Up Bosley

After a decent night's sleep, more or less, we made another flying start this morning, Sheila setting off boating whilst I breakfasted. By the time I'd finished, we were near the water point that lurks at Bridge 68. We stopped there since the tank was well down, and Sheila was able to break her fast in comfort.

Setting out once more, we ran a washload and generally prepared for Bosley. It turned out to be a good run up, taking just two hours for the twelve locks, most of which were with us. We didn't see a single boat moving in all that time, a first for us; even in winter there's usually someone else going up or down. In fact, the only boat we met all day was not long after this, at a bridge hole, naturally.

Time was getting on by now, so we had a mug of soup each, and I baked some more baguettes and started my lunch before the Royal Oak swing bridge appeared. I had the pleasure of working this, and had finished the rest of my grub before we got to the last swing bridge of the trip, just before Lyme Green. This swung reluctantly, but I had the impression that was only because it's not had a lot of use lately and the grease has stiffened up.

We've tied here at Lyme Green, just short of the Gurnett Aqueduct moorings; we'll stay here tomorrow, since the forecast is for more rain and wind, then plod on on Thursday, either stopping at Bollington or going right through to Poynton; I'm waiting for Peter Mason at Braidbar to signal which he'd prefer.

Going back to yesterday, I think it was a mistake to commit ourselves to doing Harecastle when we had a date in Congleton. It worked out all right in the event, but made things more pressured than they needed to be. Don't get me wrong, it was great to meet with Bill and Eileen, for whom Congleton was an ideal rendezvous, but we could have worked the planning a bit better.

No matter, next time through, which will be in Bunnies Warren, the Braidbar we've said we'll move from Crick to Poynton, the winter timetable will have finished, and it will be a case of turn up and go. On that trip, we're going to avoid cooking on board of we can, so we'll probably stop at Etruria and eat in the pub there. Then we'll go through Harecastle during the morning and stop near the Bleeding Wolf that night.

That trip is going to generate lots of entries for the Braidbar Owners' Group pub guide…

/nobigdeal