To Foxton and onto Market Harborough

We made our way yesterday to Foxton, fairly uneventful, the rain arriving much sooner than the weather forecast said, but we decided to continue anyway, its a long time since we boated in the rain!  We cruised this stretch when Triskaideka was first launched but we both have hardly any recollection of it.  The locks are independently minded being hard to read and as we were on our own, it was a bit of a white water ride for John at times as the paddles were quite fierce.  We covered the seven locks from Kilby to Newton Harcourt and then the five at  Kibworth, having a bit of a laugh at a couple who said they had had enough for the day after coming down four locks from Kibworth, they were apparently exhausted (didn't look any different to us and about the same age).    There were bats flying around in Saddington tunnel, there are bat boxes on the roof, I tried to get a picture but they were too fast for me!  We are still appalled by the graffiti on the bridges, it has stretched from Leicester and we can't remember seeing it before.

Saddington Tunnel (looks straight)

But is it?

Just one bridge

We managed to moor just before Bridge 62 at Foxton, a bit surprised as we thought this mooring no longer existed with the new Foxton mooring regulations, but it is still there.  We spent the evening split between The Foxton Locks Inn for food and Bridge 61 for a few beers.

This morning we were in no hurry so had a bit of a lazy start and then made our way to Market Harborough, we like this stretch, it was fairly quiet one boat in front of us and nothing coming the other way.  As we went through the footbridge at Foxton, there was a strange noise and as John reversed back to pick me up he said he has something around the prop.  We pulled in on the moorings and discovered we had a towel around it.

Any one admitting to loosing this?

There were three lads on the towpath approaching MH about to throw an old bike into the canal, we tried to stop them both by talking to them and holding up the camera, but to no avail, they ran into the hedge so we couldn't get a photo but as soon as we were hidden by the reeds we saw the bike go in.  

We will stay tomorrow here and see what the weather is like on Saturday before deciding about moving as its not looking good at the moment.

Its getting a bit over grown

Wednesday 11/09  9.75 miles 12 locks, Saddington Tunnel 880 yards
Thursday 12/09 5.5 miles 2 swing bridges