Through the tunnel again

It’s been a good day after a very pleasant evening last night. We had a meal in the Toby Carvery with John and Nev and then retreated to Sanity Again to put the world to rights with the aid of some fermented vinous material. The Toby was OK as usual, though the carvers were a bit less generous with the portions than on previous occasions. John and Nev tell us that this variability is their experience at other Tobies too.

We actually had a lie in this morning and didn’t get boating until just after eight. As we were getting morning tea at seven we saw Waimaru reversing from where she’d moored through the bridge to turn outside the marina:

Waimaru in reverse

Sheila steered to the tunnel; it's about an hour from Etruria so we arrived at just after nine. We’d missed the first convoy of the day and happily hung about until 10.15.

This meant that we got out of the tunnel around 11. Sheila Halsall, a professional photographer, was taking pictures of us as we emerged from the tunnel and indeed followed us down to the water point to see us filling the water tank.

She’s a blog reader who reminded us that we’d met her before at Braunston. It was great to meet you again, Sheila.

We grabbed some lunch whilst watering and then carried on down the locks to tie between the bottom lock and the top of Church Locks, opposite the dairy farm.

Knowing from his blog that Geoff on Seyella might be a bit further down the canal, we took a walk to the top of Church and there indeed he was, rubbing down the side of the boat in preparation for repainting.

We’ve had a good chat with Geoff and Mags and admired Meg’s new hairstyle.

It’s going to be a quiet evening after all the excitement, then a gentle donder down to Rode Heath tomorrow.