The long pound to Kibworth flight was narrow and reedy at times but there was little traffic anyway. Saddington tunnel is very straight - luckily we were not troubled by bats - despite the note in Nicholsons that some interesting bats are supposed to live in it. Many stretches are very attractive with no villages close by.
The long run down to Leicester is marked with locks at frequent intervals. At first they are collected together in short flights but from Kilby they are mostly one at a time. As a result, there is little time to make coffee, tea or lunch on the way. Just before Kilby we stopped for lunch - and a needed rest break: working these locks seems
especially hard work!
After lunch we moved up to Kilby wharf to take on water before continuing for a short distance to South Wigston where we moored up to walk to the nearby shops. The main street looked very run down and soon we could see the final straw - a new Tesco's. Whilst we too joined the herd, we could overhear several people worrying about what would happen - no-one would open a small shop now.
One of the items we wanted was a key chain (one with the spiral plastic lead) - to keep the Watermate key safely whilst working the locks which are protected with extra security through this stretch. Whilst every member of Tesco's staff had such an item for their keys or carboard box opener, they were not on sale. The assistant uggested trying a stationers - but they all seem to have closed after Tesco opened! In fact we did find one at a harmacy store. The lass at the till wanted to charge only 10p for it! We re-negotiated the price to the 20p coin e offered.
This stretch of the canal is now largely adjoined by relatively new housing and is is generally much better than we recalled from 37 years ago when it was quite unattractive in places. Finding a mooring spot did not present too many challenges!
