Congleton to Lyme Green

Monday 17th May

What a day, I’m knackered! To start with George got me up at some ungodly hour for a wee! Actually it was 6-30 am, which used to be the middle of the day to me but fortunately, is no longer! As it was such a nice day and we had Bosley Locks to do, 12 locks in 1 mile raising us 118ft, we decided to get an early start. I drove and negotiated the many bridges on the way fairly well. When we arrived at Bosley Locks there were a few boats waiting to go up. We had a cup of tea and waited for them to get a start. I did the driving for the first lock and did ok.  Then the boat in front of us got held up by a single hander in front of them and a hire boat in front of him who kept running aground. The boat behind us caught up and for a while no one went anywhere. As we were all going the same way every lock had to be set before use. I decided that as I was more proficient at locks and Ken was more proficient at driving we should swap so as not to hold things up any more than they were already.

Hence I have done 11 of the 12 locks and walked miles today! These locks differ from others in that they each have a pair of mitred top gates instead of the usual single top gate. As these can not be walked across like a single gate this necessitated a lot of extra walking from one end of the lock to the other, to the bridge, to get from one side to the other, for paddle operation and gate opening. Very tiresome.  It took us from 10-15am to 1-30pm to finish. It would have been longer but for the fact that the man in front of us very kindly left one paddle up after he had finished so by the time we got to the next lock it was empty and we could go straight in. I did the same for the people behind us.  In the middle of the flight we met 3 boats coming down which also helped.

After the excitement of the locks came the equal excitement of the water filling and elsan emptying! Obviously there was a queue for both and Ken had to do some nifty manouvreing to wait for a space and then get near the tap. 

Travelling for another couple of miles brought us to an electrically operated swing bridge and just over the road ………………… a pub, hurrah! The beer was rather strange but not unpleasant, although Ken gave me half of his and went on to the Guinness! A further mile’s travel brought us to Lyme Green (my favourite colour – not!) where we moored with some difficulty due to the shallow edge, opposite a farm and right by the raliway line. We like being by the raliway line and do not find the trains as intrusive as the cars are if we moor by a road. However, we have just discovered here, that the tv signal goes haywire every time a train goes by! Good job there’s bugger all on!

Bridget Written by: