Monday 26 October 2009

Impeccable Timing!

6 Locks, 5 Miles, 1 Tunnel. Now moored at Westport Lake.

Westport 001Duplicated locks on the Trent & Mersey Canal at Kidsgrove.

After being awoken twice during the night (Midnight & 6am) by text messages from a friend in NZ who had absentmindedly forgotten about the time difference, we were all set for a 9.30am start. With only 6 locks on our planned itinerary it wasn’t going to be too hard a day. The only hold up was at lock 43 where a queue had already started long before we arrived.

Westport 003 Epiphany and Gypsy Rover awaiting their turn at lock 43 Trent & Mersey.

Just before lock 41 we moored for an hour or so to visit Tesco’s and stock up the pantry as handy supermarkets are few and far between for a while. Just before we were ready to head off to the Harecastle Tunnel there was a heavy shower of rain which delayed us for a few minutes. Luckily we didn’t hang around too long because we had been told there were 3 boats already awaiting entry to the tunnel from the Northern end which, by the time we reached the tunnel they had already gained entry. Thinking that we would have to wait the BW tunnel keeper arrived and ushered us straight into the the tunnel. Bless his cotton socks.

Westport 005 Some of the colourful fungal growth on the roof of the Harecastle Tunnel.

After an uneventful passage through the tunnel, which incidentally will be our third and final visit to Thomas Telford’s 19th century masterpiece, we moored up by Westport Lake. Fiona then invited us over for afternoon tea and cakes which was greatly appreciated.

Westport 012 After 1¾ miles of darkness daylight beckons.

Westport 013I would hate to see one of these guys suffer brake failure whilst parking.

2000 locks, 3873 miles, 76 tunnels, 129 swing bridges and 54 lift bridges since Nov 2006

3 comments:

Jenny and Robin said...

Sorry for the late night wakeup forgot about the time difference. We were having fun and wanted to share with you.

Jenny and Robin said...

The realtime position you are now using with water Explorer through Google Earth is just great. Why did I not find it sooner. Better than anything else I have found to keep track of your movements.

Derek and Dot said...

Hi Robin and Jenny
Hoped that it might have been easier to follow, I have been using it for some time now.