Cheshire East

This is the first of two posts from our time on the narrowboat cruising up the Macclesfield Canal. Apologies - it’s a bit long.

We left Inverness and, after three hours in the car, two in the train and a short walk, we checked in to a quite fancy guest house in Carlisle. We had a quick look at the castle and the cathedral, but to be honest Carlisle and its people seemed a little down-at-heel and one afternoon was enough for us.

It took a good part of the following day to get to Stoke-on-Trent and the marina at Etruria, where we got our orientation and set off on the good, if narrow, ship, Mollie.

We cruised off confidently, and didn’t bump into a single thing during the few hours of our first day’s sailing. We also, though, completely failed in the find-a-pub stakes, and had to eat on the boat for our first night.

The following day we faced our first nautical challenge - the 2.6 kilometre Harecastle Tunnel. We went through in a convoy of about five boats, and spent just over half an hour seeing nothing but the lights on our boat and the ones immediately ahead or behind.

It was cold and wet - the tunnel roof was frequently dripping - and steering straight enough to avoid the tunnel walls was near impossible. Hopefully, the boat company have plenty of spare paint.

We spent that night in Congleton, a short climb up some stairs from the Queen’s Head pub, and celebrated the tunnel in style. Actually, we seem to be celebrating everything in style on this trip!

The Bosley Locks were next on our route.

The narrowboat guidebook described the Bosley Locks as like waiting for a bus - you see none for hours, and then a whole lot turn up at once - and this was the case for us. We had only done one lock before the Bosley flight, then suddenly we were faced with twelve in a row.

Fortunately, there were Canal and River Trust volunteers on hand to help with the gates and paddles, and we were through mostly without incident, other than a few more scratches to Mollie’s sides.

Except, that is, for the very first lock. Chris at the helm cruised confidently out of the lock, only to meet a boat going in. Steering to the right, it passed safely, but the narrow canal pound, coupled with the sharpness of the entry turn to the following lock, meant he suffered the indignity of having to push the boat back on course with the pole.

We also had a couple of opening bridges to contend with before yet another stylish celebration, this time at the Old King’s Head pub at Gurnett Aquaduct.

Day three on the boat was much less eventful, cruising through attractive rural countryside, and in sunshine. This was exactly the sort of canal trip we had thought about.

We cruised on past all shapes and sizes of narrowboat, old mills and farms, up as far as High Lane, where, after another stylish dinner, we went back to the boat to think about the consequences of running out of water and therefore not being able to flush the toilet - something we perhaps should have thought of earlier.Read more