Hatton Green

Here I am Rune

Distance 4.9 miles

Total 906 Locks 54 Tunnels

Running total mileage 1321.9 miles

It was good to get from the occasionally shallow Stratford Canal out onto the wide and deep Grand Union Canal today.  Generally progress was good at which the engine speed of 1600 rpm gives us a boat speed of 3 – 3.5mph. There was one slightly shallow cutting but otherwise all was good. It was also interesting to see just how high the embankments are on parts of this section of canal, considering the period when the canal was being built it would have been a civil engineering triumph. 

One more tunnel (Shrewley Tunnel)as well to tuck under our belt. There is a strange optical illusion that you get as you approach these tunnels, when about 200 yards away and looking into the tunnel mouth, the other end of the tunnel looks quite close but as you get closer and begin to enter the tunnel the exit from the tunnel recedes into the distance. I don’t know what causes the illusion but it is the second time I’ve seen it (Netherton Tunnel was the first).

The other bonus (for the crew) today was the fact that there were no locks, unlike tomorrow when we have the Hatton Flight of 21 locks immediately in front of us. At the moment the weather forecast is fairly good so here’s hoping for a pleasant trip through the locks tomorrow.

Kingswood Junction (the cut to Stratford goes under the bridge)