Well the last few days have been interesting to say the least. We left Bugsworth Basin in the pouring rain and started to head back along the Peak Forest towards Marple. You could see the rain coming over the hills in the distance.
( We thought we'd moor in here...until we read the sign at the end which said 'long term moorers only'- Greg had to reverse all the way back out then as there was no where to turn around)
We moored up for the night by a farm that sold lovely fresh eggs,,it was a nice walk downhill to the farm house- coming up was a different matter!
Next morning we started early and made our way down the 16 locks at Marple. They were very deep and the gates were heavy. When we got through most of them Greg had help from 2 young boys walking along the canal with their mum and gran who were going to be going on the canal with the beavers at the weekend to get their badges.
As we finished the locks we went over an aquaduct (with big signs saying " beware of falling ") with a viaduct at the side.
Then things started to go wrong....We were going through this short squat tunnel when there was an enormous splash!
Yes it was Scully - she'd leaned out too far and fell in...of all the places to go in. I ran to get the torch and Greg turned off the engine. Poor Sculls started to panic and turned round and started to swim towards the end of the tunnel then hearing our voices she started to head back to the boat. Greg leant over and grabbed her and managed to pull her out (I don't know who was the wettest). She was not a happy dog!!!
The next tunnel was so low that it bent the chimney!
We came to the end of the peak forest canal and started to head up the Huddersfield narrow canal which was a real eye opener. There were lots of old working boats at the junction some of which needed a lot of work doing to them. As we pulled up we saw a gift boat heading into a marina- Greg thought this was hilarious as Id missed it again!
Heading through Stalybridge there were gangs of kids all along the canal. They started following the boat but we got them talking and they were fine..we left them playing football over the lock.
The canal went straight under this electricity pylon.
Even the toilets and water point had razor wire all round the top...it looked like a prison.
It was starting to get dark so we moored up just past a lock . The water was really brown and smelt of peat. Is it ever going to stop raining?
First thing in the morning we phoned Standedge tunnel (you have to give 3 days notice to go through as you need a chaperone) only to be told there was a 2 week wait to go through. We decided to turn round (it was still raining) and head down towards Manchester to go on the Bridgewater canal and then the Anderton boat lift.
It was hard to find a place to moor up for the night on the Ashton canal and people that were coming past told us that Manchester was really rough and not to leave the boat unattended. We moored up in a lock pound by the Greater Manchester police headquarters as there were lots of cameras around.
At this point we were told to lock the front doors. A lady was telling me that these flats were 'thrown up' five years ago because of the housing problems in Manchester but we would soon be going through Piccadilly Gardens which were lovely and she'd lived there for 15 years.
Luckily we didn't have any trouble but some of the locks were really awkward to get to as they were under buildings. The locks didn't open normally , you had to wind chains up to open the gates and they were really heavy ( I only did 2 and that was enough!).
Canal street was definitely colourful and eye opening.
We headed out of Manchester onto the Bridgewater canal, hoping we were going the right way as there were no signs except for one pointing us in the direction of the Manchester shipping canal which was huge.
Past the cornfake factory....
And old Trafford.....
We managed to fill up with diesel (and invest in a new chimney, an anti vandal key and ice-creams-well its the only 'shop' I've been in for 2 weeks!) and chugged onto Altrincham where we decided to moor up for a day or two to catch up with a few jobs (like getting all the rainwater out of the bottom of the boat and washing and drying all the wet clothes that we've acquired over the past few days). Scully is still getting over the shock of her swim and is lying happily in the sunshine at the side of the boat (although she does manage to get up every time a man with a Labrador called Molly goes past as she's found out he's got a pocket full of treats).
Happy days.
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