Wednesday 6th June Oh what beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day, I got a wonderful feeling, everything's going my way. Ahem, sorry back to the plot.
We left Macclesfield later than planned at 10am and very soon were back in the countryside.We had considered travelling into Macclesfield but the town centre is quite a distance on foot and as time was short we declined. The canal is mainly straight and lots of bridges. I had wondered the day before where all the sand was coming from on the boat roof. It suddenly came to me, when a chunk of bridgehole roof came banging onto the boat. Our exhaust was causing the roof surface to come free. Sorry. Bollington Aqueduct gives spectacular views and as we approach Clarence Mill, I get the weirdest feeling I am travelling uphill. Looking behind seems downhill. Most odd. Sitting on the back of LT watching the world go by and the odd wave of the hand to others boaters and towpath uses is, well, Oh what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day, ahem, sorry. We pass more aqueducts and ooh and arh at the wildlife. Just prior to Higher Poynton, Braibar Boats and the home of the lovely 'Sanity' amongst others, a boat hops out in front and another behind. The boat behind suddenly starts honking the horn and waving madly for us to speed up. We are in the marina, going past moored boats. I increase my speed a little but this is not enough, he comes past us at a hell of a speed with wash all over the place. I shout, 'what's the hurry', 'I'm late' he says. Anyway a little further on he gets the boat in front of him to pull over and then, I forget exactly where, he pulls over and moors up! Turns out he is a trip boat and had to be at that mooring at that time. God knows why, there was nobody else in sight. Our Maccy trip almost finished and with some regret, as we have had a brilliant time, we turn right onto the Peak Forest Canal, at Marple. Instantly the canal narrows and is very shallow. We bump and scrape along. Keeping to the middle helps. The canal is very woody on both sides, hence the name I guess but there are still some lovely countryside views. There are lift and swing bridges to accommodate, some take a windlass, one needs a BW key. A trip down the weed hatch is called for at one point. Agricultural bag, thick black rubber tubing, and about 4 miles of fishing line. Oh joy. We try and moor up, no chance, we can't get closer to the bank than 3 foot. At Furness Vale we are encouraged to go onto Bugsworth basin, but do not moor near the pub, they have trouble there apparently. We eventually arrive at 6.45pm. What a wonderful spot. Even a passable TV picture. Eat on board and sleep soundly. A brilliant day. Regards Andrew & Wendy from The Cut
