Blisworth Tunnel to Gayton Junction and Bridge 47 and return

March it might be, but the past week has seen "The Beast from the East" (bitterly cold easterly winds) meeting Storm Emma, coming up from the south, leading to lots of snow and widespread travel disruption, so we hadn't expected to be walking today. However, the snow had almost all melted at home in Norfolk, with sunshine this morning, and the weather forecast for the Milton Keynes area this afternoon looked reasonable, so we decided to give it a go. The journey (via Huntington then the A14 and A45 to Northampton) was good, with no weather problems until the final couple of miles, where snow drifts still blocked half the road on the approach to Bliswoth. We wondered what the state of the "Blisworth Tunnel car park" (above the northern entrance to the tunnel, at SP730528) would be, but it was fine. Because of the vagaries of the weather we'd decided to leave both cars in this car park,and just to walk as far as we felt like (and back). The going was almost always muddy, and sometimes rather snowy, but it was much milder than it has been and a hazy sun came out; I very much enjoyed the walk.

It was about 3.15pm when we set out, descending carefully to the canal to avoid falling over. The walk was initially in a pretty wooded cutting, but then we passed under bridge and into the village of Blisworth. a sign told us about the horse-drawn tramway which had operated over Blisworth Hill while the tunnel was being built, and an information board at "Candle Bridge" told us that this is so called because candles were sold at a nearby cottage to light the way through the tunnel.

There were narrowboats moored on the canal and also houses with gardens abutting the tow path, and in one of the gardens, two girls appeared to be demolishing their snowman. As we passed out into open countryside, there was noticeably more ice on the canal, with ducks walking on the ice rather than swimming. We also had a heron for company .There were good views back to the Church in Blisworth.

We reached the bridge under the railway (the WestCoast Main line just after parting company with the route into Northampton) and a train crossed the bridge with perfect timing for photography. From here we found ourselves walking though some quite deep snow drifts, whilst in the adjacent field the snow served to highlight a ridge and furrow system.

After passing under the A43, we soon reached Gayton Junction, where the Northampton Arm of the canal heads off to the north while the main route of the Grand Union Canal takes a route to the North-west. We soon reached Bridge 47, a pretty bridge, where ponies towing barges could cross from one tow path to the other without being untied. However our reason for choosing this as the point at which to turn round was the fact that there is another car park here (described as the Gayton Junction car park) so we had reached a point from which we'll be able to continue our walk next time.