Marple Locks

We started up Marple locks at 11.00 this morning - we don't do early starts.........

A single hander had passed us about half an hour before we set off so most of the locks were set against us and Roger had to empty them before we could go in.

The majority of lock sides are covered with hanging slimy greenery

 it clings to the stone boulders that line the lock, but doesn't stick to brickwork

Marple is a very pretty flight of locks and many of the pounds are over-run by these wild orchids

They may be very pretty but they smell dreadful and always make me a bit asthmatic. I'm just glad their flowering season is relatively short.

One of the locks, I think it was no.3, was totally devoid of any growth which was a bit strange

but meant we could see the mason's marks

 

 and other interesting features which were totally covered by the slime in the other locks

Roger did most of the work as Marple locks are quite heavy and the bottom beams are at an awkward height and I'm still supposed to be taking it easy. He did give in though and let me wind the top paddles down and open the top gate.

 This beautiful Westie came to watch us in one of the locks. He reminded us of our old dog Charlie and if it weren't for Chico, we may have been tempted to dog-nap him.............

I really enjoyed steering up the locks and managed to get into every one without touching the sides.  We were both happy to see the last one though.  It took us 3 and a half hours to get up to the top and I was really pleased that I managed the 90' turn onto the Macclesfield Canal in one go, without using the bow thruster!

We managed to get a mooring just after the junction and adjourned to the Ring o'Bells pub, supposedly for a late lunch but unfortunately they weren't serving food due to a large funeral party so we just had a drink and carried on.

At Higher Poynton we dumped the rubbish and had a quick chat with Bruce and Sheila from n.b.Sanity Again.  We couldn't get moored though as Braidbar have commandeered all the mooring spots for their open day on Saturday, so we carried on and moored at Lyme View.