Back through Standedge tunnel

After staying up to watch the election results until 3 in the morning we got up at 6 to go back up the last nine locks before returning through Standedge tunnel.  Although we were tired we were exhilarated by the clear blue skies and warming sunshine.  We made it well before our allotted time of 9.30 but as it turned out we didn’t set off through the tunnel until 11.  This is us ready to go and we were rather lucky to get a picture of a train coming out above the canal tunnel.

We tried to capture some of the things we missed on our way through on Wednesday.  This is a leggers’ plate.  They were placed on the roof so that the men legging boats through the tunnel could see how far they have come/have yet to go.

Here is one of the many side accesses to one of the three rail tunnels.  We heard and felt several trains but were not lucky enough to see one passing at the end of one of these passages.

There had been a rock fall in the past in this section as the roof is much higher and you can see reinforcing rods.

This looking up one of the ventilation shafts.

Once again it took us two hours to cover the 3 ¼ miles.  It seemed to have more bends and twists in it this time but maybe that was because I was feeling really tired.

It just started raining when we got through but we decided to continue to Dobcross back down nine locks that we had come up last Tuesday.  After a couple of locks the rain started to come down really hard but at least it wasn't windy like when we came up the flight.