Congleton and The Cloud

I spent Thursday morning reading a book with Buddy in the sun whilst Karen got on with stuff in the boat.

We set out late morning with a plan of getting to the bottom of the only lock fight on the Macclesfield just south of Macclesfield itself.  Buddy was interested in this mini- narrowboat.

Here is a close up of one of the milestones we mentioned yesterday.

We were really impressed with the turnover bridges on this canal – they have an artistic charm even though they are practical. They enabled horses to change from one side of the cut to the other without being unhooked from the boat they were towing.  On this canal they are called snake bridges, elsewhere we have also heard them called roving bridges.

We moored for lunch in Congleton opposite an old wharf that has been converted to apartments.

After lunch we had a walk into the town, starting with walking under the canal.  We suspect that most people assume this is a railway crossing rather than an aqueduct for a canal.

We weren’t very impressed with Congleton; maybe we didn’t find the right part of town.  The town hall seemed rather pretentious for the size of town.

When we got back we set off again with a plan to moor before the only flight of locks on this canal.  After three or four bridges we passed this sign on the side of a wharf.  Maybe there is another part of Congleton that we missed.

A bit further on we saw a brand new stanking plank rack with new planks.

The towpath at this point is lower and acts as an overspill weir when there is too much water in the canal.  Must be slippery to walk through in the winter when it gets all slimy.

The views from the Congleton embankment were impressive.

So many of the dismantled railways in this part of the world have been converted to walk/cycle ways.  This one we went over is part of the Gritsone Trail.

This hill is called The Cloud and seemed to be in view for hours – at least it makes us feel like we are beginning to get into the Peak District.

Every so often there were these smaller half milestones. 

The first kids Buddy has seen but he wasn’t very interested…

… but he was really worried about this cow and did his nervous bark.

We moored up for the rest of the day and received these amorous visitors.

As you can see, Buddy wasn’t sure about them.

 Today we completed our first 500 miles since moving aboard on November 5th last year.