and so into Leicester

I had expected the urbanisation to continue all the way to Leicester but once through the suburbs of South Wigston and Glen Parva the canal becomes rural for quite a stretch......in fact there were several places with reasonable moorings....if I had been allowed to stop!!!   To be fair to Geoff we are being driven a bit by the threat of bad weather coming in from Friday and wanting to be through Leicester by then and not stuck there over the weekend.

Vegetation overhanging from both sides would be interesting if we were to meet another boat but since we had set out at 0630 there was not much chance of that for a while!

The heron was awake though

the pounds were very full

resulting in this

It may be urban but still some pretty bridges.

Coming up to Freeman's Lock, the last one before the centre of Leicester.

Looking back at Freemans Lock...graffite now in evidence

Going into Leicester we passed plenty of mooring bollards on the towpath side but none of the places appealed to me despite Geoff telling me we would be OK.......my goal was the secure moorings on the offside below Castle gardens  (This was borne out when I went up top in the middle of the night to see what the noise was and saw a group of youths obviously well away and throwing missiles of some sort at one another)

Approaching the pontoons there did not seem to be any room for us but managed to get half of Petroc on the end and we moved forward when the boat in front departed.. 

There should be room for 3 full length boats but one of the spaces is taken up with a workboat of some sort.

The moorings are secure as access is with BW key into the adjacent Castle Gardens.  There are rubbish facilities but nothing else.......the sign still says BW so CRT have not yet caught up here!!  

Total distance:6.45 miles 

Elapsed time:4h12m52s 

Locks:9

Bridges:25 

Average speed:1.53 mph (3.67 lock/mph)