On to Blisworth

Karl had moved up two locks yesterday as he needed water, well actually he steered his boat while I worked him through the locks.
Today we wanted to head off to Blisworth so with the sun shining I prepared myself to go and catch him up, everything ready the lock ahead was against me but I was prepared for that, just about to cast off and saw a boat heading towards the lock from behind me, lovely methinks, I'll share with that one, as he drew nearer another boat appeared, they were sharing already, oh well, a quick cuppa and then I'll move, as I started to cast off a boat moored two behind me set off and the chap shouted 'if you want to share I'll go set the lock, you go straight in' ahhh sweet music to my ears we worked through the two locks together both doing our bit, it worked well, I had explained that I was meeting Karl so as we left the 2nd lock I let him go ahead so that I could warn Karl of my approach and fall in behind him for our little trip through Blisworth Tunnel.
In 1980 the tunnel was closed for four years and the bore re-lined, this is one of the concrete rings that were used lying just before the entrance, it does look small when you stand next to it but two narrowboats can pass each other in the tunnel, if you want to come through in a widebeam boat you have to book your passage with the Canal and River Trust, there is no towpath though so if you want to walk it you have to walk over the top. It is 3,076 yards long and takes roughly 30-45mins to get through. Originally boats were 'poled' through like they do with the punts at Oxford but then 'legging' took over, two people laying across the roof head to head and pushing the boat through with your feet walking against the tunnel walls, oh what fun the must have been, I'm glad we have engines.

Karl waited til I was close and set off on the short run to the tunnel. I passed this lovely little tug on the way, it was really quite small in height and sitting low in the water, but it did look good.

It didn't take long before Karl was disappearing into the South portal of the tunnel

As I entered it I could see my tunnel light was pointing too high, it was all clear behind so I stopped the boat and walked along the gunnels and adjusted the light, but as soon as I started moving again the light swung back to it's original position, not to self, tighten the fixings on the light! It was ok though, the shock of going from bright sunlight into pitch black made it seem worse than it was, once my eyes had adjusted a bit more I could see a whole 3 or 4 feet in front of the boat, no problem J

No pictures inside the tunnel, my flash decided this would be the best time to not work, it was a cold, dark, long, and often very wet, but for me a weirdly pleasant journey, I was disappointed nothing came the other way, I would have liked to have experienced passing a boat in there but I'm sure it will happen in the future somewhere.

Emerging from the darkness I forget to check and see how long it had actually taken, this is looking back at the North portal which was built with blue bricks whereas the South portal was built with red bricks, I wonder why.

I passed Karl who was not sure where to stop and we carried on the short distance to between bridges 51 and 50 where I saw some nice pilings and moored up.

Tonights mooring.






Total Today 3 miles: 2 Locks : 1 Tunnel