Bosley top lock

What a cracking day to wakeup to, wall to wall sun shine, little wind and it felt nice. You can see how blue the sky is from the Mill at Bollington.

Some people thought it was even good enough to do a bit of painting, I have seen this done from a raft or dingy but never a paddleboard.

After yesterdays aborted attempt at taking water today we had to fill up at Macclesfield, thankfully it was a tap with reasonable pressure. The towpath here has been closed for years now, it looks an expensive job for someone, unfortunately it takes out about a third of the towns visitor moorings,

The stone masonry on the bridges is absolutely first class, the blocks of stone could easily have been rectangular blocks, but everyone is dressed concave to take the shape of the arch, not only that but most of them are a different radius.

Even more impressive is when the blocks are laid on the diagonal, here they needed radiusing in both plains and all done with a hammer and chisel.

Another feature of them as most of you will now is the turn over or snake to get the towpath from one bank to the other without the requirement to unhitch the horse.

We finally reached our destination for the night, just short of Bosley Top lock, the clouds by now were gathering and we walked down to the locks to dump the rubbish. By the time we got back the light grey clouds had now turned black and it wasn’t long before it rained, later to turn to hail.
The lock flight opens at 8-30 in the morning and there are at least 8 boats here now waiting to go down so its going to be busy.

Today’s Journey

9 miles, no locks in 4¾ hours.

The second part of our trip

As from tomorrow we will deviate from our plan slightly as to where we moor overnight, the route will remain the same.