Eric and I love cruising, it fills us with a sense of peace, and a sense of joy as we enjoy the countryside around us. Most of the time I’m happy to share my photos, but occassionally I record a video as we travel. I’ve realised I can share these on our blog, however I’d like to know how you, the reader, receive them. We don’t have comments enabled, (we had a bad experience a few years ago). So I’m asking friends and family who have my private contact details to drop me a line with some feedback, letting me know if the quality and size etc works OK for you, and if it’s something you’d like to see more of.
Bridge 58 below the Bosley flight, Macclesfield Canal
we had made it down the Bosley Flight, and we both rejoicing and bemoaning to be heading south… straight into the morning sun.
We meandered our way into Congleton. I met up with one of my many knitting friends scattered around the country. Gilly introduced us to fantastic little place, called the Wonky Pear, wine bar/pub/coffee stop just up from the canal off Park Lane, they don’t usually do food, other than cake, but they had a pop up evening of Thai Street food. And if we were local, we’d definitely make if our local. But we were on a mission, so set off as soon as the sun rose, we ignored the dire warning from the red sky in the morning and the frost on the ground (it was still the end of february)
looking towards the railway from the Congleton Aqueduct moorings
And we set off, but it was cold cruising, so we stopped near the Ramsdell Railings and went for a brisk walk up to Mow Cop which certainly warmed us up.
Mow Cop
This old ruined castle is actually an 18th century folly where the gentry came for picnics. You can see for miles and it’s the intersection of the counties of Cheshire, Derbyshire and Staffordshire. It’s also the first meeting place of the Primative Methodists, a breakaway revivialist group wanting to refocus on the socialist aims of Christianity, caring for the community, being part of the trade union movement and taking an active role in women’s emancipation. I offered my prayers of thanks for such a place and we carried on journeying south. Where we also gave thanks that the culvert breach from Mid December had finally been fixed
And onto the Hall Green Stop Lock at Scholar’s Green
Before our travels came to an abrupt stop at Kidsgrove
Having got back into the swing of posting every few days, everything changed at the beginning of the month. When the phone rings in the middle of the night, it’s rarely good news. Sadly, I had lost my mum. It was sudden, unexpected, and thankfully peaceful.
We had a very close relationship, lots of love and laughter, she loved visiting our floating home
We are now cruising we should have been cruising 9 weeks ago when the culvert collapsed and stopped navigation. Better late than never. The change of scenery above and below Macclesfield is quite dramatic, We’re no longer in the Peak District, and we do miss the hills, but the view is made a lot better with the promise of 4 days of sunshine on the forecast.
Looking back towards Sutton, south Macclesfield
Although looking forward, those clouds ahead seemed a bit heavy
just above the Bosely flight
And sure enough 2 minutes after we’d moored up, the heavens opened
And we woke to the warning red sky in the morning and a heavy frost.
So much for 4 days of good weather
But the sunshine quickly warmed us up and we were ready to go down the Bosley Flight.
A promising start
12 locks over the next mile, not the longest flight but one of the prettiest, and all was going well until we got halfway down. The pound was sadly lacking in an essential element – water. We don’t know if a paddle hadnt been dropped, or it could simply have been a very leaky lock,
We reckoned it would take 3 or 4 locks worth to refill the pound. It took about 20 minutes
We managed to run through enough water to float our boat and I’d gone back to check all the paddles were down, when I heard an almighty bank on the bridge above me. Two cars had collided, thankfully there weren’t any serious injuries to the drivers, although I’m fairly sure both cars were written off.
Almost there, Lock 11
The rest of our journey down was uneventful, until lock 12 when we got chatting to a family out for a walk, of course we roped them in to work the lock for us and as a reward, we treated our young gongozeler to a ride. (If you’re reading this, thankyou for your help)
Emerging from lock 12 at the bottom.
All done in 2 hours and 5 minutes, roughly 10 minutes a lock
And Eric had his reward, better late than never, boaters breakfast for lunch.
