Fish and chips in Bollington, Jamie's in Manchester

We are now turned for home, travelling back the way we came.
On Tuesday we moored near Bollington in the warm sun. This is a lovely town (cotton industry originally) real Hovis ad stuff; hilly streets and cobbled courtyards. It is obviously strictly preserved, I am sure you would have to have planning consent for every shed or new gate you might want to add, but it's well worth it. We found a deli to buy Pete's much loved Cheshire cheese, had a beer in a wood panelled pub bar and fish and chips in an immaculate cafe/restaurant before returning to the boat for the night and just catching the end of the day's sunshine in the bow.

On wednesday, we travelled on through Macclesfield back to another favourite mooring that we'd found on the way out; Gurnett Aqueduct, with it's 480year old, very grand Sutton Hall pub. Apparently the original home of the earls of Lucan, although their nowhere to be found! The weather had drastically changed however and that wretched wind is winding up again.

Thursday we took the train into Manchester where I had some retail therapy whilst Pete looked on bemused and then we both enjoyed the canal basin area - James Brindley engineering and Duke of Bridgewater's clever ideas. Again the opulent architecture showed how this city had become wealthy in the industrial revolution.

We had lunch at Jamie's Italian which was located in a beautiful high ceilinged, high windowed, galleried building. We were told it was once a Midland Bank. Jamie Oliver must have been delighted to have found it. We wondered if the marble bar was his addition or the original bank clerk's counter! Really enjoyed Manchester, a lively, youthful city. Mind you, as Pete said the commuters on the train back looked whacked - obviously a hard working city too.

The wind was horrendous again - nearly blown over in a gust. And it rained and was cold. Glad we weren't cruising on the boat for once. Got back there and lit the fire again whilst Ani bounced about on the windy waves. bah!

Bollington

People

Waited quite some time for Pete to rejoin me after opening a swing bridge to let us through, as he was talking to an attractive young blonde. He walked back to the boat with her and it turned out she is 'Baddie the Pirate' - the name of her business. She specialises in solar and LED lights for boats and her ex boyfriend was responsible for fitting our solar panels, which we would now not be without as they provide us with domestic power to keep us going if we stop for longer than one night. Fantastic things. She lives aboard her boat and I would love to have a longer conversation with her as to how she decided to live this life. She is unusual for a boat person in that she is running a modern business and seems very clued up.

We had been alternately leading and following NB Emma through the swing and lift bridges. It's owners very cheery and we met them later in Bugsworth Basin. They seem to have had parallel boating experiences to us. Thinking about selling their boat at one point, then sentimentally changing their minds (familiar) and their Morso Squirrel fire started to drift apart as ours is beginning to do after 13 years. Comparing notes we now know what we had already suspected - that we will need a new one next year. It's been brilliant all this time, so efficient and responsive, so we will probably buy another.
One experience they had had that I'm glad we didn't share is that they came to their boat on its mooring during this winter to find a snow drift up against it that had blown through their windows and was frozen into folds of their curtains and had collected on their bed! Luckily they caught it before it had melted! Boats! Who'd 'ave 'em?!

Today, Sunday, we have been chatting to a lady in a Piper Boat Owners Club sweatshirt, who came to chat to us as we have a Piper boat. Hmmmm, interesting as it was to discuss David Piper and his son, Simon and the fact that we are moored next to another boat like ours which she told us was built in 1995 (ours being one of David's last builds in 2000) we could have done without the whole story of their life afloat, their boats names, their pets, etc etc. harrumph, some people!

Not to mention the bloke in the pub who could bore for England. Another to give boaters a bad name, he prattled on about technology and we lost the will to live. He engaged anyone and everyone he could, (including the miserable landlord) whilst his wife looked on smiling inanely. Don't know why she didn't just punch him and have done with it.

Friday night at Marple Saturday night at Bugsworth.

Moored at Marple ; junction with Peak Forest canal at end of Macclesfield canal. Apparently a favourite day out for Mancunians and a pretty canal frontage, flight of locks and view across the valley, but Marple itself is not so interesting, it's centre consisting of more recently built shops, the kind you find anywhere.

However on Saturday morning we were able to top up supplies and head off again along this high canal that runs along the hillside and overlooks the Goyt valley below. The Peak Forest canal ends in a fork, one way to Buxworth, or Bugsworth as it was and one to Whaley Bridge. We took the Whaley Bridge fork and were disappointed to find it followed the noisy A6 closely and was mainly taken up with permanent moorings. The very end was scruffy and all the public moorings were taken, so we turned around and went back down the Bugsworth arm which we'd intended to do tomorrow. Bugsworth terminal basin has been lovingly restored and is a pleasant place to moor, with a good pub on its doorstep, always a huge plus point for us. Originally a busy working complex built as close to the nearby limestone quarries as possible so that the tramway constructed in 1799 could bring the stone down the hills to Bugsworth where it was transferred to canal boats. The canal and this basin became disused until volunteers started clearing them in 1968. We are very lucky they did as it's an interesting place to moor with quite a community feel with other boaters.




Goyt Mill




Marple









Part of Bugsworth Basin with tramline






Ani backdropped by lime kilns

Back on board photos

Hovis Mill, Macclesfield


Bollington




Adelphi Mill




Middlewood Way. Disused railway between Macclesfield and Marple, now a footpath/bridlepath/cycle route. This must have been the platforms at Poynton.
This is a photo from internet as I can no longer find ours ( in 2017). Having to update all our photos because the blogpress ap has lost them. 




Wednesday evening's pub overlooking Middlewood Way. (from internet)

Back on board

We have had a week back at home (where Liz and Neil joined us for a stay before going on to holiday in Dorset) and also visited my Mum in Kingston, having left the boat in a boatyard in Macclesfield by the Hovis Mill (now converted to flats).
Before we left the boat we had discovered that the water pump had been leaking quietly and puddling below our bed. I'm glad to say that when we got back it was dry again after the yard had replaced pump. There is always that worry that it might be something else although Pete was sure it was the pump. More expense though. There's always something!

Today we travelled to Higher Poynton, crossing several aqueducts on this high canal, one above Bollington which looked down on winding hilly streets of dark brick houses backed by green hills and ended in a huge old silk mill; Adelphi Mill, now converted into offices and a canalside cafe. Again, the Macclesfield canal proves to be one of the most picturesque we have travelled on and today has been warm and sunny with only a mild breeze. Enjoyment is greater too because there are no locks; 3hours of slow motoring from mooring to mooring, easy.

Our mooring this evening has woods one side and a public park the other. Pete canoed back for the car some 5 miles and then we went to the pub. There are very few other boats moving around, perhaps the previous bad weather has made people stay put. We still need the fire lit this evening.

Don't seem to be able to include photos with this, it will not publish, so am publishing without - a shame.

Friends on board

Nice to have Liz and Neil with us yesterday....... Especially as they had thought they wouldn't make it. It had been too long since seeing them last and it was great to catch up.
Sat in the Sutton Hall garden in the sunshine! Astonishing after all this rotten weather. Lunch, then back on boat by the fire (still needed despite sun) for a cuppa together. Another nice day.

Dogs

I like dogs and there are a lot of them along towpaths and on boats, most friendly and amusing. But we are getting more and more fed up with (some of) their owners' attitude to their poo. Throwing a rope over bollards on locksides and then discovering it has swung through a pile of fresh muck is quite horrific. I have stepped off the boat into it on numerous occasions Too. But the worst habit we have found is those supposedly responsible owners who pick up their pet's mess, carefully tie it inside a plastic bag and then throw it in the hedgerow!? The hedges and trees are adorned with little bags swinging in the breeze. What on earth are these people thinking? We would far rather they dragged their mutts off the path under the hedgerows, where no one need tread, let them poo where it will naturally degrade and not contaminate anyone.

We watched a boater (no licence on his boat, by the way) walk his large dog a short way up the path, let it poo and then kick the pile into the canal........just as disgusting when you think ropes and people can fall in.

There are posters along the canals stating " there is no such thing as the dog poo fairy" - so true.