16th June '12

Moored at Kidsgrove and so we had a quick look in the town - it's an old mining community and rather sad. So many shops shut up but those there are seem to be quite busy. We went and bought ourselves a filled oatcake each - having no idea what they were but it's the local 'thing' so we wanted to try them. They turned out to be sort of pancakes made with oats presumably - quite nice actually. We had cheese and mushroom for those who are interested!

The water in the canal here is rusty coloured, apparently because of the iron oxide that leaks out of the stone in the tunnel - it's murky but quite interesting.

this is leaving the first lock at Kidsgrove - hard to see the water colour, but one of the interesting bits here is that many of the locks are duplicated, so there are 2 narrow locks side by side. This is great as far as I'm concerned since it's very likely that at least one of them will be set in our direction!

We moored just the other side of the boat in the photo last night, by the way. I discovered that we were at the top of what is known as 'Heartbreak Hill' because of the number of locks that have to be negotiated. To give some perspective on this, we have been travelling for a week and covered 52 miles in which we rose 259' 8". we are now going to descend 224' 2" in just under 7 miles. I hope that impresses you!

After a dry morning we once again ignored the forecast and left at midday, just as the rain started! We have only gone about 2 miles but have done 10 locks! still a couple to do tomorrow but the rain just became unbearable. I was cold and miserable so we stopped at a place called Rode Heath. There is a decent looking pub just next to the bridge and I am going to treat John to an early Fathers Day meal there in a bit, as tomorrow we hope to be putting some miles behind us and don't know what pubs might be on our way!

Today was not just wet and cold but also very windy and I was very proud of myself managing to control the boat whilst travelling NE and trying to manouever (no spellcheck and suspect that is wrong) into a lock at a 45degree angle whilst the wind was blowing hard from the SW. I managed to get it in all on my own and made John comment on how brave I'd been in his log! Not bursting into tears and screaming at him was a vast improvement I felt!

Here you can see the other lock alongside the one I am in. Ahead there is an aquaduct that actually takes the Macclesfield Canal OVER the Trent and Mersey! Why they didn't just put the junction on the other side is beyond me but there you go!

This is about half way down the locks we did today and there was very little room between them, certainly not enough for 2 60'ers to cross. Luckily there was nothing else around and so while I was in the upper lock descending, he ran down and opened the gate for this one so that I could just sail from one to the other. The wind was not quite so ferocious at this one thank goodness.

This was the view from the same lock - you can see we are still quite high above the Cheshire plains! we are now quite a bit lower but still some to go in the morning. The forecast is quite promising apparently - we shall see......

Now off for a meal.