Waiting.

Day 11 of our Solace trip.  The highlight of today (well for me at least) was the Harecastle tunnel.  The shot shows Solace first in the queue for the next convoy going south.  Ash the ships dog (a malinois - Belgian Shepherd belonging to the Mate) is surveying the scene from the stern.

The tunnel (the one just in front of Solace) is 2926 yards long and is the work of Thomas Telford.  The tunnel just in view to the right is the original tunnel being the work James Brindley.  This was completed in 1777 after 11 years work a feat of engineering the like of which had not been seen in the world before. However subsidence began to make the tunnel un-navigable and so Telford was engaged to build the replacement.

The passage through the tunnel was uneventful and actually quite speedy, the average transit time is 40 mins and we were through in 35.  After the tunnel we decided we had time in hand and so set off on a short diversion up the Caldon canal.  This canal or more correctly branch of the Trent & Mersey canal was built to bring Limestone down from the quarries near Froghall.