Saturday 30th June/Sunday 1st July 2018

Off to Market Harborough today and we turned left at the junction where the Foxton Staircase Locks take boats up through 2 sets of 5 locks. We will be doing them on Monday. The 5 miles arm into Market Harborough  is very pleasant apart from around Bridge 8 which passes by an animal rendering plant where carcasses are treated. The smell was terrible and there was a house quite near - I hope that there was a discount on the price.

The basin at Market Harborough is very attractive and the pontoons have water and electricity. There is a charge for mooring here (£12.50) a night but at least the batteries will remain topped up which in this heat is very necessary for the fridge. On the way in we passed a new development which we believe will be for housing. A huge site.

We had a visit to a Laundrette which was quite a walk away but we thought that Market Harborough looked to be a nice town with lots of parks and playing fields. We ate at a Mexican restaurant this evening before returning to the boat and sitting on the bow listening to a band playing at the Wharf pub. Luckily the music stopped at 10.30pm.

Sunday 1st July

Jill and Jon arrived at lunchtime and we sailed back along the arm to Foxton Locks to explore the area including the remnants of the inclined plane which was an ambitious project to move 2 narrow boats at a time up the height of the locks in caissons of water. Despite being a very large system it only lasted 10 years after which they had to reinstate the locks. The inclined plane was finally demolished for scrap in 1928. This is the view of the flight from the top.