The wind had dropped this morning. There was a beautiful sunrise with the rays of the early morning sun highlighting the distant trees against a dark sky. Magic. Why people want to stay in bed in the morning and miss the best part of the day I don't know. We left just before 8:00 and by 9:30 seemed to have got nowhere as the canal does three sides of a large square at this point. With 18 miles to go according to the mileposts there seemed little prospect of reaching Snarestone and the terminus of the canal today, until that is it dawned on us that the 18 miles is measured to the end of the as yet unrestored canal at Moira. So by 12:30 we were there. The canal skirts all the main towns or villages, such as they are. Market Bosworth is the largest, but its centre is nearly a mile away and the straggly bits nearer to the canal are easily missed. Shackerstone is the most obvious as it lies in the angle of the canal and there are rows of moored boats advertising its existence. Passing through the kinky tunnel one is soon at the terminus
where there is a presence of the Ashby Canal Association and the continuation of the unrestored canal past a swing bridge and temptingly round a corner. We had lunch there and then retraced our steps to the moorings on the southern side of the tunnel which are nearer to the village above the canal (literally as the canal goes underneath). A pint of Marston's Pedigree was found at the Globe.
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