Hinckley to Sutton Cheney

 

A latish start this morning, 9:40am, but then again we weren’t in a hurry. We were hoping to stop just after Stoke Golding, but the visitor moorings on the corner have all been turned over to winter moorings. We have noticed an extraordinary amount of visitor moorings turned over to winter moorings here on the Ashby canal. For us it is a pain as we need deep water moorings for Hadar. Once we discovered the moorings near Stoke Golding were not available we tried at least half a dozen piled banks but we could not even get close enough to get ropes ashore! We carried on until we arrived at Sutton Cheney, to be confronted yet again with visitor moorings turned over to winter moorings, all but one, which was empty so we dived in. The moorings here at pontoon moorings, but as can be seen from the photo it is not deep enough to get Hadar alongside, but at least we were close enough to step off. We had lunch, and then walked to the wharf to empty our toilet cassette and to dispose of the rubbish Jo had collected from the towpath. We also had a quick look at Sutton Wharf, they do 2 meals for £9.99, we may well have to try it out tomorrow lunchtime.

We returned to the boat to drop off the trolley and cassette and picked up cameras and headed off to Ambion wood, and walked through to the outskirts, where the Bosworth Hill visitor centre is. Previously we have walked to the centre from the Battlefield moorings, but it is definitely closer from this direction, and not so uphill either. Tomorrow we will walk to the centre, and then return via the village of Sutton Cheney, should make a nice walk. There was a lot of goldcrests in the woods, but they dart about too much for Jo to get a decent photo. We also saw a pair of squirrels having a game of tag up and down the trees. A buzzard swooped overhead whilst we were still in the wood. There is supposed to be Roe Deer in the wood, but it is too busy with dog walkers to be able to see any.

Keith.