Leisys two

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I walked with friends from Syston to Leicester.
The walk starts in town passes a park and the Station into residential streets. Quite quickly you turn onto the Grand Union Canal towpath towards Watermead County Park, a lovely area of paths and waterways. Most of the path is along cycle paths, wide and smooth, but there are quiet diversions over grass and through woods. Crossing the Park the path follows the River Soar along wide flat pathways past Leicester Outdoor activity Centre and past Belgrave Hall Gardens with a museum and café. The rote passes The National Space Centre which looks amazing. Abbey Park had a small model railway, the park closes at 6pm (in November) but is easily walked around. St Margret's Church has some fascinating gravestones, then down into a 'decorated' underpass. A short road walk takes you to the busy bustle of Leicester City centre.
Despite some roads this was a mainly a beautiful walk through water lands, parks and woods.
Short section of grass in winter may be difficult for wheels when soft and wet otherwise wheel friendly.

Very beautiful along the canal, also extremely flat. Lots of trees and also industrial entry to Leister.

I thought this was a lovely route. The first 2k went along roadside pavements but there was a nice mini diversion near the start, into a park. We followed the Grand Union Canal/River Soar, which was very nice, for quite a way, but with a very pleasing diversion along a wooded path between some of the lakes.
Simultaneously, another group were walking LeiSys One. We had started the walks together then separated, and we met for a lunch break on a sunny grassy bank just after crossing below the A653, where our routes rejoined. LeiSys Two is much more accurately plotted from this point on, heading south!
It was very exciting passing the National Space Centre – I must visit it sometime!
After passing the Abbey remains, we diverged from the other group again, and crossed the river to walk through Abbey Park. There was a café by the bridge. We passed a miniature steam railway which was fun. Note that Abbey Park is closed at dusk.
The last section passed some interesting old factories and then went through an underpass with amazing graffiti and also some strewn rubbish, then soon reached the Clock Tower meeting point.

Walked from Syston to Leicester as our second route on the Saturday of the November swarm. We walked with Kelly Smith's guided group, but since we found out that they were walking LEISYS 1, Mary, Tony and I broke away from the group in various places to follow this route. This is a very pleasant and fairly direct walk, only short of 5 stars because of the length of the pavement walk from Syston to the Soar and the park in Leicester that is locked at night (but could easily be walked round). The river walk is surprisingly pretty, and the river path passes the National Space Centre.

Leaving the meeting point, we go south down Melton Road, using the pelican crossing to cross to the west side. This route goes straight on to the edge of a park, where we follow a surfaced path left back to Melton Road, which we follow past the railway station, turning right onto Wanlip Road, which we follow past three small roundabouts to the river (note that it is easiest to stay on the north side all the way, because the pavement on the south side does not continue all the way. Just beyond the Hope & Anchor pub we cross the road (which has a central refuge) and descend to the canal towpath. There is a choice here between the unsurfaced towpath or a slightly less direct surfaced cycle track a short distance to the right. These routes converge to cross the same bridge over the river Soar over the weir where it leaves the canal.

Beyond the bridge we missed the start of the unsurfaced path by the lakeside, but the main path is probably better anyway. Beyond the first lake, our route leaves the surfaced path to turn right through a rather charming tree-lined track between two lakes/former gravel pits. At a T-junction we turn left, and at the next junction we go left again and almost immediately right, taking the right fork where the path splits. We are soon back on the main riverside path, which we follow past the edge of Birstall. We cross a bridge over a side branch of the Soar half left and another shortly afterwards over the main part of the river, then follow the surfaced path that follows the east bank. Just beyond the bridge under the A563 we found the main group having lunch. Our route continues along more surfaced paths as far as Thurcaston Road, where we cross the river and continue parallel to the west bank of the river. There is one point that could be missed where our path turns left over a bridge that crosses a small tributary. We then follow it past the National Space Centre to Abbey Park Road. Note that there is currently building work affecting the bridge here, and we need to go right 100 meters or so to cross the road beyond the fenced off area and go back to the bridge on the south side of the road. We follow the path between the Abbey wall and the river, and either follow the other side of the wall or continue as far as the rather impressive cafe.

Here we chose to ignore the short continuation and double-back along the river path (possibly a plotting error?) and cross the bridge into Abbey Park, turning right along the east bank of the river and left up Cave's walk by the model railway. Note that there is a gate at the park entrance which may be locked at night, so if doing this route in the evening a detour may be needed. At South Lodge the path over the canal bridge starts just right of the end of Cave's Walk. We cross the bridge and go straight on up Abbey Walk and Watling Street, turning right onto Canning Street then taking the path left into St Margaret's churchyard. We take the path left through a gate down to the underpass, where the graffiti is rather impressive, then go up onto Church Gate, which leads easily to the Leicester meeting point at the Clock Tower.

A lovely varied walk along the Grand Union canal, river Stour through Watermead Country Park. It follows the level and tarmacced Sustrans Route 48 beside the canal. It then takes a lovely scenic route into Leicester passing the National Space Centre and the ruined Leicester Abbey.

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