Shiralee Cruise 2012 # 21

Bollington to Marple, Bugsworth and Marple


Friday 17th August

This morning has dawned quite calm but cloudy and we’re off to Macclesfield by Number 10 bus. Hopefully Waterstone’s will have a book on painting with pastels, and particularly one dealing with landscapes, which is my preferred subject. Even though I turned out a reasonable painting of Rusty; and I do mean ‘reasonable’; I think that with landscapes any minor errors are more easily corrected.

Saturday 18th August

The evenings are closing in now and the mornings are staying dark for longer. Where we used to leave shutting out the world until we went to bed, now we are closing our curtains at 9 pm or so and, in the morning I usually open the dinette curtains to greet the rain or sun, but not today as the dawn had not yet broken at 5 am. Ah well, according to the newspaper yesterday, today could be the hottest of the year so far, with temperatures above 80F.

Yesterday we took the bus into Macclesfield, hoping to find a book about painting with pastels. Some hope that was, even Waterstone’s had only a couple of art books amongst a very small section on Art. Smith’s were even worse with no books on the subject at all. We passed an arts and crafts shop on the way into town, but it was too long a walk for me to go back to, so I’m still without my tutorial. I suppose I’ll just have to see if Alan can find one at The Range in Harlow and post it on to me.

Today we’re off to Higher Poynton for the weekend.

Sunday 19th August

Higher Poynton is only four miles from Bollington and it took us just 1½ hours to reach at a steady pace. The moorings here are quite extensive and very wide, with a line of posts warning boaters of shallow water beyond.

Just past the next bridge is a small boatyard and water point, with the yard open seven days a week, providing diesel and pump-out facilities, along with a small shop that sells just a few odds and sods. This is useful because, by the time we return this way, we’ll be due to top up with diesel.

About 100 yards down the hill from the bridge is the local pub and a Visitors Centre and, lying almost parallel to the canal is an old railway station that has had the track area turned into seating. Looking both ways this seems to be part of a lengthy railway walk a la Julia Bradbury. As we left the boat to recce the place a whole host of yompers appeared on the towpath, who, we suspect, had just walked up from the railway walk.

We also checked up on the buses into Stockport because we might take a run in to town on Monday morning. Before that though, I will have to check to see if there is an art shop there. Besides which we’ve never been to Stockport, so that’s a good enough reason to pay the town a visit.

Obviously we’ll also pay a visit to the local pub and strike that one off our list.

Oh, I almost forgot, there we were last night, reading and listening to the radio, when we heard a thump. Not a very loud thump, but a thump nonetheless. Initially we ignored it, but then we heard it again and so did Rusty. Sheila got up from her chair just in time to see a cat hightailing it out of the boat with Rusty in hot pursuit. It seems that, unlike dogs, a small, hinged door is no barrier to entering and exiting our boat. We didn’t mind the cat getting away, but I dread to think how far Rusty would have got before she gave up the chase, had she had free egress from the boat.

Monday 20th August

What to tell you about yesterday………!

Well, apart from the rain and despite the weathermen telling us it was going to be the ‘hottest day of the year’, our Sunday was pretty normal. We spent an hour in the Boar’s Head pub and had our usual Sunday snack later in the evening. We don’t bother with a proper Sunday roast any more, simply because we’re never hungry enough to devour a full blown meal. Occasionally, when M&S have their special £10 offer on, we’ll go a bit potty, or we might have a meat and two veg one night in the week, otherwise, never on a Sunday.

Tuesday 21st August

I paid a visit to the local boatyard this morning, hoping to find somebody to service our heating, but the best they could do was the contact details of King’s Lock at Middlewich, and we won’t be there for another three weeks or so. No matter, in the mornings I can put the oven on – just like the old days in Harlow, before central heating – and in the evenings, should it feel a wee bit chilly, we can run the heater while the engine is running. Oh yes, it runs perfectly whilst the engine is on.

Yesterday having we caught the bus into Stockport, spotted the arts and crafts shop on the way in and jumped off at the next stop. They had two pastel books on display and I came away with a copy of Jenny Keal’s book ‘Painting with Pastels’, which contains several projects and more advice regarding equipment. So, I’m set to go, but first I’ll wait for Emma to come up with her own landscape project. I’m quite looking forward to getting to grips with this new hobby.

Wednesday 22nd August

Not much to add for yesterday, except a short shopping trip into Marple, where I bought a few t-shirts and Wifey bought a top. Added to that was a wee bit of shopping and I left her to have her hair cut and walked home with the shopping.

As for the pastel book, having read through it quickly, I now know that I need some more pastels and other equipment, but I will wait until we return to High Poynton and take the bus into Stockport and the arts and crafts shop.

We’ve had a look at the CWT (Canals and Waterways Trust) site and discovered that about 40 yards of moorings at Whaley Bridge are closed off for repairs, which means we’ll have to go down to Bugbrook Basin instead this morning. But, no matter, we were going there anyway and, since we did the shopping yesterday in Marple, there’s no need to go to Whaley Bridge.

Hopefully we’ll be back at Higher Poynton by Friday morning as that place can be pretty busy at weekends and we don’t want to miss out.

Thursday 23rd August

We left Marple yesterday morning at 8.15 and, after 2 swing bridges, 2 lift bridges and 6 miles, we finally moored up at

11. 15 am. This was not very good timing, we should easily have completed this trip within 2½ hours. However, with all the twists and turns along this six mile stretch, we were not surprised at the delay but, had we not spent so much time humming and haaaing over where to moor up in Bugsworth Basin, we could have knocked off at least half an hour of that time.

The problem I think, is that, since our last visit here about three years ago, many of the mooring rings have gone and mooring up against concrete and granite slabs, without the benefit of mooring rings, can be somewhat difficult. We finally got settled at the third attempt by using a ring and wedging a pin between two granite blocks.

Bugsworth Basin (Since renamed Buxworth) was, in the dim and distant past, used as a loading area for various goods to be transported by barge. It is now a Heritage Site with three or four separate areas for visitors to moor up and is maintained by volunteers. It also has a pub called the Navigation Inn, which we called in to on our last visit, but not this time.

We’re off back to Marple.

Friday 25th August

It is absolutely bucketing down here, which adds to the chill inside this boat and, since the heater doesn’t work unless the engine is running and, having tried lighting the fire last night, which now seems to be oozing smoke through the interior chimney stack, the lighting of which having to be abandoned, I have had to resort to the gas oven. Back to the old days again!

Yesterday we knocked half an hour off our journey time from Bugsworth to Marple and, during that three hour run, we only passed one other boat going the other way.

Today, rather than head off for Higher Poynton, we’re taking the bus into Stockport. From Marple they run every 15 minutes, so we won’t have long to wait.

Hopefully, if we’re not drowned in our beds first, we’ll head off to Poynton tomorrow.

I heard from Emma this morning, who’s been to Australia for a few days visiting a friend and going to the Ballet. She tells me that her friend’s friends recently spent a holiday in Europe and, whilst in the UK, they took a holiday boat out and met a coupled called Dave and Sheila. So, since we have only ever seen one other boat called Shiralee in the past six years; and that one didn’t have Dave and Sheila on the side; I am now waiting to see if it is the same couple. If it is, what a small world we live in!

Saturday 25th August

Yesterday we took the ‘circular’ bus into Stockport for more pastels and other bits and pieces. This is the 384 and returns from Stockport by a different route to the one it takes going there. This turned into a rather pleasant ride around quite a large area of Cheshire. This free bus pass is a really good deal and we’re making the most of it.

I’ve been feeling a wee bit out of sorts these past few days, but it’s been nothing I could really put my finger on, if you know what I mean. Anyway, last night, feeling a little worse for wear, I dragged out the blood pressure monitor and took a reading. Well, with a pulse of 104 and feeling rather hot and clammy, I decided it was time to call in the heavy mob and phoned the local surgery.

Of course, since local doctors don’t pay house calls any more, my call was transferred to the Stockport ‘Out of Hours Surgery’, which is located on Lowfield Road, Stockport. After a short discussion it was decided that somebody should see me and check me out. The round trip by taxi cost us over £20 - eating into my pocket-money somewhat - because there was no way we were going to walk all the way down that hill and into Marple, in the pouring rain, in hopes of finding a bus that passed that road. Fortunately we are not hard up pensioners otherwise I dread to think what we would have done.

I came away from the surgery, after being prodded and poked and told to say ahhh, with a bunch of steroids and antibiotics. I have to say though, that the doctor was very thorough and we were not kept waiting for long and, if I’m ever in that situation again, I do hope it’s closer to Stockport.

We’ve had even more rain overnight but, as long as a strong wind doesn’t pick up this morning, we’ll be off to Higher Poynton again for the weekend, from which location I shall post this blog, I hope.

Sad to say my email is playing up again. I receive pictures and jokes from Sandra and try to send them on to my own family and friends. The last lot have come back as undelivered, for reasons various. However, I still seem able to send and receive individual messages and so, in future when Sandra or Alan send such stuff, I will forward them direct from my server at Absolute Email. I have no idea why I have this problem on occasion, but I do seem to be stuck with it and, with Three being the biggest and best where mobile broadband is concerned, I guess I’ll have to tolerate the situation until we get back to Mercia.

And now, with it being Saturday morning and, due to recent bad weather no additional photos having been taken, I will post as is.

Happy weekend to all from:

Dave, Sheila and Rusty – who has a dicky tummy again this morning.