We planned to spend much of the morning in Loughborough, at least to stock of shopping as this will probably be the last stop on this trip. The rest of the journey does not really come very close to even a small village shop. (Tomorrow's target is Shardlow and we have learnt the hard way that it is quite a hike to the nearest shop there and it is not very large)
Last night, Mike had tried to book train tickets for Saturday on-line but each attempt had failed, locking up at the final stage of Booking Confirmation. Concerned that he might already have paid twice for tickets that we cannot receive, he first checked with the credit card company that not authorisations had been given. Then he tried again, this time with the laptop rather than the tablet - this gives a different interface and was successful. he specified that the tickets should be collected from Loughborough station.
So, as soon as Jess was ready to go out, (rather pleased with slightly different plaits) she and Mike set off to walk along the towpath most of the way to the station.
From there it was only a short street away from the station car park entrance. Near the station building was an interesting art work, made principally from tiles designed and made by students from the RNIB College in Loughborough.
Hooray! The tickets we ready and the machine recognised all of the details and eventually printed out the appropriate documents!
Some people had a strange sense of appropriate patio ornaments!
Back at the boat, the others were by now ready and we all set off to walk into town to do some shopping. Christine had located via the internet a specialist butcher on the High Street which we visited first.
On the way to Sainsbury for most of the items we wanted, we could see the top of the famous Carillon tower not far away. So, leaving Christine to make a start of the shopping, the others walked to the park where the tower is situated. It was a pleasant sunny morning and everything looked very fresh and attractive. They discovered that the tower is open from 1 pm onwards.
They also took a look at the small aviary with plenty of exotic birds chattering away, some looking as if they were attempting to escape by gnawing through the bars of their prison!
The three caught up with the one in Sainsbury with still quite a few items to track down so by the time we had lugged it all back to the boat it was just about lunch time.
Jess especially thought that a visit to the Carillon tower would be interesting so as the girls ate their lunch, Mike reversed the boat back into the basin where we had seen that spaces were now available.This meant that he could sue the sani station and rubbish disposal - it is a little distance before the next opportunity.
After lunch we walked back again to the park and entered the tower. They soon discovered that it was built as a war memorial after the Great War to commemorate the people from the town who had died in combat. The main feature is the climb up the spiral staircase first to two further museum rooms followed by the level with the carillon keyboard. Next came the bell chamber where 47 bells are hung and finally they emerged onto the lookout gallery.
Here they had an amazing view all across the town and in the distance to Ratcliffe Power Station. (Not sure who was more scared, Jess or Mike but they held each others hand for comfort and kept close to the inside wall!)
Back at the bottom they all had a chance to watch a short video which showed how the carillon is played as well as talking a bit about why the tower was built.
Outside, Alice and Jess asked if they could spend some time in the park - they had spotted from up above that there were various items of equipment to try out. They headed for a swinging basket thingy which kept them amused for some time before Mike was able to drag them away to catch up with Christine who had gone straight back!
Finally, we were able to set off but only managed a couple of locks before deciding to moor.
At Loughborough Lock there was a sign warning that dredging was taking place and that there might be delays of up to 30 minutes. We could see something ahead but fortunately they pulled in to let us pass!
Bishop Meadow Lock brought back memories of 1967-1970 when we moored our tiny boat here. A friendly volunteer lock keeper helped us through.
Below this lock we returned to the River Soar, much wider and faster.
Although Normanton, with its well known church alongside the river, has a sign about when the village shop is open, there is actually nowhere to stop as all of the houses jealously guard their private river frontage. There are small chalets but some of the larger properties almost begin to remind us of the Thames!
Just above Zouch lock is the only place we were sure that we could find a mooring - it was very much more popular this time than when we have stopped here before. In any event it was turning rather chilly but not enough to deter the girls from spending some time exploring the towpath, footpath and fields nearby.
3.5 Miles - 2 Locks
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