Narrowboat Tacet

Silent Movement - Our gap year travelling the inland waterways



Friday 22 June 2012

A busy day is a happy day

To quote one of Ian's favourite William stories.
And today really has been a busy day. It started as we were the first boat through Harecastle Tunnel at 8am this morning, this was one of the dry bits of the journey even with the leaks! It is about a mile long and took 35 minutes to go through. There is a one way system in place and fans are run to keep the air moving and shift exhaust fumes. A tunnel keeper at each end controls boat movements.

colourful calcite formations on the roof of the tunnel
almost out

At the north end of the tunnel with the earlier Brindley tunnel on the right. Only the later Telford tunnel is used now. 
 
Despite the rain we had a full day making it all the way to Middlewich, 30 locks in all.

 Many of the locks are in pairs, on this stretch known as Heartbreak Hill, so many locks but in odd sets of  2,3,5 with half mile or mile gaps in between.
Over the last mile or so we began to meet hire boats out for the weekend, some of them have yet to get the hang of steering! I'm sure they will, we've all had a first time.
So a happy day? Yes I think so, despite the rain, we locked down with lovely people, had a joke with new boaters and enjoyed the scenery and wildlife we could see.

13 miles, 30 locks, 1 tunnel

1 comment:

  1. I'm working backwards (having been away from blogging for a couple of weeks). The friend who used to live in Nantwich, now lives in Middlewich. I haven't visited her there yet, but she says it is not quite such an attractive town.

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