Today we can’t go very far. There is a flight of locks called Bosley Lock Flight, that is closed until tomorrow (Wednesday). Our plan is to go from here to the first lock, and try to be one of the first out when they open at 8:30. The first lock from here is only about 3 hours from Bollington, so we slept in, had a leisurely morning, had a late breakfast (egg sandwiches), and got underway at 12:30 PM.
This part of the canal is very beautiful.
We stopped in Gurnett at 1:50 PM, just 1.3 hours after starting. There are two nice sounding pubs just off the canal that we thought we would check out.
The first is Sutton Hall, a one time manor built 480 years ago! That’s the 1500’s…crazy!
The first is Sutton Hall, a one time manor built 480 years ago! That’s the 1500’s…crazy!
We got a half-pint of each real ale they had, and sat in comfy, leather chairs by the fireplace.
The next pub was a 10 minute walk, Ye Olde Kings Head. We were hungry and hoped they had lunch, but they just stopped serving at 3 PM, so we walked back up to the boat and made sandwiches (me: tuna; Tim: Chicken cold cut). We then returned to Ye Olde Kings Head and had 2 half pints of the real ale they had.
We returned the the boat and set off at 4:50 PM, 3 hours after stopping here…that was a nice afternoon.
We only have 1.3 hours to go though this beautiful countryside and we were ready.
We only have 1.3 hours to go though this beautiful countryside and we were ready.
We passed some well decorated narrowboats along the way. We especially liked the narrowboat with a model of itself on the roof.
There was a bit of excitement today. There is the Royal Oak Swing Bridge that I have to stop traffic for before swinging it. A car pulled up right when the gate went down and soon after, 2 ore cars arrived. Hurry bridge…hurry.
We finally arrived at the area of our mooring point, but first we filled up our water tank.
We finally moored up just before the lock with only one boat in front of us. I looked out the window and look what I saw…a cute duck family.
We ate lunch a bit late, so dinner wasn’t until 8:30 PM. Tonight we had breaded fish with special sauce (ketchup & mayonnaise) and roasted sweet potatoes.
We watched a bit of TV, blogged, and then went to bed. Tomorrow will be an earlier morning than usual since there is only one boat in front of us and the Bosley Lock Flight opens at 8:30 AM. Until then...