Lost. A few Kilo’s.(I hope)

Upon arising this morning Dot declared that she wanted breakfast at the Gongoozlers Cafe (boat) just along from us. So off we trot for a fry up breakfast.

Gongoozler's Rest Cafe at Braunston. Dorothy had to have breakfast there one morning.

After breakfast we planned to walk up the hill to the village for some bread (which we decided not to get) and some cordial. We got this and a magazine OK but a visit to Braunston wouldn’t be complete without a visit to the Butcher. Here we found 114g jars of all sorts of jams and jellies, so we came away with Strawberry, Raspberry, Bramble (Blackberry) and Lemon Curd. At least we have something to put on our bread now.

The local mailbox at Little Braunston, almost hidden in the hedge row.

Rather than retrace our steps we walked down Dark Lane to the locks intending to walk back along the towpath. As we had come this far we might as well walk up to the tunnel entrance to see the work done on clearing the 2008 slip. Just outside the Lord Nelson pub we found Graham of Matilda Rose awaiting an Enterprise Rental car which he had hired for the week-end.

Entering the west portal on Braunston Tunnel.  Before the slip was cleared there was barely room for one boat to get through here.

After a quick chat we wandered on up to the tunnel mouth where we were very surprised at the amount of work that had actually been done not only to the slip area but the whole non towpath bank between the locks and the towpath itself. Well done BW. We walked over the tunnel entrance to photograph the work from the non towpath side. What a difference.

The east portal and the Norton junction end of the Braunston tunnel.

Conundrum! How do you traverse the Braunston tunnel without moving your boat. Simple! You walk over the top of course. Yes, what started out as a walk to the crest of the hill finished up as a mammoth trek right across the top of the tunnel. A narrowboat that had entered the tunnel just before we set off actually emerged from the other end about 5 minutes after we had arrived so he must have been a bit of a slow coach.

One of the air vent shafts above the tunnel

Halfway through our walk we met another couple with the same intention as us so we walked it together. Of course once there we then had to walk back again. We finished up walking at least 4 to 5 miles in total so we must have burnt off a few grams or kilo’s.

Lock 2 overflowing on the Braunston Lock Flight this morning.

Just above the Norton junction end of the tunnel we found an apple tree overloaded with big green cooking apples just going to waste so both couples found numerous good apples to take home for Apple pie’s. Want not,waste not is what I say.

Don’t annoy me, I’m trying to get a tan