Splish.... Splash.....

Up and fed his morning by 9am all ready to tackle the Marple flight. I pulled the mooring pins pushed the NB away from the bank then slowly moved forward and steered the short distance over to the entrance to the first lock. Leonie was just finishing the last touches inside making everything ship shape for the days travels. I jumped the 3 foot to the bank holding the centre rope to slow the boat to a stop. Damm no bollards to wrap the rope around and no lock landing. Just a sloping grass bank heavy with overnight dew. I lent back against the weight of the still moving forward NB, all but slowly, took the weight.....

That's when it all turned to S - - T...
Wet grass on a slope, weight pulling forward and best of all No grip with the Crocs......
My feet went from under me and I was on my arse in less time than the average rodeo rider who doesn't last the count. My legs ended up half over the bank and before I could let go of the rope...

I was......

Taking a Bath... It was 1.5 foot deeper further out...

The NB was stilled moving forward and away from the bank toward mid canal so I got my arms on the rear deck but with the weight of water soaked into my fleece lined jacket I couldn't pull myself up onto the deck.
Leonie... Leonie.. read it louder... when she soon appeared on deck she didn't see me so went back inside.  I'm clinging to the side of a runaway ship for christs sake.
Leonie.. Leonie... louder still.... then she reappeared and she looked down and to the side when she heard what she thought was someones last gasps.... Oh what do I do? she asked..
I said Nothing I just wanted to let you know I've done 50 lengths this morning..
The NB had come to a stop more or less only feet from the lock gate so unable to get up on deck with now  dwindling strength and the onset of hypothermia I let go and walked to the bank... now followed by laughter.....        

I managed to extricate myself onto the canal bank....

Looking like a drowned rat... but still got the Crocs on.....

Then when back on the NB.....steered the boat into the lock and done the workings...

 Before moving out of the lock....

Time to shed some excess weight..... (PS the camera was on a wog setting for these photo's but you get the picture)

Quick shower and dry clothes we were soon doing locks....

A couple of the 17 locks had no ground paddles working so you have to let the water in with the gate paddles. Usually I get off the boat and work the RH side paddles then open the gate, exit, stop the boat and shut the gate as Leonie biked one or two locks ahead to get them ready. With these two I stayed on the NB so Leonie could wind open the paddles more quickly which allows a "Mean" torrent of water to enter the lock but the NB can be controlled in gear, from smashing into the front or rear gate, with the throttle......

 

Sometimes one cannot see the logic...
After we'd done 4 locks two lock keepers appeared. My thoughts are that they are there to help, and to keep an eye on water flow, as it's usually on a flight of locks they appear and that's when help is appreciated. A NB was coming down and one lock keeper was helping them, 2 person crew, and the other came to our lock and talked and sat on the lock beam, yawned, said how boring this canal was and watched us, 2 person crew, do the work.
So we carried on and after another 8 or so locks a woman from a hire boat that was behind us from lock 2 came walking ahead to our lock and said, "We've caught you up and the lock keepers are helping us as well", Doohhhh... there's four freak'n crew on their NB and she was boasting earlier to us how they did 27 locks yesterday. Well they were still 1.5 locks behind and they never got close enough to blow smoke up our Ar- -s.....
Surely it would make more sense to help a two person crew when one of them is a woman doing more than her share of the heavy work.....

 

 Turned down the Peak Forest branch going to Bugsworth Canal Basin and Whaley Bridge...

The canal clings to the side and follows the hills... the valleys open out and offer nice views for miles...

Moored at Bugsworth Canal Basin which in it's hey day was a very busy place. Working boats carried Lime and Gritstone plus building stone which was mined and sourced close by..

The basin is huge with several different loading basins and has been rebuilt over recent years..

Entrance to the Lower Basin under the Horse Transfer bridges which enabled the horses to keep towing the working boats from one basin to another...

A higher view looking toward the Middle and  Upper Basins and the hills where Limestone was taken....

Standing at the entrance to the Basin is..

Canal House... 1797.. home of the Wharfinger who was in charge of the wharfs plus weighed and collected tolls from the leaving NBs....

Derelict but still there...

A couple of Gnat hole Limekilns....

And moored at the basin...

The Navigation Inn... A great place to quench the thirst after shoveling 20 ton of product onto the NB..... Previously owned by Pat Phoenix... aka... Elsie Tanner from you know where...

The rain has arrived to night. Won't be much.....

Marple....

We left Thomas Telford Basin at a leisurely 7.15am. Untied and pushed NB FireflyNZ out of the basin and did not fire the motor up until on the canal so as not to disturb Kevin and Vicky on NB Harry...
T'was a mild morning and we soon got into a routine back on the "Oh So Easy" single locks.

Between the second and third lock stands this....

Colourful apartment block with a kids day care centre on the ground floor.
And there was already youngsters there having breakfast. It amazes me why parents have kids then chuck them into daycare from, in NZ, 3months old and let some one else raise them why they chase the almighty dollar......

From locks 4 -5 the......

City of Manchester or Etihad Stadium is in view.
Built for the 2002 Commonwealth games then on a deal taken over by Manchester City as their home ground it was converted from an athletics track to a footy field at a cost of....22 million quid for the City council and Man City chipped in 20 mill,...

The sun had broken through the haze and....

Doing these locks was enjoyable......

Completed the flight in 4hrs and 15 mins, with a wait for two NBs coming down then topped up the water tank had a bit of tucker and carried on......

Not wanting to do the Standedge Tunnel... ever....

We turned right here at Dunkinfield Junction to head for Marple...

Had to cut the Revs, and come down off the plane when we ....

Encounted this lift bridge... Damm no traffic to queue up.....

Swapped the sunnies for the clear specs as we approached the....

Hyde Bank tunnel... on 308 yds long......

After the tunnel is this....

Walled section which leads onto.....

 

The Marple Aqueduct over the River Goyt.....100ft, above the river......

I've told you before....

 

Never look back.... you usually crash...

And beside the aqueduct is the....

Rail bridge.....

 

 

 Moored up by the Marple bottom  lock...
Tomorrow we smash 16 more.......

Down the Rochdale....

  

After crossing the summit it was down hill toward Manchester. The weather was still turning on warm summer days and the locks keep coming. We passed by Littleborough and Rochdale. A bit grubby passing Rochdale, and I didn't sight a spot where one would stop for a picnic.

We moored at Slattocks for a night and as I was tying the NB to the rings a fella on a bike was giving me the eye, like wondering what was going on not like wanting to invite me to the Ambidextrous Batters Ball. Anyway I said Hows it going Mate. He said OK so we had a bit of a chat. He was doing a brick laying course at the local Tech and hoped for a job after that.  Then he asked where we'd come from so I explained the last couple of days schedule and how earlier in the day we'd passed through Rochdale which I went to some length to describe to him what a Shit hole it looked like both in the canal and the surroundings as well. He said 'I'm from Rochdale".......

 

Where the lock beam is obstructed by a wall or fence meaning the beam is not long enough to get enough leverage to open it....

 

 

A system borrowed from the torture chambers of the middle ages is used....

 

 

Locks have a small stream so the excess water in the canal can bypass the lock and rejoin the canal lower down usually and it's called a weir...

This exit under a bridge was more like a....

Mini Mt, Vesuvious...... no smoke though.....

The canal passes under the.....

M62 by Castleton and the passage is just a NB width wide so when you exit this side it's a sharp turn and with out the magic of a bow thruster it's not hard to give the concrete wall on the outside of the turn a good slapping...

A couple of other lock exits.....

 

Under a rail bridge on a diagonal.... 

And under a small arch bridge,  with a tree covering half the canal to make sure the paint job don't stay too flash, close to the lock then under this large arched bridge.....

We moored by Chadderton and that leaves a six mile and 19 lock run into Manchester best done in one go so the 'Bandits" don't get you.. Well that's the talk on the cut but in reality there was nothing to fear and the only guns we saw didn't appear to be loaded and the cross bows had blunt arrows....

Kevin and Vicky on NB Harry were moored in front of us also waiting to head into Manchester next morning. Although we passed them on the run to the summit this time we planned to leave at 7.30am and not do a "Dawn Raid" as before. But they weren't giving us the chance to head them and they slept with "one eye open" and at 6.12am we heard them leave. Dammm..

Tom and Jan from NB Waiouru had friends Paul and Christine, from Waterway Routes, arriving to help do the 19 locks so when we teamed up we made good time and caught up to NB Harry with about 12 locks to go so Leonie who was on the bike going ahead setting locks helped them for a few and we all kept moving forward....
It was good to catch up later and have a "Yak", bloody nice people......

This lift bridge was different in that it....

Had Hydraulic rams on four corners and lifted vertically.....

Tom's always looking for a bargain....

And he's collected some here.... freeing the propeller.......

At the second last lock....

Working the RH paddle is not for six footers......disappears under the bridge......

On Saturday Leonie and I decided to head to Cadwell Park raceway over by Louth, Skegness way. Our mates from down Oxford way were racing so we thought we'd hire a car and go for the day....

And this is a carbon copy of our hire car...

Fiat 500... more power than one needs so we could put to test the words from the Hirers Bible... Never Be Gentle With A Rental...  2.5 hrs each way... 284 miles completed....

The track is great for viewing and action as it's a "Technical Track".
Later in the day, 5.00pm the weather turned and the rain falling saw the last race .....

run in pretty gloomy conditions... A couple of accidents and the safety car being used cut the race short...

In an earlier race this was....

Self inflicted......repaired enough to race later........

From now on all the way back to Aynho is single locks... Yeah Haa.......

We moored on the Ashton Canal......

Thomas Telford Basin.....

NB FireflyNZ and NB Harry.........