, and a wooden sided bass wagon!)

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This time it arrived properly!

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As it prepared to leave, I tried to get a shot with lots of steam – tricky!

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At this point my camera battery had given up, so no pictures from our walk around the Bosworth Water Trust lake!

Before we returned to the boat we walked up the canal, over bridge 43 and up onto another bridge over the railway – in time to see the train make its last run of the day (backwards again) and I managed to get the camera to work for one more shot! – the driver saw us on the bridge and blew the train whistle for us!!!!

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Sunday morning, just as we were about to reverse back to the water point we spotted a rare sight – a fully laden working boat towing a laden butty on its way to the Shackerstone Festival!

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As soon as he had passed we moved back (past the marina entrance) onto the water point and tied up quickly as we saw yet another working boat approaching!

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We had seen quite a few “normal” boats turn round and head back down the Ashby whilst we were moored here – probably due to the CRT notice about no moorings further on!!!

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We had decided to go right to the top of the Ashby – even if we had to come back to Market Bosworth to moor up again! So off we went!

After about a mile we started passing these signs

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and just past Congerstone we saw the first festival goers moored including one with the inspiration for Muleless’s colour scheme!

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And then as we passed through Shackerstone itself, we saw where the working boats had got to!

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And we passed the temporary “fencing” to protect the canal plants that English Nature are so worried about!

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Not being “allowed” to stop, we carried on, and 3 miles further up came across the Snarestone Tunnel.

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There was a long stretch of armco and ring moorings on the approach, and there were boats moored there. The Globe Inn is just on the right – above the tunnel.

I took a photo in the tunnel and for a change it worked quite well!

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Snarestone is only a short tunnel – 250 yds – but it has a kink in it to make it interesting – and its only one-way traffic! Good job you can see all the way through when you get close to it!

Out the other side of the tunnel it is only about half a mile to the current terminus and we pulled in to a nice spot. Unfortunately the sun had just gone behind the bushes!

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As it was such a lovely evening we decided to have a walk to the end of the canal.

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The current “end”.

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The next stretch.

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And this is the new “end” and how deep a canal should be!DSCF4619

Further on we could see the line of the canal, and the machines ready to do more work, and all the earth that had been moved already making the new banks further on.

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Exciting stuff!

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