Kingfishers

From Foxton we followed the pretty winding canal to Market Harborough and took a mooring with the hire boat company in the canal basin.   Another piece of canal art stands on the wharf, a labourer with a plank which has been designed for a sundial.

The labourer sundial sculpture in Market Harborough Basin

 The busy town has some interesting shops and an unusual building whose original purpose was to combine a grammar school with a market.  

The old grammar school at Market Harborough.  On the left of the photo is the church which doesn't have any grounds, the pavement runs alongside it's walls. 

On our return journey to Foxton I was surprised when the driver and passengers jumped out of their car after I'd closed the road with a swingbridge barrier.  They wanted to take some photos as Brent III sailed through and Bess obligingly posed on the roof. 

Returning to our northern route we had one more tunnel.  Saddington is a short tunnel and is home to some bats.  On our way through we checked the roof but disappointingly only saw spiders, the bats were out of sight in the numerous bat boxes fixed to the tunnel walls.  

The next day locks took over from tunnels as we started the descent into Leicester and then moored up on the jetties outside Castle Gardens.  Our waterway key let us into the park which is shut to the public at 5.30 so we enjoyed a private garden in the evening.  Leicester has an excellent fruit and vegetable market with a difference.  Most of the produce is sold by the bowl, each bowlful costing a pound.  Leicester deserves it's reputation as a shopping centre and our star buy was a ceramic coated frying pan which Kev immediately tried with an omelette.  It really is non-stick.  

After seeing the sights of Leicester we continued north through it's suburbs.  The canal flows in and out of the River Soar and there were some weirs on sharp turns at the junction of the water courses.  Trees and bushes on the banksides often made it difficult to see which way the canal turned but provided a habitat for the little kingfisher which flashed electric blue across the river ahead of us.  

We saw several more kingfishers on our way to Loughborough, a pleasant town with plenty of moorings for visitors.  In the town hall art gallery I enjoyed seeing pictures by a local artist and Queens Park, in the town centre, has a 151 feet tall Carillon war memorial, colourful budgies and cockatiels in a large aviary and a small museum.  The case used to cast 'Great Paul', Britain's largest bell which hangs in St Paul's Cathedral, is also on display in the park.  

The case used to cast Great Paul.

 Our journey from Foxton to Loughborough