We had an early-ish start today trying to miss the hot weather. It was only a short trip to the queue for the Harecastle Tunnel. It is monitored by CRT personnel. We had the briefing and passed the boat requirements. Yes we have a light and a horn. We were only waiting for about 20 minutes when it was our turn to go through, we followed another boat, who put a light on the back so I could see where they were in front of us. as you go in the tunnel the lock keeper closes the doors and puts the extraction fan on. It’s quite noisy and a bit disorientating. It feels like you are not going anywhere. I was a bit surprised that the instruction was to go at speed, I expected tick over. Funnily enough it wasn’t nearly as awful as the Froghall Tunnel, mostly it was quite roomy and plenty of room to stand upright on the boat. It took us 40 minutes to get through the tunnel. 2926 yards of underground tunnel.
We finally got out the otherside, the water is rusty colored on the that side. We turned onto the Macclesfield Canal and found a nice shady spot and stopped there for the rest of the day. We took some chairs out under a shady tree and read for a while. There was a lovely breeze in the shade, but it was so hot in the sun.
Waiting
The entrance
.
Maps.
Rusty water
