Snarestone Restored section Ashby Canal

It was a little after 10 when we got away as we took a walk with the new Owl estate opposite where we were moored. The houses and bungalows look very smart and up market at ¾ million pounds.
This morning was dry but a bit cooler than yesterday. We hadn’t gone to far when we came across a group or ramblers, we often see groups on the towpath now.

We met several boats as we chugged along at around 3 mph. through the SSSI to Shackerstone, her I spotted this little boat sitting up on the stocks, I have seen similar in Holland.

There were a lot less moored boats than normal in the area, I think there were only two on the visitor moorings in the village.
As we approached Snarestone tunnel there was a boat backing out and mooring up, he hadn’t taken his exhaust down so we carried on into the dark.

It was then down to the only lock gate on the Ashby Canal with the Ashby Canal Association railway signal to great us. As we winded  we noticed

volunteers working on the towpath, these turned out to be the CRT volunteer task force carrying out some resurfacing. We reversed down to the stop lock/bridge where after another barrow load of ballast was heaved over some members of the Ashby Canal Association kindly opened the gate so we could reverse through. 

We then reversed all the way down to the end of the restored section, its an easy task as there are no shallow edges to catch you out and its quite wide.

I don’t expect I will still be boating when the canal gets restored to Moira, restoration is not being helped by the delay in handover of the route to the Canal Association from the Leicestershire County Council which should have happened in 2017, Today there is a petition urging this handover to take place, please visit Petition · Ashby Canal Restoration · Change.org and sign it to make your views known.
 
There is a winding hole at the end beyond the finalbridge but its not big enough for a 57 footer to get round but the run back is even easier. On the way back we passed the old pump house on the off side, now a private residence. There is a large interpretation board on the towpath giving more information.

We decided to moor for the night just before the stop lock on the restored section, this is a 48hr mooring managed by the Ashby Canal Association on a non CRT waterway.

Today’s Journey

7¾ miles  with half a lock in 3¼ hours