A Visit with Keith and Molly.

Saturday 19th September, 2015 above Bosley Locks.
Early morning at Fourlane-Ends was pretty.

We set off after breakfast and soon spotted what appeared to be a zebra grazing in a field - or a horse in striped pyjamas?

Despite its rather clumsy name, Bollington is a delightful town and M resolved to spend more time exploring it next time we pass this way. Bollington Mill has been converted to small industrial units and houses an inviting looking café. The cyclists who were crossing the bridge had just had breakfast there and recommended it highly. Definitely next time!

Further south is another famous mill that used to be home to Hovis Bread and has now been converted into very desirable apartments overlooking the canal.

Our good friends Keith and Molly live nearby at Congleton and we arranged to meet them at a pub called the Old King's Head at Gurnett. We moored MM on the aqueduct above the tiny village and walked down to meet them.

They were already waiting for us and we had a lovely couple of hours with them; good food and delightful company.

After saying cheerio to them, we walked under the aqueduct the short distance to see a tiny workshop, now a garage, where James Brindley had been apprenticed for seven years. He was the engineer who designed the Bridgewater Canal in 1761, the first proper canal, the success of which sparked the explosion of canal development that became known as "Canal Mania". Brindley was one of the first "Civil Engineers" and was instrumental in creating this as a recognised discipline.

The Macclesfield is truly a lovely canal! We cast a look back towards the beautiful countryside that we had just left.

We moored up for the night just above the Bosley flight of 12 locks, tomorrow's task!

 We walked down the top of the lock flight to take a look at what was in store for us tomorrow and caught our first glimpse of the hill known as "The Cloud" in the distance.

Today: 11 miles, 0 locks and 4.7 hours.
Trip: 332 miles, 263 locks and 257.3 hours.