And They're Off

We have finally left Macclesfield after just over 4 glorious weeks of family and friends reunions!

But First..........

On Saturday night we went to Sutton Hall pub for dinner, with several members of Elaine's family plus the doggies of course.  It is a pretty flash joint and quite nice that they allow dogs...no complaints from us!  It was one of those nights where you laugh so much that you cry, unfortunately none of the funny stories can be mentioned on the blog!

Me, El's Dad, El's bro in law and El's bro

El's sister and Bomboliscious

one of the funny stories 

Sammy trying to slip in the tongue

 

Dog tired

The Sutton Hall Pub employs very good looking young girls, there was one that was not only good looking but had the figure to match and during the night we had a bit of a chat; the next day we went to Tesco to do some shopping so I sat outside on the bench with the dogs and was soon joined by a woman who introduced herself as 'Susan' and she sat down and we had a good chat.  Susan was a bit rough around the edges; I think she may have been an ex-pro and maybe a junkie, as she kept pointing out the junkies she knew as they walked past.  We were soon joined by a said junkie and I was having a good old chat to the pair of them and who should walk past but the very fit barmaid from the pub, I said 'hello' but she ignored me.....WHY? !!

Sunday they were hanging T Shirt banners in the streets of Macclesfield for the Barnaby festival, and I haven't got a clue what is about.....but it starts on 21st June !

Sunday we went for a walk over the hills, stopping at a couple of pubs along the way and meeting a few of the locals ...(just by the beer garden!)

Glorious views..

Elaine's friend Jane joined us with her dog Pip, who likes sticks!

So to Today (Monday) we finally left Macclesfield and headed for the Bosley Locks, we were joined by Elaine's brother Trevor for the day.

Stopping the traffic to open the hydraulic swing bridge at Fools Nook

 First stop Bosley top lock to empty the cassettes, dump the rubbish and fill with water. Also the sun was shining and it was rather warm - I wore my shorts, sandals and tshirt; Elaine and Trev had their wellies on.....I won as the weather was great.  

The boys stood guard, well Bombo slept actually...

 

 He's awake!

Nice big stone locks

Some a bit leaky

El posing

El walking between locks with "The Cloud" in the background

Now both the dogs were asleep - they enjoy this narrowboat caper 

When we got to the bottom of the locks we stopped for lunch as I was exhausted steering 68ft of boat for 4 hours........El and Trev were fine.....Joke, OK!

After lunch we carried on towards Congleton.  We passed a Border Collie on the towpath minding its own business.  Bombo barked at it, on hearing this Sam woke from his slumber, jumped up on the side of the boat and fell straight into the canal ... his poor little face was in absolute panic and he was just treading water!  I hit reverse hard, the boat stopped pretty quick.  I reversed back knocked it out of gear and picked him up from the stern of the boat, the poor little bugger was shaking.  Elaine gave him a hot shower and he soon recovered, as you can see below. Life jackets tomorrow!         

We dropped Trev off at bridge 75 in Congleton which is right next to the train station; it took him 7 mins to get to  Macclesfield for a journey that had taken us nearly 7 hours! Never mind we are not in a hurry.

We are now moored just past Congleton and I am nursing a cut foot...I took the dogs for their evening walk, we went through a field and as I was climbing over a gate I caught it on a rusty bit of pipe and took a nice chunk out of my foot.  Nurse Elaine sorted it out when I got back to the boat.

Tomorrow's goal is to find a good pub to watch the footy; we can watch it on the boat, but prefer the atmosphere of a pub! 

Back to Macc for the Last Time

We had a fantastic 6 days at Bugsworth Basin.  Before we left I decided to take the 2 dogs and walk to to the top of the towering peaks surrounding the basin ... well they don't really tower but they are quite high and I was fair knackered by the time I reached the summit!

Elaine stayed on board and made up her first batch of soap (in this country !)

Glam soap making outfit !

It was an overcast and drizzly day so the pics aren't the best.  The basin is in the middle ...

Still in the middle ...
 

Zoomed in for this pic Caxton is top left ...

By the time I got back the dogs and I were a tad muddy so we had a threesome in the shower; that is, I had a shower and also washed the 2 dogs!

On Wednesday night we went for dinner at the Navigation and had a good chat with Barn Owl No 6 owners, Mike and Sue (Caxton is Barn owl No 9).

So to today - we left Bugsworth Basin at the early hour (for us) of 10.30am !

We took the last pic of the Peak District; it is a fantastic part of the country and rates very highly in our 'Plan B of the UK experience' (when we decide to live on land - to experience living in a UK small town/village!)

 

I was fascinated by this bit of farm machinery - it cut the grass, rolled it into a bale, spat it out onto the next trailer where it was spun around and wrapped in plastic!

Finally jettisoned off the back!

I could do that!! 

Meanwhile a flock, herd, murder, gaggle of geese tried to stop us!

 After threatening to feed them some of Elaine's home made cake they moved over and let us through ...

Approaching Bollington with the White Nancy monument perched on top of the hill ...

 

Finally, we are moored up back in Macclesfield after motoring for over 7 hours!! (20 mins by car)

Plans for the weekend are......Friday night, Football - England vs Sweden - with Trev and Burt (El's dad) - at his place.

On Saturday Elaine's sister and hubby arrive so we are going to Sutton Hall for dinner with El's dad, brother, sister and hubby.  (Burt, Trev, Julie and Paul).

Sunday out for lunch/dinner with El's old school friend, Jane and hubby, Andy.

Monday morning we finally leave Macclesfield and head for........The Caldon Canal....don't ask!

Back in Bugsworth !

Elaine here ...

We havn't blogged for a few days as we have not had any internet connection or any phone reception since we reached Bugsworth !  We have, however, had tele. reception - so you will be relieved to hear that I have had my Home and Away fix !!

We left Macc. on Thursday lunch time and only got as far as Higher Poynton before we stopped for the day !  On Friday we headed off towards Bugsworth Basin again (or as Paul's brother, Russ, calls it ... our hidey hole !).  On the way here another boater (going in the opposite direction) told Paul that 'it was bad up there' ... which left us wondering what sort of 'bad' it was and where 'up there' was !!!  We found out on our approach to Bugsworth - as the rain lashed down and the wind howled around us !!  Paul donned his full wet weather gear - and assured me he was perfectly happy (wierd !). 

You wouldn't miss him anyway !

I stayed firmly indoors apart from my swing and lift bridge duties; I took the opportunity to give the dogs a shower, as they were pretty grubby after our walk through the puddles earlier in the day !  I wrapped them up in their blankets after their baths - my brother reckons our dogs are 'soft' ... how could that be?

Sam and Bombo all wrapped up after their bath !

The weather carried on all night and our boat was rocking and rolling!  By the morning the wind had stopped but the rain .... sooooo much rain !  However, we heard on the radio that the W3 festival was going ahead in Whaley Bridge, so we donned our gear and away we went to see what was going on !  Everyone seemed to be eyeing us with suspicion on our walk along the towpath to Whaley - we found out later from someone that we looked like Environmental Protection people (or maybe just a pair of nutters ?!).  Anyway, we were dry in the pouring, pouring rain !

Should we call Trinny and Suzannah?

 There was a fair bit going on at Whaley Bridge - we found a little funfair and a few stalls, some strange looking Morris dancers (with black faces), plus a stage !

Beautiful old Carousel ...

Border Morris Dancers - loved them !

I really want to be a Morris Dancer when I grow up !

    

There was a petting zoo, so we went and stroked a skunk (de-scented) ... it was really soft and cute ...

Cute skunk

 They were running canal boat rides from Whaley to Bugsworth - quite a few people turned out regardless of the weather ...

Comet doing boat rides

The New Horizons boat doing trips

Couple of off-duty Morris Dancers!

  Our fave rave, George Borowski, was playing on stage - he did a little acoustic set at 1 pm and then another set with his little band at 4 pm - excellent as usual - playing to a rainy crowd !  My brother, Trev, came and joined us to watch him too ...

 

A few stalls braved it !

I went to talk to the ladies in the Well-Dressing tent - but will write more about that in my own little blog - which I am going to get to after this!

It was a great afternoon - it was actually fun in the rain !!  We went back to the boat for a couple of hours and went back to Whaley Bridge to watch the evening bands on the stage - and then onto the Railway pub to watch another band - 'Galley Beggar' - a folk-rock band, with a bit of diddly - diddly too!  It was fun - we didn't get home 'til midnight (Trev dropped us back to the boat, cos he didnt want us walking along the canal towpath back to Bugsworth in the dark !)

Sunday brought us a much better day - the sun even made an appearance and it was pretty warm!  Paul got his head in the engine, so the dogs and I made a quick escape - back to check out the festival !  There were loads of people about, so we had a look at the stalls and listened to a band and then headed back to the boat and kept out of Paul's way !  Trev popped back in the arvo for a cuppa (and to try and sort out our reception problems for us .... turned out to be some dodgy 3 Transmitters)!  Well, that's my take on the weekend, let's see what Paul has to say for himself ...


Paul here ...

Here we are back at Bugsworth, Elaine has covered the social side so I will cover the boat maintenance side.

Now my tools have now arrived from Australia I can do a few odd jobs on Caxton. I serviced the Hurricane  heater last week, it had just clocked over 1000 hours which is the service interval. It is a very simple unit to service, so I changed the fuel and air filter, cleaned out the cumbustion chamber and replaced the igniter, so that's it for another 1000 hours!

Yesterday it was the powerhouse Beta 43hp's turn. I changed the oil and filter, changed the gearbox oil, replaced the fuel filter, air filter plus replaced all 3 drive belts. Also refilled the stern gland greaser.

Today I started removing the varnish from the cratch, as its looking a bit grubby; I think it's going to be a long job!

I knocked off at 4.30 to watch the the footy but couldn't get a satellite signal ...bugger!  Never mind, the Navigation pub is a minute away and they also put on free food....result!

When I got back to the boat I got a good signal and the tele was working fine....funny that!

Today we were joined at Bugsworth by Barn Owl No 6  "TA-JO" 
I had a chat with the owner and compared notes...nice guy :)
 

PS:  Elaine again --- we discovered today that that there is an Elsan here - after all our stressing about our next deposits!  There are no signs to it - it is like a little secret !  So now - Bugsworth Basin is truly our little bit of paradise !!!! 

Jolly Jubilee !

Elaine here ...

Well, did we ever pick a good year to start our journey !   What an amazing country this is when it pulls out all the stops ... we've been loving all the Jubilee events going on around the place.

On Monday, we had a visit from Jenny and Chris (who had been put in touch with us via Lesley at NB Caxton) - they drove up from Birmingham just to have a look at our boat - as they are thinking of having one built and wanted to check out the workmanship of the Barnowl boats!  My Dad and my Brother and Nephew all arrived at the same time for a quick visit, so we had a boat full ... cups of teas all round ! 

In the afternoon, and as we still had the hire car, we decided to make use of it and go for a ride ... we headed off (over the pennines) toward Buxton - Paul was virtually salivating at the Buxton Road as he imagined riding his (old) motorbike across it !  (It is a perfect bike riding road apparently ... lots of long open stretches, great bends but lots of visibility also).  We forgot to take our camera, but we still took a few shots with the mobile phone !

Not a great pic thro the windscreen, but you get the idea !

Paul took a fancy to this building - in the middle of nowhwere .. nooooooo!

 We passed through Buxon and somehow ended up in Bakewell - so we went off in search of some tarts !  It's such a pretty little town - there were lots of people about too!

Bunting in every little courtyard !

Even the new age mods were out for a spin!

Pretty little building

Cute little streets - reminded us of Cornwall quite a lot ...

Bunting and more bunting - even at the Austrian sausage shop !

Cute little street ...

Aha - we found the Bakewell Pudding factory
- also note the patriotic chappie just got out of his flash motor!

Time marched on, so we headed back to base - via the Buxton Road and the Cat and Fiddle Pub - a Mecca for bikies - although there weren't too many there when we passed by ...

Cat and Fiddle pub

 When we got back to Macc we went to watch the Queen's Jubilee concert with my Dad.  How fantastic was it - we really loved every minute of it !  We also made a night of it with lovely cheeses and pickles (from Crick !) and a bottle of red wine ! I was so glad the weather held out for the concert :) 

The next day we went for a walk along the towpath and noticed this boat being swung around in the breeze (not really - they did a really good job of it !) - I was just hoping they had taken all their glasses out and tied everything down !!

 

Flying Narrowboat !

We also found our first Diesel boat - so filled up again - thank you Anne-Marie and Brian on 'Peak Forest Canal Carrying Company/Renaissance'.  Lovely, helpful folk !


In the afternoon Paul decided to service the heater and generally make a big mess everywhere - which included digging everything out of the cratch - and leaving the big hole open!  Poor Bombo - he must have gone flying out the front (barking at something) and landed in the hole ... This is how I found him - having dug himself into a box and was very stuck, miserable and embarassed !

Poor puppy !

What a great expression !  "I'm just fed up - and now she is taking my photo!"

Last night we went for a lovely Thai meal with my Brother at Maliwan Thai in Macc (Sunderland St)  - it was really nice - and has our recommendation !  I also noticed the Snow Goose Cafe Bar over the road - looked like a cute little bar, with a band playing - so I commanded Paul to take me there soon !

So - up to today - Thursday - and we are on the move again ... Yay !  We got up late again though (it was the rain's fault!) - we are only on the way back to Bugsworth Basin again - it seems to be an ideal spot for Paul to service the engine.  Also, my brother told me that the Whaley Bridge Water Weekend is on this weekend - with all sorts of events - lots of narrowboats, Craft stalls etc., Morris Dancers and Music (including our favourite - Mr George Borowski again !) - so, it should be fun !  We will hang out there for a few days - and then head back to Macc for the last time - as my Sister and Brother in Law are coming to visit next weekend :)

THEN ... we will leave Macclesfield - honest !!!

Crick and the Flotilla

We hired a car from Enterprise on Friday, so we could go to the Crick boat show plus check out some Jubilee events in the Macclesfield area.  The hire car company still wanted 2 utility bills in my name and address, but settled for a UK bank statement in my name!  They said I will have to go through the vetting process everytime we need to hire a car, never mind £78.00 (or $120.00) for 6 days is pretty good going.
We went to Crick on Saturday morning (another early start).  We were joined by brother Russ and his wife Tracy.

We enjoyed the show and checked out prices and facilities at a few marinas as there is a good chance we will live in a marina for a few months over winter.  We liked Aston Marina near Stone and Overwater Marina at Audlum, any comments would be much appreciated.

Whilst walking around we met a few blog readers, namely, Chris and Steve from NB AmyJo  Sharon and Richard from NB Oakapple and Gary and Sam from NB Muleless (to be!); it was great to meet you all and have a chat and thank you all for reading this twaddle!  I hasten to add....how did we meet these people?  They all recognised the two doggies Bombo and Sam! 

We also bought a few knick knacks at the show, we really enjoyed it.

This morning we were woken up by rain and wind - and upon getting up and inspecting the outside of the boat we realised the boat was completely covered in overnight crap from an overhanging tree !  We had to move the boat to go and get water anyway, so it was a good chance to clear it off !  I have never been so cold and wet driving the boat - by the time we got to the water point at Mr Grumpy's house (Macclesfield water point) I was freezing, so I had a hot shower and put on the full wet weather gear and thick jumper etc.  After the tank was full I washed most of the crud off the boat.  I was going to back up and turn the boat in the marina but it was just blowing too hard, so we pulled it back to the 24 hour moorings and that will do 'till tomorrow.  We walked the dogs back to the car and brought it closer to us.

By now it was 2 o'clock so off to the pub (puss'n'boots) for lunch and watch the Jubilee flotilla on the big screen.

I asked the barmaid if we could watch it on the TV - she obliged but gave the TV lots of V signs and wobbled on about how much the Royal Family cost her!  There were all ages in the pub but Elaine and I were the only ones that watched it!  The locals were making a fair few comments on the event and I think they were really glad when we left so they could watch a replay of a 10 year old rugby game.  We both really enjoyed it - such a pity about the dismal weather. Tomorrow night we are off to White Nancy to watch the lighting of one of the beacons, methinks they will need a truck load of firelighters!

As I am typing this we have just had our first collision.....at least it wasn't my fault!  He did shout sorry on the way past ... no biggie, it's blowing a bloody gale out there! On the plus side I can now say "bloody hire boater" ... yee haa, I am now a true narrowboat blogger!