The past 2 months have been somewhat frustrating. Having the culvert collapse somewhere around Scholar’s Green just a few days before we about to cruise past, somewhat put a halt to our plans. Instead of spending the New Year in Stone, we were stuck on the Macc and our first cruise of 2024 was made heading north not south as planned.
Heading out of Bollington, past Clarence Mill,
Stopping for fuel at Baileys trading post,
And whilst Eric tried to stiffle his cat allergy sneezes, our new friend tried to work out how to get off Firecrest to return to their own ship
Not knowing how long the breach was going to take to repair we settled down to await the delivery of more updates from CRT
Hearing that the next update wouldn’t be until end of January, we packed up and went home to see the family for a belated Christmas
We had to cut short our visit home because the forecast changed drastically and temperatures plummeted,
And the next day the snow arrived
One of the good things about a big freeze, is that Ice makes for some fascinating patterns
And the ground is solid so going for walks is a treat, not a muddy quagmire.
We thawed out eventually and made it up to Marple
We were getting quite annoyed now, updates from CRT telling us what they were doing to fix the breach, but nothing about how long they expected the work to take. Should we turn around here or go onto the Peak forest Canal. We emailed CRT and got quite an apologetic reply acknowledging their oversight in not giving a predicted completion – it should be done by END of March… oh my goodness, that would be over 3 months to fill the hole. At least we could pace our meanderings, Whaley Bridge, here we come.
Through the lifts bridges
Past the swizzles factory,
We walked from Furness Vale back into New Mills, admiring the amazing skill of the people who built the bridges
and finally we cruised into Bugsworth Basin
