Braunston Tunnel should be opening today and Zulu was supposed to be on the move tomorrow but I just heard that yet another stoppage has been extended, this time Buckby Locks, which will not now be open until mid-day on Monday, so although we can get through Braunston Tunnel as of today (can anyone confirm that it did actually reopen today as scheduled) then the furthest I can get this weekend is the other end of Braunston Tunnel so its simply not worth moving from Braunston.  I imagine a lot of boats will be trying to get through and they will all end up at Norton Junction 4 miles from Braunston, where mooring will not be easy.

I had hoped to reach Stoke Bruerne by Saturday and then Milton Keynes area by Sunday so I can leave Zulu for one last stopover before we get a home run to Uxbridge.

So today I will have to do with a virtual tour of Stoke Bruerne, thanks to  Google StreetView which has just been extended to cover virtually everywhere in the country – even rural lanes can now be viewed – and there’s bound to be some other excellent canal scenes.  Here’s the one I just found showing  Stoke Bruerne!

Stoke Bruerne as seen in Google Streetview

The world has become even smaller as a result of this amazing technology.

Click to link to this location in Google Streetview.

I may even get to see this for real, on Zulu, in a week or two’s time but not next weekend – its holiday time again!