Steam train from Shackerstone

Well we arrived at Hinckley on Tuesday, spending 2 nights there.  It is a lovely town with a good selection of shops.  Not all chain stores.  Although we did find Lidl and Tesco so the cupboards are once again well stocked.  Although we have seen a few boats moving about as we have been cruising most of the mooring places are very quiet.  The Ashby is a lovely canal.  Leaving Hinckley we have pretty much made straight towards the end of the canal as we wanted to get there for the weekend.  Yesterday we made it to Shackerstone, mooring just after 10.  We then for a ride on the steam train on the Battle Field Line.  This time of year the trains only run at the weekend and at the moment it is the Santa Train.  A shame in one way as it runs to Shenton via Market Bosworth but due to lack of trains we couldn’t really get off and explore.  Still if it wasn’t for Santa the train probably wouldn’t have been running at all!  Today a 3 mile cruise through the Snareston Tunnel brought us to the present limit of the canal.  We are spending the night here at Snareston just beyond the north end of the tunnel.  There is about another half mile of canal but nowhere to turn at the end.  We will probably walk there tomorrow and perhaps on to Measham for a look around.

On the Santa Train