OMG, what a day!
We were joined by Sam and Beam today, as planned, to go through Harecastle tunnel and to progress into Stoke.
Everything went as planned for the first part of the day. Sam and Beam parked up at a nearby train station and then met us as we were coming through a lock (we now have these down to a fine art by the way). It was then a short journey to the tunnel. On our arrival, we were met by a couple of friendly CRT chaps, who tested our horn and lights and then we were given a short safety briefing. Basically, if anything went wrong, we were to give long blasts on our horn every thirty seconds and then they would send in help.
Briefing over, we switched on all the lights inside Daisy to help light up the tunnel and we we set off into the darkness. There was not a chance that I was even going to attempt this bad boy, and so Mr Robinson was in total charge. The tunnel was so low in places that he was pretty much doubled over whilst steering! You can see from the exit picture below the height restriction warning barrier.
We were in the tunnel for around forty minutes and it was pretty impressive and a bit cold and drippy. It was hard not to think about it collapsing and us being trapped inside and there were times when that sliver of light at the end seemed to never get any closer. On the whole though, it was an epic experience.
The pictures below also show the sheer happiness on Paul’s face once we had safely made it through the other side.
This is a short video taken from the stern and gives you the view that Paul had whilst steering us through. It was taken in one of the taller parts of the tunnel.
Here is another video which gives you a view from inside Daisy and also from the bow.
Tunnel completed, we had a quick lunch and did approximately 5 miles into Etruria, Stoke. We moored up outside a Toby Carvery pub and headed in for a drink and a game of cards. As we were doing ok for time, we decided to push on, with Sam and Beam to assist with the next five locks, all the way into Stoke where we planned to drop them off to get an Uber back to their car and then for us to find somewhere quiet to moor overnight.
This is where it went wrong and it was totally our fault.
We got to the first lock (lock 39) and it was SHUT!!!!!! Had we thought to check the CRT stoppages, we would have seen that it is shut from 4th to 19th June! 😩 Are we destined never to get back to Derby or what! We absolutely couldn’t believe it!!!
Sam felt bad for us and was a bit worried for our sanity. He needn’t be though as by now we are used to such set backs. We considered our options which weren’t many! We could turn back, go back through the tunnel, turn out on to the Shropshire canal and then go down to Wolverhampton and then back up to Derby that way. However, we quickly realised that this would take ages and there would be no way Paul would be back in time for his trip to Scotland next week.
So, we are taking the only other option. We passed a marina near the pub we stopped at and so we are currently moored outside until the marina office opens on Monday. We will then be going in first thing to see if they can take Daisy for a week or so so that we can leave her somewhere safe.
Paul got a ride back to Derby with Sam and Beam and is picking up Freedom (our car) so that we can hopefully head back to Derby on Monday if we get in the marina. If we don’t, then I will probably have to stay here on my own, which I dont really want to do!
All in all though it was a good day and we enjoyed a delicious curry together that was cooking in the slow cooker whilst we travelled. Beam also got to feed the baby geese who all joined us for a bit.
We will keep you updated!
Much love, Jo & Paul xx
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