Macc to Marple

Up at 'sparrows' this morning ... so thankful that the sparrows in Macclesfield don't get up until about 9.00am!

Off we went to the tip to get rid of the oil from yesterday's oil change, then down to to car wash to wash all the salt of the car before it went back into storage; I felt quite strange sitting in the car whilst lots of chaps cleaned the car - for only £6.00 - bargain! Next stop was Elaine's dad's house for a quick 'see ya later', then round to Brother Trev's house, where we covered up the car and left it until??

Our next stop was to Boots to pick up my drugs, then we trudged back up the hill back to the boat.

When we were 'ship-shape' we reversed the boat back to the marina, chucked a u-ey and headed off up the Macc canal.

Brother Trev ambushed at Hurdsfield to bid us a final farewell ... he was taking his moggie for a spin!


There were still some deep snow drifts lying around on the towpath.  It was a lovely sunny day but still a bit 'brass monkeys'.

A few shots of Bollington from the Aqueduct.... 

 

We really like Bollington - it is a really great little village, just the sort of place we could see ourselves living if we stayed in the UK.

 

Back into the sticks ...

Its a lovely canal, for sure.

 

The batteries on the camera went flat so that's that on the picture front!

After filling up with water at Marple we eventually found a decent-ish mooring spot ... we also found Dot and Gordon plus Ray and Toni ... so what to do ... go to the pub of course!
We were joined in the pub by Meagan and Peter,  Guess what?  Yep, another couple of Aussies from Manly!  We had a good night in the pub (Ring O'Bells) and a reasonably early night ... but then we have to put the clocks forward ... bugger, another 1.00 am bedtime!

By the way, our 'TCP' tasting (and smelling) water is back again ... the only thing we and think of is that it must be to do with the amount of chlorine in the water - still reacting with our new-ish hosepipe.  Maybe Marple water is highly chlorinated because we didn't have the TCP in Macc at all!  I guess tomorrow Elaine will be wanting to find a supermarket to get some bottled water again!  Very strange this water business!

Getting Ready for the Off

We are now ready to leave Macclesfield after being here for nearly 2 weeks!  Medical appointments - sorted, catching up with relatives - sorted, catching up with Macc friends - sorted, weather has improved....today was actually quite a nice day, alas as I type this it's started to snow albeit very lightly.
So where are we heading......Liverpool !!!  At least going there by boat they can't nick the wheels!
We will head off tomorrow and link up with Dot and Gordon (NB Ewn Ha Cul) and Toni and Ray (NB Ferndale).

We will then armour-plate the boats, fit the anti-yob gun turrets and prepare the boiling oil to repel any invaders whilst going along the Ashton Canal !

Back to today......I gave the old girl her 250 hour service, changed oil and filters, changed fuel and air filters, adjusted the stern gland, changed the gearbox oil and adjusted all the belts ... all good for another 250 hours. I had a quick check over of the Hurricane Heater and I couldn't help but notice that we have run the the Hurricane for 600 hours in 1 year.  Lesley and Joe, the previous owners, ran it for under 1000 hours in 3 years!  We are indeed girly!

Whilst I was busy in the engine room Elaine was busy snogging her dog!
 

 That's better ...

Actually she was very busy in the kitchen as we had dad, Burtie and brother, Trev coming round for lunch.

  

It was a very long and most enjoyable lunch ...

Looking forward to getting on the move tomorrow!

Serious Snow

Brother Russ and wife Tracy arrived yesterday. The plan was that they were going away on the boat for a few days whilst we stayed with Elaine's dad in Macclesfield.  The problem was that it was still blowing a gale and not really conducive to boating ... we were also getting battered on the mooring, so they stayed the night in a local hotel.

 In the afternoon we had a nice drink at Sutton Hall followed by dinner at The Rising Sun pub.
This morning I had to go to the quack and sort out some more drugs for my ever increasing blood pressure! (I thought boating was supposed to relax you!)

Russ and Tracy came to the boat mid morning so we decided to take a trip up the Pennines looking for some good snow and boy did we find some!

Nice little church ...


As you can see the snow was rather deep, as in about 6 feet ...

This is the main road to Buxton!

A fair bit of snow at Bugsworth Basin ... we had a swift one at the Navigation Inn

We were heading back to Macc the way we came but were stopped by a 4WD coming the other way way he said to us......"There are two snow ploughs coming down the road side by side and they are not well pleased to meet cars coming towards them"!  We chucked a u-ey and tried to find another way way back along the lanes.

We were blocked again by this drift!

We found another lane and met a snow plough coming towards us, so we pulled up to speak to him.  He opened his window down and said "Y'arite?"   We asked him if the road ahead was clear to Macclesfield, to which he responed "Y'ourite".  (See what he did there ?!)  We translated this to mean, "absolutely old chap not a problem".

It was a very nice little winding road through plenty of snow, no probs in a 4WD though.

Check out the icicles on this pub!

 

It was a really good day out ... they have now returned dahn sarf!

We will have to move tomorrow and get some water, but will still hang around here for my blood test and a few more family and friend commitments over the next few days !  It's all go :) 

Merry Easter !!!!

What the ??!!

Elaine here ...

We are moored up in Macclesfield - so glad we went to get a refill of water yesterday morning because this was the view from the side window this morning ... a mere Springtime blizzard !  For most of the night last night the boat was rocking and rolling and crashing and swaying ...
 

 

 

The boys went out the side window for a quick widdle this morning and promptly jumped back in the boat ! 

The weather had a brief respite late morning but in the afternoon the wind picked up again and the snow started and now we are sitting in the middle of a mega blizzard.  I swear it is like living in the arctic!  I can't begin to tell you how awful the wind is !  The boat is rattling and shuddering in the wind and occasionally crashing (as if a boat had just gone past really fast!).  The animals aren't too impressed !  Paul is missing out on this new improved weather as he has nipped down to Milton Keynes this arvo to see his Mum and his Mate (a prior arrangement)!

I made good use of my time confined to quarters today while the boy was away ... by playing with some chemicals ... oops, I mean making soap !!  Some lovely soaps they will be too and I will blog about them in my little blog later !

I had a look at the weather on the internet (we can't get the tele at the moment because the dish won't stay put with all the wind !)

 

Not getting much better tomorrow either ...

 

Hey, wasn't that just the Spring equinox yesteday?!!!  What the ???!!!

What an Amazing Coincidence ...

This morning we had just left the boat and were driving along a back street of Macc (headng to Bosley to empty the cassette) when we spotted a dog that looked like an absolute dead ringer for Bombo ... so much so that we actually had to check the back seat to make sure we still had him ! We have never seen a dog that is exactly the same as him, and never really know what model he is except that he is a cross Maltese something.

So we chucked a u-ey and decided we would ask the chap what sort of dog it was, this is how the conversation went.....

Us:  Excuse me, we couldn't help noticing your dog is exactly the same as ours, what is he?

Him:  He is a cross Maltese Pomeranian ...

Us:  Oh thanks - Bombo  is a rescue dog so we never knew what model he was.

Him:  He is from Australia ...

Us:  So is he!

Him:  I bought him in Melbourne, then moved to Perth ...

Us:  Sydney !

All of us:  What the ?!!!

 The chap had lived in Australia for 8 years and came back to Bollington 2 years ago, he like us brought his dog back with him.......

... and so the conversation continued into both of our circumstances etc .... but what a huge coincidence that was !  (By the way, Bombo has exactly the same 'hoodie' but in red!)

Anyway, here is Bombo's doppelganger ...

Hello, long lost cuz !

Same 'bored' expression !

His dog had just been clipped so looked a little different in the face but had the same mannerisms!

 After that little encounter we went to Bosley locks to do a dump-out and then had a nice walk down and back up the locks.  We only saw one boat coming up the locks in the whole time !  Mind you it was a cold, grim day (only got to 6 degs today!).  Evidently this March will be the coldest since the 60's!

Just as an aside, we spotted this bench while walking around Macc ... it had been re-painted.  It seems that someone had padlocked their bike to it at some point ... so what to do but paint IT as well !!

Fill Er Up!

Had a quiet day today, swept the chimney, and bled some air out of one of the radiators and that was the chores done.

Working boat Alton was filling up the boat in front so I got them to give us a top up, took a bit more than I thought it would 135 litres.

Good to have a chat with Brian and Ann Marie   

                                                        In the afternoon we walked down to Macc and went round to Elaine's dads house and had a chat with Burtie.
We then picked up the car from brother Trevors house and brought it back close to the boat, need to take the cassettes to the Elsan tomorrow.
Had a fantastic Indian takeaway for dinner, then watched a crap film back onboard the good ship.

Vitamin D Morning

We had a quiet night in last night ... only one bottle of wine and a reasonably early night!

I took a pic of William, the second oldest cat, as we really thought he wouldn't last the night.  He is an old boy (18 years old) and is suffering from all sorts of ailments.  He was born on Xmas eve 1995 at the volunteer cattery where Elaine and myself worked (and indeed met.....ahhhh). We took him home when he was 6 weeks old....ahhhh.  Good news is that today he seems a bit better - but hasn't moved much !


So, up early this morning to a brilliant blue sky .. I took the dogs out to catch some much needed Vitamin Ds!

It didn't last long and soon clouded over and then rained again!  Whilst I was out Elaine took some pics of our local ducks scrapping ... must be something to do with breeding season I presume?

The rest of the day was spent discussing the next stage of the big adventure; we are not going anywhere at the mo but still think that we should start to get some sort of plan together re property and finances etc!

Later in the afternoon we left our delightful mooring on the Gurnett Aqueduct and went for a walk up to Sutton village.

We stopped at the Sutton Hall Pub for a pint and crisps ...

I.M.H.O. this is the best pub we have been to on our travels, and we have been to a few!

It has some history with Lord Lucans relatives!

Great pub, good food and dog friendly....

Just perfect.

Got to Gurnett!

It snowed overnight so we didn't cast off till about 10.30 am, any excuse for a lie in!  We left  NB Rock N Roll behind on the mooring.
 -

I love the Macc canal  - it is just so pretty and rural ... Sam is pretty as well!

Stuff the birds, gimme the nuts ...

Very nice Des Res ...

Nice viaduct ...

One of the Milton Keynes' cows now resides on the Macc Canal ...

Just magic ...

One for Adam (Briar Rose).  Is it the right Debdale?

When we got to the bottom of Bosley Locks who should appear ... Elaine's brother Trevor who gave us a hand up the Bosley flight.  Much appreciated Trev.-  I didn't even break a sweat!

The Cloud in the distance ...

The sheep were galloping after the farmer, he had food on the quad bike ...

Lambs ...

Eyesore!  What the ?!!

Drunk Paddies ...

Another lovely day on what so far is our favourite canal.  We are now moored on the Gurnett Aqueduct ... can I have fries with that?!