Tunnels and Taxi Cabs

The Story So Far -
Total distance travelled 213 miles,  151 locks negotiated, some with more finesse than others!.  5 movable bridges pushed, 22 small aqueducts looked over  and 5 tunnels sworn a lot in.


30/04/12

Westport Lake, Stoke on Trent – Bridge 71, Congleton, Macclesfield Canal

Well. How to describe today? Surreal, exhilarating, humbling and surprising?  Quite diverse descriptions just to tell you about a trip through a tunnel and to get the weekly shopping.  But I can’t really think of any others that will do today justice.

Firstly,  The Harecastle Tunnel

My favourite and least favourite tunnel so far.  We arrived at just gone 8am and were met by a very pleasant and professional BW Tunnel Keeper who advised us we had a 20 minute wait as there was a boat on their way through.  As this is a one way tunnel we had to wait for them to emerge before we could go in.   On the approach to the tunnel it appeared that the tunnel entrance was to the left of the building with the big black door.  I was wondering how on earth we were going to turn Silver Blue a full 90 degrees to get round the corner to the entrance?  It was only after we had tied her up and walked towards the building that we realised that the big black door was in fact the entrance to the tunnel!

Then it was our turn.  We entered the tunnel and the BW man closed the big black door behind us.  It wasn’t too dark as I  had already opened all the curtains and turned on the lights inside the boat while Yog had turned on the headlight.  It was the fan that then came on, a terrifically noisy fan.  When you’re not expecting it it’s pretty scary.  It sounded huge, as if someone had just started Boeing 747 behind us!!!  Luckily the further into the tunnel we got, the quieter it became and it did provide a lovely breeze. 

We had been given a leaflet with do’s and dont’s.  It also advised that the headroom varied from section to section and it can go as low as 5’9” depending on the water level.  We were OK though, chugging along occasionally getting soaked by the drippy bits.  Then after a while a yellow painted crescent came into view at the front of the boat, it was marking where the roof of the tunnel was getting lower.  Not too bad, just a few inches, then another yellow crescent and another few inches, then another, and another….

This is where it started to get surreal.  When you are going through a tunnel, sometimes your eyes get confused and it looks like you’re not moving, the tunnel is.   Add this to the tunnel getting smaller, or is it you getting bigger?   It felt like a weird crossbreed fairground ride.  Not quite the hall of mirrors, or the tunnel of love.  A touch of a water ride with added essence of ghost train lol.  It got to the point where Yog was literally on his knees the roof was so low.  I was panicking that he would hit his head and get knocked out as once the headlight had gone past the point where the roof lowered you couldn’t tell where it was along the boat.  The back deck was pitch black and you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face.  I don’t know what I would have done if something had happened.  I didn’t like it, not one bit.

But then, you look at the tunnel itself.  This thing was hand dug.  No automated tunnel drilling machine did this, men did it and probably spent a large part of their lives doing it.  It is a thing of beauty and should be cherished.  Every so often you would see a carefully bricked alcove, or water chute.  The roof of the tunnel was perfectly irregular and captivating to watch as it sailed past you on your way through the hill it was dug out of all those years ago.

Towards the end ‘someone with an odd sense of humor’ has painted a life size skeleton that looks as if he is climbing out of one of the alcoves right at you!  It is very good and had the desired effect on me when I saw it!!

Yog also had an X file moment at the exit of the tunnel when he ‘lost’ the whereabouts of the throttle handle and managed to hit the door at the exit whilst he was fumbling around in the dark trying to find it.  He was still thrown for a few minutes after exiting the tunnel thinking the boat sounded funny, did it look lower in the water etc etc….    After a coffee, ciggie and a few minutes to acclimatise himself to the outside world again, all was in fact well with the boat.  So we headed for the Macclesfield Canal. 

The locks that signify the turn for the Macclesfield came onto view and we duly turned left into a very narrow tree lined canal.  We rounded a few bends and passed back over the canal we had just left on ‘The Red Bull Aquaduct’.  There was a small stop lock to deal with then we had about 5 lock free  miles to a small town called Congleton where the trusty ‘app’ had advised me there was a Morrisons.  We had no dog or human food so big shop was required. 

I meant to say, at the lock was a letter box type thing with a BW key lock.  We had seen them before, they are supposed to have area information leaflets in them but so far we hadn’t found any, but at this lock they had some!!  Woo Hoo I hear you say, I knew you would be as excited as I was to get an information leaflet on Macclesfield!

There are 2 Roving Bridges or Snake bridges as you go into the town (76 & 77).  In the time of horse-drawn boats they changed the towpath from one side to the other without the need to unhitch your horse.  We moored up and made our way to Morrisons.  It was a mile walk down hill into the town and Yog had opted to come with me.  Now I hate food shopping, every woman I know does too.  Yog hates ALL shopping and he was with me.  This was not going to end well, not well at all.

Before we got into the shop we decided that a cab back up the hill to the boat was the way to go.  I got the trolley and we went in.

45 minutes later we both came out again with a week’s shopping, both still alive and talking to each other???  I’m not sure who was more amazed, him or me lol