Day 114 - through Braunston Tunnel and heading south.

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5 locks, 434 in total.







A book about canals that I read recently kept launching into highbrow poetry quotations; brace yourselves.....



'One misty moisty morning, when cloudy was the weather' (Nursery Rhyme – anon) was very apt today. Our plan of sheltering from the rain in Braunston Tunnel worked well but only so far - and it would be an exaggeration to call the precipitation 'rain', the nursery rhyme was more accurate – and we had to emerge sooner or later.







Braunston Tunnel is about 2000 yards long and 14 feet wide so in theory you can meet and pass oncoming boats with a whole 4” to spare, however I think everyone else was hunkered down, unable to comprehend the meteorological phenomenon – we had a clear passage through the ironstone outcrop with sections of quicksand. A construction error resulted in an 'S' shape but it wasn't a problem today – I had 14 feet to play with. Originally barges were 'legged' through tunnels as the horses had to be unhitched but in 1870 a wire loop was fitted, driven by a steam engine at one end which pulled the barges through – one of the leggers made redundant by this technology was 75 years old and had been working in the tunnel for 44 years. The wire loop was abandoned after a year because the bends in the tunnel created too much friction and steam tugs took on the task, pulling several barges through from alternate ends at hourly intervals.







My mobile has been in a dead zone for the last 36 hours – it went into overdrive as we emerged from the tunnel, all bells and whistles as texts, emails and voicemail alerts flooded in!







Through Norton Junction, where the Leicester Arm of the Grand Union heads off northwards whilst we continued on the broad Main Line, leaving the summit pound as we headed down Buckby Locks. These are still wide locks so we paired up with a hire boat to save water. I'm not sure it saved us much work but they did throw sticks for Hattie as the locks emptied. By this time we had picked up the West Coast Mainline on one side of us and the M1 on the other – you can hear the background noise but it is surprisingly unintrusive. We stopped for the day part way down the Whilton flight, lunched and then walked around to the garden centre opposite, discovering a farm shop on the way. It would seem that most other boaters stopped early today too.







Boat names that appealed recently – Sally Slapcabbage and Wells Fargo







No pictures due to inclement conditions but we'll be returning this way to Braunston at the end of the trip.

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Comments

[sgs]

Boatnames
Sally reminds me of when my dad took a photo of my sister and I dressed as cowboys (we were children it's ok) - he called us Foots McCray and Avery Lill! S

[Dunlin]

Cowgirls...
I do like your father's sense of humour!