Journal Entry... Current Location :
Macclesfield Canal, Bosley
Weather : Showery with Sunnt Periods
Temp : Top Temp 32c - Lowest Temp 10c
July 2005
Where has the summer gone?
When we last wrote we were in the fantastically named Wyre Piddle on the River Avon.
Today, August 12th, were moored on the Macclesfield Canal having just completed our climb of 118 ft up the Bosley Flight. A stretch of some 12 locks.
We are now well over 500 ft above sea level. This canal is one of the most underated & beautiful canals we have travelled so far. To the east we can see the foothills & mountains of the Pennines, some over 1200 ft high. Our journey hear over July has been picturesque & idyllic.
Leaving Wyre Piddle we continued south-west on the River Avon thru’ Pershore, arriving in Tewkesbury on Independence Day, July 4th. We stayed here for 48hrs visiting the beautiful Tewkesbury Abbey. From here we locked thru’ & emerged onto the Old Avon & turning left onto the River Severn. The Severn is a river that should be treated with respect! Tidal from this point on things can change quite dramatically & quite quickly. The locks are all fully manned & actually have a traffic light system for entering & exiting. They are also huge by comparison, being fully able to take a sea going ferry for example. When your in one of these locks alone on a narrowboat with the lock keeper 40ft above you, it can be quite daunting!
Navigating the River Severn we made a straight 4 hour dash to Gloucester Docks arriving in the late afternoon of the 7th. Fortunately there are no Severn Bores, (10ft tidal flows), until August so our journey was uneventful. We moored in the newly refurbished Gloucester docks.
After Gloucester we joined the more sedate Gloucester & Sharpness Canal and headed to our furthest point South, Sharpness. Here you can head out onto open sea thru’ the huge sea lock, were we watched 2 large navy vessels, Pictured Above), come thru’ on their way to Gloucester.
Stopping en route for 4 days, in an idyllic mooring, to visit Slimbridge Wildfowl Reserve, we arrived in Sharpness on July 11th in 30 degree sunshine. This was the best weather of July. The mooring overlooked the Severn Estuary and it was no surprise due to the weather/scenery that we stayed on this stretch for 14 days. By mid July BW had issued a final warning regarding low water on the G&S with lock restrictions so we decided to make our way back to Gloucester for fear of being stranded. We stayed in Gloucester for the weekend with some new boaty friends we’d met in Sharpness & took a train to visit the Forest of Dean Steam Railway. This journey bypassed our Sharpness moorings from the opposite side of the Estuary.
Negotiating with the Lock Master due to the restrictions we arranged to leave at 10.30am the following morning.
Finally leaving the glorious G&S Canal and retracing our steps back up the tidal Severn we headed for Worcester & beyond to Stourport, passing Tewkesbury on the way.
This stretch of the Severn from Tewkesbury was the most unremarkable and simply a means of getting from A to B. High banks & little mooring meant we covered over 40 miles in 2 days.
From Stourport-on-Severn we entered the Staffs & Worcester Canal. Once again this canal turned out to be another jewel in the Inland Waterways crown. Heading North thru’ some beautiful scenery we eventually arrived back to earth on the outskirts of Wolverhampton having navigated thru’ Kidderminster & Wombourne. We knew we were back to reality when the long term moored boats had metal grills over the windows.
We navigated around Wolverhampton in torrential rain and weren’t surprised to see on the news later that a tornado had devastated a part of nearby Birmingham.
We left the lovely S&W Canal at Autherley Junction & turned North-West onto the Shropshire Union on the 25th. Our transition thru’ the ‘Shroppy’ took until August 1st. Stopping @ Market Drayton for supplies & visiting the Shroppy Fly pub at Audlem, which has a bar shaped like a narrowboat. We also took in the Audlem Village Transport Festival which was happening during our stop. The Shroppy is a pleasant canal but has a nasty shelf which when mooring at various places scraps the boat below the waterline. Not very nice at 5am! Upon reaching the Llangollen Canal turn we made the decision to leave this Welsh canal until next year. Although we had already made this decision some days ago we were justified by the queue of hire boats waiting to lock Thru’ as we passed. We continued on & turned East onto the Shroppy Middlewich Branch. This would take us thru’ to the Trent & Mersey where we would turn South & our journey home begins. On route and with time now on our side we made a detour up the Macclesfield Canal. This Canal I'm sure is every bit as beautiful as the Llangollen.
July has been a weather roller coaster with 30 degree heat & torrential downpours. One minute your in shorts the next your in a fleece! One unusual feature this summer has been the wind! I can’t remember a more windy summer.
Well that’s our current news guys so let us know how you all are.
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