1st June 2015

Our overnight mooring at Etruria was at the summit of the Trent and Mersey Canal.

We set off at the early time of 7:50 hoping to get into a good position for the second run through the Harecastle Tunnel.   This worked pretty well as we were second in the queue.  Unfortunately the down coming boats were a bit slow and we had a wait of an hour and twenty minutes.  We followed someone who had been through a few times before and managed the entire tunnel in 35 minutes without touching the walls once.  We did however have a little bump at the very end where the exit requires a sharp turn made a bit more difficult by a work boat on the left!

We noticed a significant change in the colour of the water which turns a deep brown as soon as the tunnel exit is reached.

We dropped down the next six locks and moored at the visitor moorings just past bridge 135.  This left us with a short walk back to Red Bull where we had arranged to meet Sarah.  That turned out to be an excellent arrangement .  Not only did we meet Sarah and collect our goodies,  including beautifully manufactured bum protectors, but we avoided travelling in some pretty atrocious weather and moored on some good solid rings.  This was really appreciated when we saw warnings of winds overnight reaching 51 mph.  With similar weather predicted for tomorrow we walked up and sussed out the moorings at Rode Heath.  Finding it crowded with most boats relying on stakes we decided to stay where we are for an extra day.

The tunnel entrance

After exiting the tunnel the water becomes a deep brown colour