Cruising and July

You may have noticed that my Blog stopped abruptly on day 3 of our holiday cruise, this is because I was so chilled-out that I just couldn't be bothered :o)
Anyway .. Wednesday 29th June found us moored on the towpath south of bridge 37, and I awoke to see a mist hanging over the water ... magical. We took a really leisurely attitude to breakfast etc. and eventually cast off, intending to lunch at Yelvertoft pub.

"Up the Orinoco"

                                            This section of canal is beautiful, full of blind bends and reed beds, giving it a very river-like feel and we chugged as slow as the boat would go to take full advantage.
Finally we made it to Yelvertoft, and set off on foot into the village to check out the shop and pub. The shop was OK, but the pub had closed because of "hygiene" issues, so it was back to Quo for self-catering .... Ho Hum.

Socks?? Well the deck was RED HOT

 After lunch, we lazed, and lazed and lazed....., finally setting off late afternoon, but only down as far as Yelvertoft Marina, where we turned, and chugged slowly back past the village, finding a towpath mooring in the middle of nowhere for the night.

A "well-chilled" Liz

Moored out in the wilds ... lovely

On Thursday morning, after yet another good night aboard, we slowly cruised back through the "river-like" section, described by a passing boater as being "up the Orinoco", then on up the Welford arm to top up the water tank.

Lizzie entering Welford Lock

Welford Wharf

Amazingly, there was a free mooring right at the end of the arm, so we snuck in for the night.

Food for the evening was inspired, I had a Chinese meal delivered to the boat from The Elizabethan up the road, and it was superb, followed by a visit from the in-laws, Geoff, Liz, Sairs and her super dog Alfie. A lovely evening, followed by a good nights sleep :o)

Breasted-up & taking on fuel at North Kilworth
My extra tunnel light can be seen "at the ready"

Friday was a bit work-a-day, as we knew it was time to head back to Debdale.

After a leisurely chug back out of the Welford Arm,  we "breasted up" for the very first time at Kilworth to refill with Diesel ... Quo holds a bit more than my car, namely 140 litres !! But that is the first refill since we bought her in December.

An incident-free passage of Bosworth tunnel, and we were on the home stretch, still cruising as slow as Quo could go, back to bridge 60, just above Foxton Locks.

We had decided to leave her there, then we could spend a couple of weeks cruising up and down the top section with friends. Bravely (I thought) I volunteered to walk back to Debdale to get the car, which went well, with no complaints from my dodgy knee.

Final act was to secure Quo to the Armco and head for home ....Ahhh Well .... we'll soon be back.