Busy doing nothing....

.....working the whole day through, trying to find lots of things not to do.

My excuse anyway for not posting. I'm sure lots of you have been unable to get to sleep at night awaiting the next exciting instalment so my apologies for the delay but here it is:

We are currently at Marple on the outskirts of Stockton/Manchester. Not where we had originally planned to be but with all the rain we have been covering more ground (or water) than we had thought likely so have diverted up the Macclesfield canal and are in our way to the end of the Peak Forest. We have had a great week of weather although it is pouring with rain at the time of writing this (Saturday evening).

Before coming up the Mac we went almost to the end of the Trent and Mersey to visit the Anderton Boat lift, a huge structure which was renovated with Lottery money and now lifts boats from the River Weaver up to the canal. On the way back we did our good Samaritan act and rescued a hire boat that had managed to run aground.

We then went down "Heartbreak Hill"  a set of 26 locks in fairly close proximity but we took our time and did it over 3 days and it wasn't too bad - at least for me (David) as I was steering. Found a really good restaurant at Lock 57 on the T & M which we would thoroughly recommend.

A visit to Little Morton Hall last weekend was interesting a very ornate black and white building in the ownership of the National Trust - see below.

Little Morton Hall

Little Morton Hall

The following day we walked up to Mow Cop a local landmark topped by a 18th century folly and the site of the first primitive Methodist church meeting which lasted 14hours!. Quite a climb but the views were stunning as you can see.

View from the top of Mow Cop

The Folly at Mow Cop (thats the building not Sarah!)

The Summit Mow Cop

The rest has been a leisurely and stress free trip - Oh, apart from the day when we were moored up and it being good weather we decided to clean the boat, so whilst I was doing the outside Sarah was cleaning the portholes and I suddenly saw the glass from one doing a graceful ark past me and straight into the canal (we were moored on a slight curve and of course the glass found the gap. We poked around for about half an hour without any success in finding it so the following a day a call to the boatbuilder and then a call to the manufacturer and they arranged to send out a replacement. It's really strange because looking at all the other portholes it looks impossible for the glass to come out  that way, but then it was Sarah cleaning the windows!

The Hovis Building on the Maccelsfield Canal

Tomorrow we plan to move on to Bugsworth Basin and hopefully stop there for a few days and get some walking in.

Having written the above but not got round to posting it a further update:

We are now at Bugsworth Basin a really interesting historical site. Arrived yesterday (Sunday) and managed to avoid being out in most of the thunder storms and got moored up just before more torrential rain. It cleared later and we walked the dogs and then had a drink at the Navigation Pub on the basin, great bear and more like Crufts than a pub as I've never seen so many dogs in a pub!

Woke this morning (Monday) to more torrential rain but it has actually eased now and the sun is peeping through, best get out and make the most of it.

Part of Posset Bridge at Marple

Moored on the Peak Forest