Last of the Guests 2-9-10 to 9-9-10

We set off down the River Soar and found it to be beautiful, I think probably the best yet.  We moored briefly in Loughborough, and briefly was enough,   for a quick lunch and moored for the night at Mountsorrel.   We didn’t leave to early as I have started jogging every other day and the 3^rd was a jogging day.  I am trying to sort out all the excesses and drinking that Clive forced me into before I start squash again when we get home.  We had lunch on the go and moored up at Leicester at 3.00pm on the secure moorings at Castle Park.    We had been warned that it was a good idea to moor there.  Guess what 2 boats down from us was Dragonfly and Richard & Liz whom we hadn’t seen since 11^th July.  We had intended to wonder round Leicester but we only managed an hour at about 7pm before we went back to Dragonfly for more chat and a drink or 2.  You may remember that Liz fell over a wall back in July and unfortunately she is still having problems with her left knee.  They were heading for Market Harborough planning to leave their car and boat there while she goes to a specialist in Kings Lynn. Next morning we said farewell again and went to the market which was good, very cheap and excellent quality fruit and veg.  Before we set off Liz rang us to ask if we minded waiting while they got back from leaving their car at Market Harborough so that we could do the next two days together and share the locks.  That’s what we did and so we arrived at Foxton locks on 5^th Sept to await the arrival of Lyndsay & Chris and Jim & Glenis.  Dragonfly went on their way to Market Harborough and we welcomed our guests who were staying until Thursday.  Tuesday we decided to go for a day trip to Market Harborough and back.  On Wednesday we all went up the Foxton Lock flight which consists of 2 sets of  narrow 5 lock staircases.  After that which took about 45mins we had an all day breakfast at the top and then moved on to Welford which is at the end of an arm off the Grand Union Canal.  On Thursday we all went for a walk before lunch then we said goodbye to Jim & Glenis then M went to have her hair cut which just happened to be at the end of the arm.  After that we said goodbye to Chris & Lyndsay then set off on the final stages of our voyage.  Have worked out that we have about 114 mls and 65 locks still to do.  For anyone that’s interested we will have done in total since April 730miles and 494 locks once we get to Reading…..phew!!