Braunston Tunnel

[FadeToScarlet]

Yes, and particularly galling as I had no tunnel-fear prior to doing one and of all the things I thought that would phase me when boating, that wasn't even on the list!

Do try thefloodlight thing, it lights it up like day and would hopefully solve those problems.

 

Or teach the cats to steer....

[Guest]

I didn't have any fears or qualms at all about tunnels, until I did my first one. Two minutes in I lost all of my depth perception, got vertigo, had a panic attack and started crying, and as soon as we got to the other end, I leapt for the shore about six feet away, lay on the ground, and promptly revisited my lunch.

 

I am getting better with them these days, but I do seem to have some weird issue where my eyes start playing tricks on me and I lose my depth perception, then start imagining things moving that aren't there, which altogether makes me feel sick and giddy.

 

Jan doesn't get as bad a reaction as this but yes she does normally make a 'tactical withdrawal' to the cabin and was always normally followed by Dennis who wasn't too keen on them either.

Edited February 23, 2014 by The Dog House

[Tuscan]

I once paid a boat mover based in the South to move my old boat down from the Leeds and Liverpool after we got stranded by an emergency stoppage. He got completely freaked by Harecastle for the first (and I suspect last) time the boat went through with him hiding in the back cabin. He got as far as the top of Braunston flight then had to stop and could not continue.

[jelunga]

I wouldn't avoid a tunnel, but find them a bit unnerving and spooky.

 

There you go, I've said it now.

 

Martyn

I also do not like tunnels. But SWMBO always gives me a whiskey laced coffee at the exit and a tot to drink on the way through which makes them bearable!

I love a tunnel! It was a sad day when, half-way up the HNC I discovered that my boat is too big for Standedge. A couple of lovely little tunnels are the Cookley and Dunsley tunnels on the Staffs and Worcester. Harecastle is a great experience. Chirk Tunnel is nice, coming off the aqueduct. Locally to me is the Wast Hill tunnel and always makes me smile since it makes the boundary between town and country.

 

I love the acoustics of a tunnel and it generally provokes an outburst of unrehearsed singing from me.

Coming south through Blisworth tunnel once I was playing bugle calls. Great acoustics. On leaving there was a group of walkers sitting by the buildings who gave me some applause as we came out of the tunnel. With a bugle you only need one hand to play it so I could steer as well! Edited February 23, 2014 by jelunga

[RLWP]

My very first tunnel was Crick on the Llangollen. Everyone piled up the front to enjoy the trip leaving me at the back, in the dark

 

My worst nightmares include the dark, deep water and hidden machinery. It was a bit of an experience

 

I still don't like looking back over my shoulder in a tunnel

 

But...

 

If I have a torch, I get quite a lot of fun from tunnels. There are lots of unexpected things hanging from the roof, in niches and on signs. IIRC, Braunston has brackets on the roof for telegraph wires

 

Netherton has signs marking the capped off airshafts, and piped water outlets

 

Richard

[Nightwatch]

I also do not like tunnels. But SWMBO always gives me a whiskey laced coffee at the exit and a tot to drink on the way through which makes them bearable!

now there's an excuse. I mean an idea.

 

Martyn

[Keeping Up]

There are some tunnels where you can play little games. In Blisworth, for example, there is one particularly wet ventilation shaft near the Northern end of the "new" section". If you are travelling southwards and there is traffic coming in the other direction, the game is to adjust your speed to make sure that you pass a Northbound boat at that point, ensuring that its steerer (and particularly any passengers who are in the front well) will get a soaking.

[Rob-M]

I've taken to using a head torch in tunnels which helps illuminating when having a look around.

[J R ALSOP]

I think you meant Chirk, not Crick on Llangollen canal.

[RLWP]

I think you meant Chirk, not Crick on Llangollen canal.

I do indeed, it was still scary

 

Richard

[nebulae]

Is the myth that you cant see through Braunston because you cant see through by standing on the bank and peering in? When you are on a boat you have a better line of vision .Once,when passing through Blisworth,I am sure I saw a child looking at me from one of the drainage tunnels .It was years ago and I wonder if I had one too many glasses of falling down water? Is it possible to get into these tunnels in some way?.

[alan_fincher]

Once,when passing through Blisworth,I am sure I saw a child looking at me from one of the drainage tunnels .It was years ago and I wonder if I had one too many glasses of falling down water? Is it possible to get into these tunnels in some way?.

From a boat!

 

Otherwise I doubt it, unless by abseiling down an offset air-shaft, if that were possible.

[Ray T]

Is the myth that you cant see through Braunston because you cant see through by standing on the bank and peering in? When you are on a boat you have a better line of vision .Once,when passing through Blisworth,I am sure I saw a child looking at me from one of the drainage tunnels .It was years ago and I wonder if I had one too many glasses of falling down water? Is it possible to get into these tunnels in some way?.

 

Perhaps it was the Braunston Boggart?

[Ssscrudddy]

Braunston was my 1st ever tunnel. It was all over the place, I was all over the place. Half the time I couldnt tell if I was going forwards or backwards. I met a few boats coming the other way, the only 1 I hit was a boat I met at the kink, we both hit bow to bow, I went boucing off the right hand wall & then off the left hand wall once past the other boat, looking back they did exactly the same, we both shouted our apologies.
2nd time through it I didnt hit anything.
If you havent done Braunston tunnel before then surely you have to do it at least once IMO.

[Taslim]

A freind of many years is visiting & ,looking over my shoulder a moment ago, spotted 'Bruanston Tunnel' and reminded me of the first time we did it.

 

In our yoof a bunch of us had been to a local pub gig, drank a little beer, swallowed little purple tabs that made the sky (and most other things) change colour then went to the towpath for a 'roll up'.

 

It seemed like a good idea to swim through it. Easy Peasy. Not funny or clever but no one got drowned.

 

At the other end the girls had hidden our cloths. We didn't realy care & got into the car and swerved home.

[the grinch]

Is it Braunston with one of the air shafts off to one side at the end of a short tunnel?

 

Richard

think you'll find that's Blisworth the original tunnel bore was slightly to the east of the finished tunnel and was rerouted due to ground water issues during construction, as for Braunston I have been through it loads of times with both single motors and pairs never had a bad experience yet and have even passed a single motor with a pair in the kink without issue!! of all the tunnels my favourite has to be Wast Hill just love that trip always different every time I have passed through!

[Shockabilly]

Mrs Shockabilly & I bought our first ever narrowboat in October last year, the maiden voyage home started by turning left out of Crick Marina and straight into Crick Tunnel, through Watford Flight and onward to Braunston Tunnel which I found particularly enjoyable and awe inspiring; the fact that I was chugging through a tunnel that had been opened before the commencement of the Napoleonic Wars was experiencing living history at it's best…wonderful.