Tuesday 20th July
Today dawned dry after last night’s rather heavy rain and we decided to get off to Marple as soon as possible, as more rain was forecast for later today. After the usual water etc stop we were off. As there is (usually) a convenient mooring place near to Tesco’s at Whaley Bridge we thought we would pop in and get a few essentials. However, when we got there there was a ‘continuous moorer’ in the space so we had to give it a miss.
It actually stayed fine today until about 11-15 am and as we were nearly at Marple any way we weren’t too bothered. Mooring up here was, as usual, not quite straight forward. We are at a jaunty angle, not only from the bank, we got the front in but the back is out about 2 ft, but we are listing to port a bit too. Every time I get up I walk in to something, actually I can do that without being at a jaunty angle! We just can’t seem to get in to these moorings properly as they are shallow and we are very low at the back. However, if we can get the front in, so Mrs Doyle can get on and off and there is enough width for other boats to get past with our back end sticking out then we have to do it or we would never be able to moor up here. Further round, in the Marple moorings on the Peak Forest, there are also boats moored several feet from the bank as the level is so low! So it’s not just us.
Lunchtime we went to the Ring ‘o’ Bells and got chatting to a couple of women, one of whom lives in South Woodford! After we had posted George back on board we went to the shops. We also went and made him an appointment at the vets for his booster injections. The vets here is very conveniently positioned, being 5 mins from the canal. The appointment is tomorrow at 3-10 pm so if we leave the boat about 2-30 pm we should just about get there on time!
Marple is a useful town, with all the shops you need and more cafes, tea rooms, hairdressers and pubs than you can shake a stick at! Ken was chuffed to receive a boater’s discount in the car accessories shop when he bought oil for the oil change he has to do soon as well.
There have been some pretty hefty showers this afternoon and evening – maybe the canal will fill up a bit and we’ll be able to get the back in tomorrow!
