Back on the Macc.

We came up Bosley Locks yesterday morning in heavy drizzle, as usual. If I had a pound for every time it's rained when we've done this lock flight I'd be rich!

It's been 18 months since we left the Macc. and there's been a noticeable deterioration in the state of the locks and the towpath. This large hole has appeared but instead of being filled in it's been fenced off.

This lock landing has collapsed and fenced off, which makes it difficult for single-handers to get on or off their boat and the towpaths are a disgrace. The mud was ankle deep and there are pot-holes and deep ruts all over the place.

But on the plus side (?) BW, in collaboration with the Lottery Fund, have installed 2 education boards beside the locks.

Despite us being first up the flight and passing 4 boats coming down,  a third of the locks were over half full and had to be emptied before we could go in.  This was entirely due to leaking gates as you can see here.

We've been travelling with David Cummins who bought one of our boats several years ago and who's since become a good friend.   He's single-handing so followed us up the flight and despite having to empty locks for us, then re-set them for him coming up behind us, we managed a fairly fast ascent.  1 hour 50 mins. after we set off, this was David coming into the top lock.

This is Hovis Mill in Macclesfield.  We moored here at Macclesfield Canal Centre for 5 years and as Thursday night is "Lad's Night Out" we moored on the visitor moorings and went out.

Bleeding Wolf for lunch

It rained all night again but the ground is still soaking it all up and there are no puddles. We stayed at Hall Green and met Chris, Debbie & Phoebe for lunch as planned at the Bleeding Wolf pub. This is a large thatched pub about 200 yards walk from the canal and serves Robinson's ales and has a carvery on Sundays. The food was OK but nothing special, but the beer was good and we had a good time with good friends.

Hall Green Stop Lock

It's the Turkish Grand Prix this weekend so we couldn't move until Roger had watched the qualifying. While this was on I walked to the shops and post office at High Town in the pouring rain. We'd had thunder storms last night with very heavy rain at times, but despite all this the ground is still parched and instantly soaks up every raindrop. The canal has been fairly busy today. It's change-over day for the Sherbourne Wharf fleet of hire boats out of Heritage Marina and there have been quite a few Black Prince hire boats about too. Luckily they're all going the same way, in the opposite direction to us.
It brightened up after lunch and we carried on though Congleton to moor up just before the last lock on the Macclesfield canal at Hall Green. We're hoping to meet up with friends Chris & Debbie Jones tomorrow, haven't seen them for a while and have lots to catch up.

first goslings of the year, soon there'll be hundreds

Bosley to Congleton

Now that the Bank Holidays are over for a while, the canal is fairly quiet again. We've only seen half a dozen boats moving today and these were all going the opposite way i.e. up towards Macclesfield.
It rained for most of the night but has been dry and sunny again today. We finished drying the washing outside this morning while Roger did some routine maintenance and I replanted the roof garden.

We've now got geraniums, Busy Lizzies and assorted herbs. The tomato plants aren't quite ready to go out yet and hopefully we'll have a decent crop this year, unlike last year when they got blight.

Roger treated himself to a new chair with a foot rest yesterday. He'd seen one on the towpath recently and the cheapest we could get it online was £30 plus delivery. We got the exact same thing from Lidl for £10. It looks too comfy for my liking, I can see him getting far too many afternoon naps!

 

We moved on a bit after lunch and moored on Congleton Aqueduct again. It's a lovely spot with views on both sides of the canal and is the perfect place for washing all the dust off the boat.

     

Bosley in the rain

While Roger was taking the car back this morning I watched a mother duck and her 17 ducklings. She was teaching them to catch flies and they were jumping in and out of the canal onto the overspill opposite the boat.

We set off after lunch, went through Fool's Nook road bridge and passed several patches of wild garlic in full bloom. The smell was wonderful!

Fool's Nook road bridge

fully automated, closing to traffic

open to boats

wild garlic 

If you want recipes for wild garlic you can find some here

There are quite a few Mandarin ducks on the Macclesfield canal and one of them had mated with a female mallard and produced a fine brood. The males seem to be better fathers than ordinary mallards and he was shepherding the ducklings as well as the female.

 We did the washing on the way and filled up with water at the service station at the top of Bosley Locks.

As I'm still not allowed to do any heavy lifting or strenuous exercise, Roger worked the locks and I drove but I found it quite boring and would much rather do the work.

We got into lock no. 2 and the heavens opened. It rained all the way down but as we haven't had any rain for over a month we can't complain.  The nest which we saw in lock 6 on 26th April now has 3 chicks in it. The parents were carrying large insects to them, but keeping a careful eye out as we passed through the lock. Unfortunately I couldn't get a clear photograph but the chicks seemed healthy and hungry.

Almost time to go

We've had two days of running around tying up lots of loose ends. The car needed an MOT as the tax is due end of the month, Chico needed his vaccinations, filling up with diesel at the marina etc. etc. Tomorrow we'll leave the car in the garage at the house and head off into the sunset........ well, down and off the Macc......... hopefully for at least a year or so. We're heading for Leicester, hopefully to the boat festival on 4-5 June but we're still waiting for information from the organiser so if it's fully booked we'll change the plans and go somewhere else. As long as it's NOT the Macc. I don't care where we go!
We went to the King's Head last night with Martin & Maggie, but after having a couple of drinks we found out that they weren't serving food so we had to move to Sutton Hall on the other side of the canal. We've been in there several times before and it's always been extremely busy, but last night it was really quiet. The food was OK but nothing to rave about and it's very expensive for the portion size. There was a good choice of ales but at £3.20 a pint it should have been exceptional!
We called back in the King's Head this evening on the way back from the vets and were greeted by the wonderful sight of a beautiful blue steam traction engine called 'Stanley Monarch'. All the men were crowded round this "big boy's toy" with silly grins on their faces and a selected few got a ride down the road.

Lyme Green

We didn't move very far again today, just enough to charge the batteries and do some washing. The wind is still VERY strong, there are breaking waves on the canal and even the ducks are struggling a bit. The good thing about the weather though, is that the sun and wind dried the washing in record time, 2 loads all dry in only a couple of hours.

It hasn't rained for over three weeks and the boat is filthy with all the dust being blown up but there's not much point cleaning it as the forecast is for strong winds continuing for the next couple of days. With no cleaning and no cruising, Roger has been practising his guitar a lot. It just shows how deaf Charlie has become when he can sleep so soundly right underneath the guitar!

Gurnett Aqueduct - Again!!!

Yes, I know I said we wouldn't be coming back here for a long time, but it's been SO windy today we didn't want to go any further.
The party at the marina yesterday was OK, if you could keep the food from blowing off your plate and keep the dust out of your drink! It was blowing a gale, in fact it was so windy that when I took the dogs out later Charlie nearly got blown off the pontoon. It's always very windy at Macc.marina but this was just awful. I abandoned the party early as it was too cold for me but Roger stayed and said they had a great time later in the evening when the guitars came out for a jamming session. Mel joined in singing, with Roger, Kev & Gary on guitars.

It's still extremely windy and even with 3 ropes, 2 on mooring rings and 1 on a mooring stake, we're rocking and banging about. I've just checked the weather forecast for tomorrow and unfortunately it says it's going to get even windier so maybe we'll stay here another day.

Macclesfield Marina

I haven't posted a blog for the last 2 days as we had to go back to the house in Manchester to sort a few things out.
While we were there Charlie paid a visit to the groomer for a much needed hair cut. He's never had it done this short before but it'll be much easier to manage, especially as he's getting older and more arthritic and doesn't like being "messed with". It was cold overnight (-1.6) and the poor thing was shivering when I got up. Hopefully it'll be warmer tonight.

We're now moored on the visitor's moorings back at Macclesfield Marina but this is just for tonight while we go to the Royal wedding Street Party. Should be fun!

Back to Gurnett

It seems that boaters moored with us at Bosley last night couldn't sleep as most boats had gone by the time we got up at 8.30. It was busy going up the locks and with everyone going the same way almost every lock had to be emptied before we could go in it which meant twice the work. At one of the locks a grey wagtail had made its nest tucked into the bottom gate. There aren't any eggs yet and with the gate being opened and closed so many times each day I think the nest may be abandoned soon. We'll have a look when we go back down next week.

Because there were so many boats going towards Macclesfield we were a bit concerned that we wouldn't get a mooring at Gurnett, so instead of stopping for lunch after the locks we ate en-route. The moorings were fairly busy (the usual continuous moorers are still here, one has been here for almost 3 years) but we got a spot, moored up and walked to the marina to collect the car. We had a short diversion to get some spare parts and dog food and when we got back to the boat at 5.00 the moorings were absolutely chock-a-block with boats having to carry on past to try and find moorings somewhere else which isn't easy in Macclesfield.

Red Bull to Bosley

We set off around 10.00 this morning as I needed to nip to Morrison's in Congleton to stock up the fridge. We moored up at Congleton Wharf which was empty apart from one other boat and took Chico and the Granny Trolley down into town. I know it's Bank Holiday Monday but Congleton was deserted, with hardly any of the shops open. I filled the Granny Trolley, which is probably the best £10 I ever spent on the boat, and we took turns pulling it back up the hill to the wharf. It might not be very trendy looking, but it certainly beats carrying shopping bags.
Just as we got to Congleton Aqueduct we picked up something big and metallic on the prop again. We're really not having much luck but as this is the third thing round the prop in a month maybe our luck'll change.

It took us a while to decide what it was, but finally came to the conclusion that it used to be a fishing landing net.  The canal traffic has been very busy again today and we got the last mooring spot at Bosley on the aqueduct ready to go up the locks tomorrow. Roger's been fishing again and instead of catching 50+ tiddlers as at Rode Heath, he's had a couple of nice sized bream.

FINALLY off the Macc.

This weather is amazing! I can't remember it being so hot and sunny for so long for a period so early in the year but long may it last. A bit of rain overnight wouldn't go amiss however, as the canal level is quite low and we grounded the bottom in a couple of places when passing other boats..
We didn't start cruising until after lunch today as Roger picked up a job at Congleton Aqueduct. A boat called Misty Waters had problems with a water leak and it took a couple of hours to find and fix it.

Ramsdell Hall looked as majestic as ever in the sunshine. If you're interested in the history you can read about it here

New born calf

There aren't many swans on the Macclesfield Canal and as soon as we got onto the Trent & Mersey we came across this one sitting on a huge nest.

Just around the corner from the swan was a bee hive swarming with bees and judging by the many trees in blossom around it, there should be plenty of honey inside.

Congleton Aqueduct

After a perfect day yesterday, we had a perfect evening. It was time for the first BBQ of the year and the pork ribs were delish.
The canal has been busy again today with lots of hire boats wizzing about. The fields are full of frolicking lambs and there are newly hatched ducklings everywhere.

We only cruised for a couple of hours today and moored on Congleton Aqueduct at lunchtime. It was so lovely here we decided to stay for the night and Roger fished while I sat in the sun and finished a book. Mid afternoon a couple of policemen came along the towpath with a handcuffed youth. Apparently he'd been caught in the woods below the aqueduct with a load of stolen goods. There's a river running through these woods and all afternoon we've heard the sounds of kids having fun jumping off the bridge into the river. I didn't think it was deep enough for that but we haven't heard and screams of pain so it must have been OK.

Down Bosley Locks

Yet another fantastic day! We set off around 11 after Roger had been to get his hair cut and had a good trip down Bosley Locks. Most of the locks were set against us as everyone seemed to be going the same way today but in full sunshine nothing was a problem.
When we moored up on the aqueduct at the bottom of the locks I retired to the roof, sunbathing with Charlie, while Roger tried drowning a few maggots for the first time this year, but the fish weren't biting. The woods beside lock 12 are full of bluebells again this year and it's a really beautiful walk.

When he came back from the pub last night Roger brought me an Easter egg. It was a goose egg but I'd have preferred a chocolate egg. He had it scrambled with smoked salmon for lunch today but said it wasn't anything special.

goose egg on left hen's egg on right