Quick Flit

It was a Monday late afternoon, when Fliss and Leon departed and we drove them over the "Fells" back to Bollington, I wasn't going to go but stay and do the washing up and David just said its a lovely evening so come, I did and how glad I was.  

Whaley Bridge is a glorious little town next to Bugsworth, its on the Macclesfield road, so the Macclesfield to Whaley Bridge road if you get my drift, but in any case, somewhere else in the area was a detour leading lots of cars down into Whaley Bridge, and as we left and climbed up the hills towards Bollington there was a terrific queue, we didn't want to sit in that queue which was over a mile long, I would say nearly two miles so a decision was made to kill a bit of time in Bollington.

I really wan't expecting the drive over to be so lovely, I thought the Peaks were further east of us. here are a few snaps I wondered if you might like to look at...

This main route over is a wide lane without white lines

I'm glad I let David drive.

The locals come directly at you at speed in the centre of the road

We eventually found the bottom of the track leading to here....  White Nancy.      HERE

It was built on Kerridge Hill to celebrate the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, White Nancy is visible for miles around but finding the correct track was another matter.  
The views are fabulous on an evening like this one and if you look carefully in the picture below you can make out Bollington Mill that we passed by on the boat  only a couple of days ago.

Bollington Mill is in the centre and Stockport beyond in the haze.

A nice horsey shot for those of you that like horses.

On returning to Whaley Bridge, the traffic queue was down to two cars.  Good move. 

Sun, run and sausages

Well Reader just look at the weather this morning...  A cracker.  In the south I heard old ladies are being fanned and being kettled in buildings with air conditioning but here, in the north, it translates into a very lovely day.

The guests arrived on deck dressed thus;

Smile!

And when we stopped at the Braidbar Boat Yard to fill with water, off they ran.

Fliss wanted to run in total about 5kms, after looking at the Nicholson guide book with her dad, with its mile markers, she was happy and ran off, but then there was confusion as she passed millstone markers on the towpath and got hot, all I know is she was very pink on returning!
Leon just runs and runs.

I do think this was the shortest narrowboat I have seen, the colours are paler in the photo than in reality.

So David and I carried on in their absence, through open rolling hills giving a feeling of total joy.

Can you feel the joy Reader?

This is another mill, the Goyt mill, an odd name I know but we would come to learn more about Goyt as the week went on.  There is a local historical site with a bit more information......      HERE  I hope its future is secure, it looks in need of a bit of TLC.

They should get Amanda to help clean those windows.

I hope the media companies pay a hefty rent to the mill owners for these ariels.

The Goyt mill is in Marple and the junction of the Macclesfield canal and the Peak Forest canal is there too.  Just around a few corners in fact.  We wanted to top up with water again as the man at the Braidbar yard had told us there wasn't any water point in Bugsworth, this was serious as Fliss had just washed her hair!  

We wanted to stay there a few days too.  The water point at Marple was at a narrow point with moored boats on the other side and a second boat waiting to fill, the man said its only dribbling out, great!  But we were told by the second captain that there certainly is water at Bugsworth and its a great pressure too.  Good, we abandoned the Marple water tap and headed off.

This stunning property at the junction here I believe wasn't always a grand house but formally a warehouse.  Have a peep at this if you are interested, or if you know more than me please do tell.    HERE   But either way what a fantastic place?

Fliss and I walked between a couple of the swing bridges and I took this photo of the fells on the other side of the valley.  Its a pretty amazing feeling that on the canal you are up high, then on arriving at Bugsworth Basin you are at "Ground level" again without the aid of any locks.

We manx a mental note of a possible mooring place here on the way home

See the name?  This bridge caused problems to us girls and Leon had to come over to do it.

Carrs doing Carrs Bridge

See the house on the right?  Pretty good view to eat your cornflakes each morning....?

Unusually this chappie didn't flinch when we passed by next to him.

End of the line for us today.  Bugsworth Basin a very historical industrial place that was almost empty.  As you can see suncream came out along with G&T's, Fliss makes a good one, don't know where that skill came from, ahem!

Fliss and I had been really looking forward to sausages and mash, it wasn't really the weather for it but we managed to choke it down anyway.

Later we drove them back to Bollington to retrieve their car and for them to drive home to the south coast.  
Work tomorrow Reader, well them not me.

Oh what great curves you have!

Now there has been almost no internet signal whilst we, I managed to write a post about Fliss and Leon arriving, and each morning early David assured me that there was 4G only to find that when I tried to publish it, there wasn't anything like enough strength to publish the blog post.  But finally today, days later, I tried again after pressing SAVE about 47 times, it didn't save the post but wiped the whole thing.
I hardly screamed at all but had to rewrite.  
Now David is making tea and I am calmly having another bash.

Our mooring last night, stingers cut and small gap.

Tricky getting two bikes off and on again

This morning we were aiming for Bollington.  Fliss and Leon were off to visit her Uni friend in Manchester for the afternoon.   Our two daughters went to Uni in Manchester, I was startled at the time to read it was the "Party till you Puke" university city, but I needn't have worried then, it was far worse.

Oh Reader look at the beautiful curves of these Turnover Bridges.  They are a work of art and there are several along this canal.  I love them.

Breath in!

I sincerely hope they are protected.

If you didn't know, a turnover bridge is when the tow path changes side and the horse pulling the boat on a long rope could go over the bridge, unhindered, carry on pulling the boat without having to untie the rope and refasten it.

Clever or what?

So we made our way along pretty slowly towards Macclesfield, leaving Gurnett behind.  As you approach Macclesfield there are some terrific stone walls to admire.  

Along with gates and Turnover bridges, I love stone walls.

We had be warned by Denise that the water point here had been moved to the other side of the canal, so we were pleased to spot it.  Displeased to find it knee deep in Canadian goose poo.  But I insisted we fill as we had Fliss on board, her showers at home used to take 25 minutes, she denies this, on the boat she has to cut back severely to only use a crazy amount of water instead of an ridiculous amount.  

We fill everyday.

Fab new properties that have been built on an old yard.  Look carefully to see the old winch that has been retained.

Great view of this old mill from the water point.  

David rigged the hose to go over the railings to avoid the goose poo.

New mooring pontoons here, the bank is rickety to save the least, the pontoons are great, but too short.

Macclesfield was the home of the silk industry   HERE  four years ago when we came up to the wild and wooly north, sorry, North Staffs Moorlands, we visited the silk museums. It was very very interesting.  It was located here as its a dryer climate for silk and Manchester for cotton mills for the required damp atmosphere as it rains every day in Manchester, both daughters tell me so after their four years there, so it must be true.

After Macclesfield, the canal becomes wooded and a bit boring to she who likes to see whats going on, but later it opened out and with added sunshine to the mix, was pretty stunning.

Wonderful countryside

Beauty at each turn.

Oooooo another one

We came into Bollington and there was a mooring again the same as last night, right on the beginning of the aqueduct, another boat came past as I was holding the rope to moor up and called out that no one moors there as its too shallow....
Fine for us, sticking out a bit but hells bells, when you have a view out of your window like this, who cares.....?

Fliss and Leon had eaten out so David and I had scrambled eggs on toast.

Nothing can beat us today except....

Up early of course today, I definitely did not want to be following another early bird boater up the flight.  

So soon after 7am we were off.  Not too much of a problem for our guests as they both rise very early for journeys to work.  

Now its not remotely funny Reader but look what happened to Leon at the start!  He got an icy blast from the air vent of a gate paddle and it woke him up good and proper.  I have only ever been lightly sprayed in the past but from now on I will watch out.  He described it as a Marilyn Monroe moment but with cold water instead of hot air.

Leon's wet knickers.

I went ahead to prep the locks and David was helped by the guests.  They didn't really need too much instruction as its not beyond living memory when we took the little three girls on a fortnights holiday on a Black Prince boat to do the Avon Ring, then the children did some the locks alone and were very good at it, however I have to say the novelty wore off after about 9 days.....

Impressive farm house that was used to make the mortar for the locks here in construction, it was also a pub at the time too, now its a farmhouse.

Leon checking his phone or more like checking to see if he had signal, I didn't get a thing.

All was going swimmingly, I was up to lock three of twelve and it looked like we would complete them in 90 mins or so.  Then it came to a halt and stayed that way for the next four and a half hours.

I was looking at the view below as I waited for the lock to empty, but it didn't, I realised this and ran to check that the top paddles were down although I could see that they were from where I was.  Yes they were both down however the paddle on the towpath side was gushing through at a very very fast rate and constantly filling (Or trying to) the lock.

I knew that this was out of our hands and then quickly shut the bottom paddles too.  

This was the great view that had got my attention

This below, was the pound that feeds the lock and it can clearly be seen to be very low by now.   I went back down to the boat several locks down to report the news. I lost the coin toss and got to call CART.   

In our experience this summer when trying to book passages CART seemingly never answer the phone, if you do get through in 12-15 mins of being on hold invariably the department you require is engaged and they offer to call you back by the time that happens, you are in an area of no reception, they leave a message to say please call again and the process beings all over again.  Not at all annoying.

But today was different being a Saturday, the phone was answered immediately, "I'll send a team out to you straight away".  

He did too, even calling us back to say they were on their way.

Impressed.

Well within the hour two schoolboys arrived, or that is to say two young CART employees arrived, summed up the situation and said Yep we can fix this.

Delighted.

There was a lot of talk about safety protocols and risk assessment but in the end Billy just got in the water without a rubber ring.

Normal height can be seen above.

So Reader, this above is what you don't often get a chance to see.  A paddle.  But this one is off its runners.  Billy felt it with his foot and retrieved it.
Each paddle has two runners, one was long gone 
(By co-incidence the paddle on the other side had lost one runner too).  Billy said that these would be rectified in the Stoppage Season coming up.

Billy just got in the water

It became apparent that it was off its runner.

Folks off boats above us were equally trapped and all lent a hand.

Now a pain in the neck maybe it was, BUT, every cloud has a silver lining and for us today was a Bloody Brilliant Silver Lining Day, some of you may recognise the lady in black that I am talking to....?  Her name is Ann Marie and she and her husband Brian run the working boat NB Alton, and guess what they sell?  Yes, FENDERS!!!!!!! Wooooo Hoooooo.

So due to the entrapment, we got our dodgy fenders examined, discarded and replaced, they were a good price and I would urge everyone to use NB Alton.   HERE 

Result.  

This is the old style of nail holding up the runners.

Finally the drained pounds were refilled and time for us to move again.

Tom and Billy did a fine job, even though some boating idiots from down the flight were moaning that no one was on the bottom lock telling approaching boats of the difficulties, some moaners just need a good slap.

We got to the top pretty easily after this and sailed on into the sunshine.  

We arrived at the Gurnett Aqueduct mid afternoon.  It was very busy there due to in part a Country Show being held there.  
We squashed on the very end of the moorings in some nettles with the back end sticking out but after cruising on the Thames, this was not even a consideration.  The two men scuttled off to move a car and Fliss and I sat in the sun watching the amazing Fell Runners finish, I can't help wondering if some of them should be running in Rio!  On their return with the car,  Fliss and Leon drove off to visit his grandad who lives in these North Staffordshire Moorlands and were back in time to eat dinner in the Kings Head pub here, (Another recommendation from Denise and Steve thank you both).  
I have to say Reader the food was good and fellow craft beer enthusiast Leon, liked the beer too.  I had fish and chips again even though I usually say once a year is enough, but twice in one weekend and even here so far from the sea the fish was very fresh.  I had pecan pie for dessert with custard.  I do love that you can get custard up here in the north.
Sorry, North Staffordshire Moorlands.