4 CANALS IN 7 DAYS.

 The Lower Peak, Upper Peak, the Macclesfield and the Trent and Mersey. A journey of 36miles, 32 locks, 1 lift bridge and 2 swing bridges. It includes 2 tunnels, the Woodley and the Hyde, and 3 aqueducts, Marple, Watery Lane and Red bull. And it took us a week.

Monday was our last night in dry dock, Dan got us up early to do the necessary welding on the new anodes and the skeg. Pete Findlow called to see us again with a gift for me. He has an extensive music collection, and on his previous visit I had told him about a band I used to know called Persian Risk (early 1980’s). He had compiled a CD of their music for me which was lovely.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_Risk

Tuesday, and dear old Avalon Two was refloated and we set off, but not before thanking Dan for his help and saying hi to Guy who had returned from his holibobs.

The newly blacked sides made the boat look very shiny and new, but it wont last.

The first of the tunnels was Woodley Tunnel, its 176yds long and has a kink in it, so not a favourite of the Captains, this is closely followed by Hyde Bank which is 306yds long, but so straight you can see daylight at the end. We stopped off at our old moorings in Hyde, but Captain Jack Sparrow wasn’t about so on we went

The wonderful Marple Aqueduct, which carries you over the River Goyt, is the highest aqueduct in England at 90ft and is 105yrds long. The aqueduct opened in 1800 and it was built by Benjamin Outram, a familiar name to those of a certain age who came from my home town of Ripley in Derbyshire. It was the name of the towns secondary modern school for many years, before merging with the grammar school and becoming Mill Hill. He also built the 16 lock Marple flight which was on the agenda for the next day.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marple_Aqueduct

As we cruised across the aqueduct I spotted a bird high up on the trees, it turned out to be a Greater Spotted Woodpecker, and then a bright blue kingfisher darted down the side of the boat.

After a night moored just below the locks we set off to do the 16, which raise the canal 214ft in just 1 mile and was opened in 1804. We were not alone as we had 3 hire boats with us. Their crews had differing amounts of experience, which made it an interesting day.

The first 8 locks were a doddle, even with no boats coming down. But at lock 8 we met the first coming down, and with the bad news that the next 8 locks and pounds were extremely low, and they had struggled, scrapping the bottom of the canal at times. This has been a reoccurring problem all summer, and there should have been lockees on to help with water management, but there was no one in sight. After struggling through lock 8 and 9 I walked up to lock 12 with one of the hirers and decided we needed to let water down to alleviate the problem, but how much I had no idea, so just had to wing it. The captain in the meantime was on the phone to CRT trying to get us some help, this proved to be unsuccessful as they had no one available to come to our rescue.

The going was slow and painful, boats had to be gently coaxed out of the lock making sure they didn’t get stuck on the cill, and then negotiate the empty pounds trying not to get grounded.

Eventually an off duty lockee called Roger turned up and apologised for the lack of assistant, there should have been a lockee on but no one had seen him all morning. The 4 crew’s worked well together, and eventually we were all out of the last lock and on our way. That’s when the duty lockee appeared, with no apology or explanation of were he had been at our time of need.

We were now on the Upper Peak Forest canal, but only for a few moments as we then turned on to the Macclesfield canal and moored up for the night.

Off to the pub we went of course, a little micropub, The Samuel Oldknow and we weren’t disappointed with the selection.

https://www.samueloldknow.co.uk/

The top half of the Macclesfield is unkempt and uncared for. There is a lot of overgrown vegetation, and in most places it is impossible to get to the side to moor. So we had to go all the way to Macclesfield to find moorings on pontoons. Even the bank side visitors moorings here are being left to nature.

North Rode was our aim for Saturday as there was a Vintage Transport Show on, both the Captain and I are partial to old vehicles of all types. I especially love traction engines of all sizes, but to my disappointment there were only 2 miniatures to admire, but there was a good selection of cars, lorries, stationary engines and assorted stalls, which kept us happy for a good few hours. The Captain treated me to a burger for tea, we had a very enjoyable day.

We moored at the top of Bosley locks to attended the show. We had planned to do a pump out at the CRT facilities there before doing the 12 locks in the flight. But disaster, even though the machine had only been fixed that week, it ate our card and then nothing. The Captain spoke to a couple of CRT employees who happened to be on site, but they just shrugged it was not their problem. A phone call to CRT but still no help, they couldn’t get anyone out until the next day. So what to do, stay and wait for someone to come, or head down the locks and get to Sherbourne wharf, hoping the toilet would last an extra day.

We decided to do the locks, which turned out to be great fun, with lots of boats and crew about to pass the time of day. But not before a lady tried to tell me how to do locks, it did not go down well, as after 10yrs of boating I am pretty sure I know our way and the right way.

We moored at Congleton for the night but didn’t visit the town, but we did go to the pub, The Wonky Pear, another micropub discovered on a previous cruise. It belongs to Beartown brewery and had the Creme Bearlee stout for the Captain.

https://www.facebook.com/thewonkypear/

We got our pump out at Sherbourne wharf next day, and headed to Red Bull and on to the Trent and Mersey canal. We called at the Red Bull pub, no darks on, but the menu looked interesting.

Next time the Harecastle tunnel and Stoke.