Sunday 10 April 2011
A monumental decision has been reached. We are going to sell Martlet; we had intended so to do at the end of the summer. We will be buying a campervan and visiting those parts of this wonderful country that are not accessible by narrowboat, also to visit Ireland and France before age prevents us from enjoying a good walk around.
We have met a lot of interesting people over the last 11 years and have kept in touch with a lot of them, we know that we will miss the canals and the other boaters.
There is a new breed of boat owners afloat that we will not miss; the old ideas of helping at locks and slowing down passing moored boats are going, we will move on before they are completely dead.
Looking at the log book, since September 1999, we have done 8,170 locks, 14,193 miles and the engine has run for 5700 hours. We have visited Bristol, London, Ripon and Tewitfield; the latter being the most Northerly point on the Lancaster canal.
We have travelled the length of the Manchester Ship Canal and have crossed the Mersey; the Thames from Limehouse to Teddington four times and have spent a total of eight months on the non tidal Thames. The River Nene, Middle Levels and the Ouse, Cam and tributaries, all of the canal system apart from some Birmingham canals.
We have enjoyed it all.
I have enjoyed keeping the Blog and who knows, there may be a land based sequel!
Thank you for looking and for your helpful and kind comments. The photographs were taken with a Canon PowerShot SX100, to which all credit is due for the result. I merely pressed the button (I know, that excuse has been used many times).
Farewell, good health and happiness to you all.
Sunday 10 April 2011
Friday 1 April 2011
April Fool's Day
We had our customary 24hrs moored below Bosley locks with the view of The Cloud before we 'did' the flight the following afternoon. 9 locks were our way, the other 3 had worse leaks at the top than at the bottom gates, we made full use of the services at the top lock and moored for the night.
This morning, we travelled to Gurnett Aqueduct at Macclesfield; the Royal Oak (formerly Fool's Nook, no longer appropriate for today) swing bridge behaved itself which lulled us into a false sense of security. The next swing bridge is now locked shut across the canal, it used to be better as a foot bridge open to the canal and pulled across by a chain as required. The new, improved vehicle wide version is terrible. It required my 16 stones of brute force and ignorance in abundance to get it moving and to close it again.Some deft footwork managed to coax the locking mechanism into place to allow removal of the key.
Heigh Ho, it made our pies at the Kings Head at lunchtime more welcome.
This morning, we travelled to Gurnett Aqueduct at Macclesfield; the Royal Oak (formerly Fool's Nook, no longer appropriate for today) swing bridge behaved itself which lulled us into a false sense of security. The next swing bridge is now locked shut across the canal, it used to be better as a foot bridge open to the canal and pulled across by a chain as required. The new, improved vehicle wide version is terrible. It required my 16 stones of brute force and ignorance in abundance to get it moving and to close it again.Some deft footwork managed to coax the locking mechanism into place to allow removal of the key.
Heigh Ho, it made our pies at the Kings Head at lunchtime more welcome.
TUESDAY 29TH MARCH
Having arrived on the Macclesfield Canal we next stopped at Congleton Wharf. There is a good depth of water against the piled edge thus removing the need for acrobatic exit and entry.
The main excuse for visiting the town was to go to the Post office, which is sited at the opposite end of the place to the canal. There are a few good buildings and a pedestrianised main street. This enables one to wander along unencumbered by traffic or indeed by any interesting shops, with one exception, a bakers - the Bath buns are excellent!
The impressive Victorian Town Hall was designed by Edward William Godwin, who was the Architect also for the Shire Hall in Northampton. We returned to the boat through a small but beautifully formed park using up the site of two demolished buldings.
Our forward journey afloat was short as we moored up on the Biddulph Valley Aqueduct, which took it's name from the river flowing beneath, the Dane. This valley separates Congleton from Buglawton, which is probably a good thing; it gives also the residents of both somewhere to evacuate their dogs.
The main excuse for visiting the town was to go to the Post office, which is sited at the opposite end of the place to the canal. There are a few good buildings and a pedestrianised main street. This enables one to wander along unencumbered by traffic or indeed by any interesting shops, with one exception, a bakers - the Bath buns are excellent!
The impressive Victorian Town Hall was designed by Edward William Godwin, who was the Architect also for the Shire Hall in Northampton. We returned to the boat through a small but beautifully formed park using up the site of two demolished buldings.
Our forward journey afloat was short as we moored up on the Biddulph Valley Aqueduct, which took it's name from the river flowing beneath, the Dane. This valley separates Congleton from Buglawton, which is probably a good thing; it gives also the residents of both somewhere to evacuate their dogs.
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