N.B.Shiralee: Shiralee Cruise 2012 # 20

Bridge 86 to Bollington on the Macclesfield

Saturday 11th August

First of all, my apologies for not including any photos in the last blog but, as you would expect there’s a very good reason for this. Rusty!

Our Rusty, as you know, is prone to tummy trouble and if I don’t take her out when she shows signs of wanting to go, she will suffer for the rest of the day.

This morning, just as I had posted the text of blog 19 and was searching for likely snaps to post with it, Rusty headed for the back door. So, I either posted as was, or waited until I got back from her walkies and, since the Internet connection can’t be trusted to behave itself, I decided to post. This blog, I promise, will have photos.

You may remember our ‘friends’ from Pillings Lock, with whom, after I had recuperated from my knee op, we moved to Mercia and fell out with later? Well, there were several rumours floating around when they left Mercia Marina, one of which was that they were selling their boat and moving back home to Swindon. We never did hear the truth of it, but that really didn’t matter as they were no longer friends.

Anyway, they may well have sold the boat because, when Wifey took Rusty for her walk yesterday, there was Brian and Marian’s boat, Brimar, moored up across the other side of the canal.

Sunday 12th August

We left for Congleton at 9am yesterday morning – no sign of people on Brimar - and arrived at 10am. The canal at Congleton boasts two ‘snake’ bridges, numbers 76 and 77, which were designed to allow horse drawn barges to change towpaths without having to unhitch the horses. The driver of the horse simply had to take the horse over the bridge on one side and down the other, whilst still heading in the same direction. We moored up between the two. We also met up with Alan and Chris here last time we came this way.

On our last visit, when Alan and Chris dropped by, we all walked into town but we decided to wait for the bus yesterday. Although Wifey insisted it was only a short walk, I knew different and put my foot down with a very firm hand, bus it would be! This time we also took a good look around the town and, joy of joys, we found a music shop. Sadly they did not stock the ukulele bag that I needed. No problem though, I’ll order one online when we get back to Mercia.

Monday 13th August

Yesterday was another warm day and we took a walk down to The Wharf pub. What a disaster! One bar split in two by a dividing wall and a huge TV screen in both ‘bars’, but at least one had the sound turned down, and for want of somewhere to sit, we sat in front of the silent one.

The programme shown was the run up to the end of the Olympic marathon and, with less than a mile to go, the channel was switched to football. This was at about 1 pm and, as far as I could tell, the match wouldn’t have started for quite some time afterwards.

Anyway, due to the level of noise coming from the other TV, we had just the one drink and then walked up to the other pub, The Moss, and they still had the Olympics on and the sound turned down. After a short while some young fellows came in and walked around to the other bar, where the manager changed channels for the football, whilst we could still see the end of the marathon. There, wasn’t that easy? We were not surprised that these youngsters came to The Moss, rather than The Wharf.

Later……..

Wifey had to walk in to Congleton this morning to exchange a couple of tops that she bought on Saturday, so we left Congleton a little later than planned. However, the trip to the bottom of Bosley Locks, about four miles away, only took an hour and a half and was totally without incident, that’s if you can call almost grounding ‘without incident.

It does say, in the Nicholson blurb, that some parts of the Macclesfield can be a wee bit shallow. So, what’s wrong with somebody coming along to dredge those parts? We were last down her about three years ago and I think BW have had more than enough time to rectify the situation.

Tuesday 14th August

Just look at that, half way through August, supposedly one of our better summer months, and we’ve had only a few warm days. Will we ever get some summer I wonder? Happily, it’s much brighter this morning.

Last time we came through here we were unlucky enough to follow a lone boater through these locks, and yet we made it through all 12 of them in 2½ hours. IF my missus surfaces early enough, we could be the first boat going through, and that certainly makes life easier. You never know, we might beat that 2½ hours! (We actually knocked ½ an hour off)

Wednesday 15th August

What can I say about the Macclesfield canal?

Well, on a points system of 1 to 10, and comparing it to the Worcester and Birmingham last year, I’ll give it 12, simply because it is far worse. Although this canal doesn’t have as much by way of narrow sections, where weeds on the towpath side compete with reed beds on the opposite side, it does have quite a few bunches of reeds floating about that have broken away from the main beds. This caused us quite a headache whilst finding a mooring spot after Bosley locks, having to slow down and reverse whilst Wifey used the boathook to remove a clump of reed stuck in the bow.

Also, even though the Nicholson Guide mentions some shallow parts to this canal; and that was six years ago; why haven’t they been dredged? This situation cannot be blamed on the new charity as that only became up and running a couple of months ago.

The Macclesfield canal is part of a very popular canal ‘ring’ for holiday makers and, as such needs to be kept clear of such obstacles if those people are to return in the future. Nobody minds a ‘challenge’ when cruising, it’s all part of the experience, but it’s no fun having to pull in to dig weeds out of the prop when you should be cruising and enjoying the scenery.

Hopefully The Canals and Rivers Trust will organise the upkeep of our canals in a somewhat superior manner to BW’s efforts, or lack of them, in recent years. All we hear is lack of money or, the other old saw, ‘we must take care of the wildlife’. Well, wildlife doesn’t pay our licence fees and, with over 6,000 new boats being registered over the past six years, where has all that extra licence fee money gone?

Enough said, but I will certainly be taking this up with the Trust in due course. It really is something I should have done last year with BW.

Thursday 16th August

We had intended to stop off at Macclesfield yesterday morning and take the bus into town but, due to the fact that we needed to stop and remove a huge clump of weed from the rudder and prop – again – and also the fact that a really fierce wind had blown up, we decided that once the weed had been removed we would stay where we were, between bridges 45 and 46.

This morning the wind doesn’t seem quite as strong, so we should get away. However, rather than stop at Macclesfield, we’ll go on to Bollington and catch the bus from there.

Although I have produced a reasonable facsimile of Rusty in pastels, I really do need a decent book on the subject, something I can study while I’m painting, and Macclesfield does have a Waterstones. If they don’t have such a thing I’ll ask Alan to forward one, assuming The Range in Harlow has such a thing.

Our heater is still being rather fickle, only working when it wants to. It will run perfectly well when the engine is running, which is not really when we need it. So it seems to depend upon having a high level of power in the batteries. Yesterday, quite inadvertently, Wifey switched it on as she was doing some washing, and it ran perfectly well. Yesterday evening we ran the engine for two hours and, as it was quite chilly in here at 5 am, I decided to give it a try, only this time I waited until it had fired up, before switching on the Inverter/Charger.

I am now of the opinion that, providing I don’t bring anything else into play at the same time, then the heater has a better chance of firing up. It still need servicing, that much is obvious but, if it works until we can find a boat yard that does Webasto heaters, I’ll be more than happy.

Friday 17th August

On the way to Bollington we stopped off in Macclesfield in order to top up with water, and discovered why we didn’t stay overnight last time. Firstly, very limited mooring spaces. Secondly, those spaces are only 24 hour. Thirdly, much of the moorings are overgrown with weeds and the bank of the canal is in sad disrepair. The canal at Macclesfield is, to my mind, one of the ugliest stretches along the route, which would also contribute to our decision not to stay.

So, off we went to Bollington, where another problem awaited; what with weeds and reeds this canal is really getting to me. The first designated moorings were full and partly collapsing into the canal and we decided to try a bit further along. No go there because, after pulling the boat in to the side, we found it was sitting on a shelf. This seemed to be the case all the way along here.

Thinking perhaps that we would now be unable to moor in Bollington after all, I climbed back on and, in very high dudgeon indeed, proceeded on to the end of town and onwards, or so I thought. Coming round the bend at the end of this stretch we were faced with Bollington Aqueduct and, Hallelujah, more moorings and plenty of spaces. So, why couldn’t my wife remember these from last time and save me getting in a stew?

Sadly, no mention is made of Bollington in the Nicholson Guide, which is a shame because, not only is it beautiful and old world, with twisting, hilly roads full of old stone cottages, it was also once a centre for silk mills and such. One such huge four storey edifice, Clarence Mill, stands directly ahead of us on the opposite bank and now houses small industrial units.

In order to gain access to the shops from the canal; which sits very high above the town at this point; it is necessary to either walk down a steep hill or, as we did, climb down an even steeper staircase. These stairs would have been impossible to climb with a shopping trolley and so, whilst Wifey walked on to the other group of shops, I manfully trundled the trolley up the hill. This is such a beautiful town that we will stop here again on our way back and take a better look at the place. For today though we’ll take the bus into Macclesfield.

Now, before I post, a couple of photos as promised.