Narrowboat Holiday Day 8 - Whaley Bridge to Bollington (6 hour; 14.2 miles; 0 locks; 3 bridges)

We woke up, at breakfast, and was underway by 9:30 AM.  To start, we have to backtrack to Marple Junction and then turn left on the Macclesfield Canal.  Here are some scenes from us heading back the 6.5 miles:

First of 3 bridges I have to operate. This is Carr Swing Bridge.

View of and old train viaduct.

One of many geese on the canal

2nd bridge of the day... Turf Lee Lift Bridge.

Last bridge of the day...Wood End Lift Bridge.

Going through Wood End Lift Bridge.

Passing another narrowboat.

Finally, after just over 2 hours, we were back at Marple Junction at the top of the Marple Locks Flight.

When we got to the junction, we turned left off of the Peak Forest Canal and onto the Macclesfield Canal.

Turning onto the Macclesfield Canal.

Only 40 miles away from Middlewich, where we started.

The next stretch on the canal was beautiful, but it was very windy.  We were having some trouble controlling the boat and actually had to go down the canal crabbing some of the way.

Cool pedestrian bridge. The walking path changes sides of the canal here.

Spring is in the air? Well...the weather doesn't feel like spring, but there are flowers.

Canal through a village

Gerri in control

Do you see me in control above?  About 1 minute later, a narrowboat was headed towards us out of control.  It was a fairly short boat and the wind was taking it every which way.  They kept coming towards us, so Tim took control of the boat and decided to land the boat on the right side of the canal to try to just avoid the whole situation.  They finally passed us after a little tap, and then a narrowboat that has been behind us for a bit was forced right as well.  It seemed like no big deal until we tried to relaunch.  We landed between two moored narrowboats, so we had to push the nose out to get out of the spot, but the wind was so strong that we couldn't get off the wall.

We, along with the boat that was following us, were stuck there for about 30 minutes when finally, people came out of the boats we were stuck between, and helped us push off the wall.  We were free and finally underway again.

Passing a marina. You can see the ripples in the water due to the wind.

Tim fighting the wind.

More signs of spring...baby sheep.

Finally, after fighting wind for a couple of hours, we made it to Bollington by 3:30 PM.  We were somewhat in a hurry to get here because we need to do laundry and the laundromat closes at 5 PM.  As soon as we were moored, I grabbed the laundry and walked to town as Tim completed the mooring checklist.

I arrived at the Washing Well at 4 PM, and threw in the load.  The Wishing Well was pretty small with only 4 washers and dryers.  It is manned, and you don't put money in the machines, you just pay the man after you are done.  He told me the washing machine will take 20 minutes, so I headed next door for a pint.

By the way....I did laundry as I learned to do it on the Pacific Crest Trail, with just my rainsuit on with nothing on underneath....ha.  I got the laundry done and walked back to the boat.  I caught a glimpse of the boat as i was walking back.  Our boat is the front one of the two.

Our mooring in Bollington.

Tonight for dinner we had Belgium-style mussels and fresh baked bread.  We just so happen to have a bottle of Belgium-style English Ale on hand.

After dinner we headed out to a pub that serves beer from Bollington Brewing Company, just down the street.  When we exited the boat, we saw the big stack in the background, so snapped a photo.

Our mooring in Bollington.

That is the canal up above this tunnel.  They built the canal way up there to avoid having to build a flight of locks up and down to get into and out of Bollington.

Finally...we made it to Vale Inn and had a flight of Bollington Brewery beer.

After the flight, we headed back to the boat, blogged some, watched some TV, and went to bed. Tomorrow we don't have very far to go, so it should be a good day.