“Aren’t they cold?”
“Are you on a pilgrimage?”
“You’re a proper boatman!”
“Why…”
I’ve heard all these comments and more this year – the last one from Heather. This is the story of how I accidentally became a barefoot walker.
Living on the water for a long, dry summer probably helped. I’d stopped wearing anything on my feet inside the boat a few years ago. To make it easy, I had taken to slipping on flip flops when getting off the boat for locks or other boat related tasks. But flip flops can get in the way when climbing over lock gates or they fall off or slip at just the wrong moment, so I often took them off and went barefoot. Eventually, I stopped bothering with them at all.
As I started to spend more time barefoot and walk greater distances, I did notice that my feet, ankles and calves were getting much more of a workout and they let me know about it too! But they were also getting stronger, and the soles of my feet were becoming tougher. At the same time, I realised I was getting much less lower back and knee pain. I began going barefoot on longer walks, even hiking in the hills. I had unintentionally become a barefoot walker.
Little children run around in bare feet. But, as we get older, we are told to wear ever more supportive and restrictive footwear. Even though barefoot felt right, I wondered if going barefoot was wrong. So, I took to Google – and quickly discovered that there is a whole community of people out there who are going barefoot. There’s research that shows that many of the benefits I experienced are real. It shouldn’t be a surprise, take a step back and consider the fact that we evolved to walk bare foot. If you transition to barefoot walking gradually, your feet, ankles and legs can revert to working the way they were designed to. Your arches will return, your feet will become more supple, your ankles will strengthen. Your calf muscles, which have been shortened by years of raised and cushioned heels, will stretch to their natural length. The strain on your knees reduces as your whole foot acts more like the shock absorber it is supposed to be.
There are some purists who shun any form of footwear. That’s too extreme for me, but what can you do if you need to wear something on your feet, but “normal” footwear now feels too uncomfortable? This could be In urban settings where there is a greater risk of injury (or dog poop!), or when it gets too cold or wet? Even the most toughened feet don’t have much grip in the wet and it’s not much fun if they go numb because of the cold.
Well, there are a growing number of businesses that make barefoot shoes. Sounds like a contradiction but they give many of the benefits of being barefoot, but in shoes. Key features of barefoot shoes are a wide toebox, a zero drop heel, thin soles and flexibility.
Going barefoot means you are more in touch with your environment. Some advise that it is good for your mental health. You are certainly healthier and more aware of the changing seasons and temperature of the ground. You even notice more about the vegetation around you – especially if there’s brambles or hawthorn!
We ascended the Stoke Locks today. Over the past two days we’ve seen more boats moving than the previous two weeks. Today was no exception.
Emerging from the northern portal, we turned left on to the Macc and on to our home mooring at Scholar Green.
Well that didn’t go to plan. No post yesterday because not much happened. That’s not true. Stuff happened. Just not the stuff we wanted to happen. We chugged on to the end of the Ashby past the Globe Inn that we didn’t have dinner in and through the Snarestone Tunnel. 
We got rid of some rubbish, made a donation to the Ashby Canal Society, who maintain an information point there, and then we turned and went back through the tunnel, and 2 minutes later the battery charging warning lamp and buzzer came on. Last time this happened, the alternator belt had snapped. So I thought the same thing had happened again. We pulled over and then discovered it was not that simple. I exhausted all the checks I could do and was beginning to suspect the alternator had packed in. So, at 11:30am, we called out River Canal Rescue, the canal equivalent of the RAC or AA. They got to us around 6pm, I’m afraid I don’t cope well with waiting to find out what’s wrong with the boat. 
Of course the alternator was just playing tricks on us, and it decided to pack up completely about 30 minutes later. So we limped on to Shackerstone to moor for the night and put in another call to RCR.
The effects of the straightening of the North Oxford in the 1820s are very apparent around Rugby. There are several, now redundant, side branches whilst the mainline of the canal carries on in straight lines over embankments. After Rugby, several of these side branches are marked by these elegant iron bridges. 
Problem is this, she spends most of the time barking. Sometimes at people, sometimes at other dogs, but most of the time at nothing (or is that everything). At least on this part of the Coventry she could bark at something impressive – a gorilla in someone’s back garden.
This morning, we didn’t get going that early. Someone decided he would stay in bed a little longer. The rural and sometimes shallow nature of the Ashby soon becomes apparent. A big contrast to the Coventry Canal.
This year we both noticed this boat, overflowing with well-tended vegetation, and complete with a dedicated kennel boat for the dog.
After a short time we reached Norton Junction, where the Leicester Line joins the Grand Union Mainline. Turning right, we headed towards Braunston Tunnel, past yet another favourite mooring spot. 
After the Braunston Tunnel, there are the 6 Braunston Locks to descend. It’s also back to wide locks. Now we had our first lock queue to deal with, but at least it meant that we had another boat to share the locks with.
Braunston is also where one of Midland Chandlers canal-side stores is located, right by the junction at Braunston Turn. We often stop there, when passing, to indulge a little canal-style retail therapy. Today was no different. We treated ourselves to a new Porta-Potti! 
Last night we moored above Foxton Locks, having made our way through late in the day. As I mentioned yesterday, we had 20 miles of lock free cruising today on the summit level, before reaching the locks at Watford. So no locks, but glorious remote countryside and two tunnels at Husbands Bosworth and Crick.
there is no way round, it goes straight through. Some people don’t like tunnels. But I don’t mind them. But I have to admit, the tunnels that allow two way traffic can be more challenging, especially when the boats coming the other way have their headlights set straight ahead. It’s like full beam headlights that take 5 minutes to go past. Leaves spots before your eyes. 
we soon found out that the flight had just been closed because a gate paddle on the bottom lock had just broken. The lock keeper let us know that a crew was on the way but that it would take at least 2 hours to fix. We went to have a look, and the problem was obvious, spot the difference!
A cloudy day with only occasional hints of sun. It seemed that every time I took my waterfproof off, it started to rain, so I left it on. Then, of course, I cooked because the sun came out. 
found their water 10 minutes later. Arriving at this lock, water was beginning to cascade over the top gate as well as rushing down the bywash. It made the lock difficult and slow to empty and caused a lot of problems for the boats trying to get into the lock. It subsided in around 10 minutes, carrying on its way down hill, to fill some very low pounds lower down the flight.
There is always something special about a canal that is contouring its way through hilly country. But sometimes you can’t go around anymore and the canal has to resort to a tunnel. In this case it was the Saddington Tunnel. Like all the tunnels on the Leicester Ring, it is wide enough for two boats to pass, so no need for any type of traffic management. Saddington Tunnel is relatively short, at 880m, and it appears to be straight because you can see straight through. But this is an illusion because it has a few kinks in it which make you feel like you are zig zagging form one side of the tunnel to the other.
Yesterday morning, we left Kegworth Deep Lock, and it immediately started raining. It carried on raining until Loughborough. So only one photo, looking back at this impressive waterside house. Which is a shame, because there are some really beautiful wide stretches of the River Soar north of Loughborough. We stopped in Loughborough for shopping and a sneaky pizza lunch.
The weather started to clear as we left Loughborough, heading south towards Leicester. This is again a beautiful stretch of rural river. The sun really came out as we reached Mountsorrel, passing under this impressive brick bridge. It was clearly built in 1860, but we haven’t been able to find anything else about it. The lock in Mountsorrel is right next to a pub. Now the rain had stopped, so we had an audience of beer drinkers.
If you have to go through Leicester, by water has to be the best way. It’s not quick, but it’s far more attractive than the other ways. And you get to go past the UK National Space Centre, yes that building that looks like an alien pod has landed.
Leaving the centre of Leicester, we leave river navigations and return to a true canal. Before we could, we had to wait for some divers to finish removing a mattress from around the prop of a CRT work boat. Earlier in the day I had crowed about the fact that nothing like that had happened to us. That was going to come back to bite me.