After 4 hours walking we came to Kingswood Junction, where the Stratford Canal branches off to the West. We managed to keep straight on down the Grand Union, a bit better performance than yesterday.
A quarter of an hour later we stopped for refreshment at the 'Tom o' the Woods' public house.
The weather brightened later in the day but it didn't get too hot.
At times the towpath became quite narrow and one had to walk quite near the edge of the canal. Passing people coming the other way was quite tricky. (Whose turn was it to stand on the nettles).
After 5.5 hours, just before reaching Hatton railway station, and the end of our walk, we came upon the Shrewley Tunnel. This was different to all the other tunnels we've encountered in that there are 2 tunnels side by side. A large one, for the narrow boats, and a smaller one for us and what would have been horses in Victorian times. The horses tunnel climbed upwards and ended just before some houses. The towpath continued on between the houses, crossed a road, and became a rural track eventually rejoining the canal. No sineage to tell one if one were on the correct path or not.
The picture above is taken at the southern end of the tunnel. We arrived just seconds too late to watch a narrow boat entering. You can just see a little bit of its stern. The last photograph below was taken just before Hatton railway station where we ceased our canal walk for the day and where we will resume our walk tomorrow. We are spending the next few days in Warwick. We walked 20.4km, by the canal today in 6 hours 20 minutes.
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