Monday 12th July
There was no 3 internet (or indeed vodafone) coverage on the Dane Aqueduct (please note the now correct spelling!) at the bottom of Bosley Locks so here is the weekend update.
We moved up to the aqueduct from Congleton on Saturday morning. It was a trip of about 4 miles and no locks. We haven’t moored on the Dane Aqueduct before but always thought it looked nice. There was one other boat there when we arrived and by the evening it was chocker. Boats were having to reverse up when they discovered there weren’t any spaces. The thing about mooring at what is essentially a dead end (as in this case, at the bottom of a flight of locks with the intention of doing them the next day) is you have to get the timing right. Early enough so that there is still room but not so early that no one who was moored there the night before has left yet. Ordinarily, if you arrive at moorings and they are all full you just carry on until you find somewhere else but if there is a 2 hour flight of locks to do and it’s about 5 or 6 o clock it’s a bit of a pain!
Dane Aqueduct is very attractive but the nearest pub is about a 30 minute walk away. Fine for us but we made the mistake of trying to get our poor old dog there. As we subsequently found out the walk takes about 25 minutes up the towpath, which is very pleasant and another 5 minutes up the road, which isn’t. However, on our first attempt we didn’t make it to the pub. George was really up for it and was doing very well until we got to the road. We hadn’t realised that this was a very busy road with no footpath. At the time we had no idea how far the pub was up the road and decided not to risk taking George up there after all as it was too dangerous with him trying to walk in the road (as he does) and not on the verge. It was pretty hot on Saturday and the return journey so soon after the outward one proved a bit too much for George, bless. We had to throw water out of the canal over him to cool him down, he was really struggling. He spent the rest of the day and most of Sunday asleep. He is now fully recovered and we would have taken him out today but it was raining so hard he didn’t want to go!
Sunday we stayed at Bosley, Ken checked the batteries and I did a bit of cleaning. Lunchtime we decided to have another attempt at getting to the pub. We didn’t take George this time, he was asleep anyway. The walk on our own was ok and we discovered that we had been very near to the pub the day before, when we turned back, without knowing it. The Robin Hood was a lovely pub and unusually for us we had lunch which was very good.
Back at the moorings the neighbours were having a party and we were offered lunch but we’d already had some at the pub. Later we got some homemade caramel shortbread which was delicious. Obviously we watched the World Cup Final and the best team won although I have been an honorary Dutchman since England went out.
All in all a very pleasant weekend. Wet day Monday doing Bosley Locks – update later.
