A greater love hath no woman........

02 - 13 Feb 2009
Stoppage: Limekiln Lock 43Associated Regional Office: BW East Midlands
Install lock ladders
(Enquiries: 01636 675700)

Looking at above mentioned lock, one might wonder what's wrong with the lock ladder that's already there. Ask Lesley on NB Caxton - there is only one ladder on the opposite side of the towpath & the rungs don't go down to the bottom. Lesley knows because she climbed down it fully clothed-up to her armpits in ice & shit because Fletcher fell in!! So Lesley climbed down & held him until Graham caught up with us - neither Lesley nor I are srong enough to lift out 5+ stone of labrador. Both have fully recovered I'm delighted to say but it was extremely shocking & shows that you really need a plan with big dogs-ours have flotation jackets with handles for boat hooks but are light enough to lift anyway. At least she remembered to take her camera out first- two cameras in one week would have been a bit much!!

Having removed Fletcher & Lesley from the lock, we then removed the ton of crap above before we could get boats in. After Lesley showered we carried on in increasingly heavy rain, but no-one dared complain about being "soaking" because somebody had a monopoly on that-in fact that same person was wingeing about credits on photo spotting so, for the record, Lesley spotted the above milestone in the centre of Leicester as we left.

Went into Raynsway Marina for fuel and decided to stay as the river was starting to flood. We got a fantastic welcome from Dave & Dyllis who manage the place. Dyllis came to meet us with her gorgeous dog Sadie as she follows our blogs. I did say I'd mention how handsome Dave was and I wanted to have Dyllis round for a proper natter because we arrived somewhat wet & stressed and couldn't talk properly but, as so often happened, we ran out of time. Used up too much time retrieving and parking up cars, but it did give us a chance to see Graham's mum and one of his sisters. By the time we got back and found the river had dropped so that we could move on, we only had an hour of daylight left. So bye Raynsway and thank you for your hospitality.