Twelve Locks and a Psychedelic Cow.

Sunday 20th September, 2015 at Scholar Green.
A pretty sunrise greeted us this morning and presaged a very pleasant day.

We made an early start, as we had a flight of twelve locks ahead. Before the first lock is a water point so we filled up with water, as another boat had just started down through the first lock and we wanted to let him get a bit ahead of us; particularly as he had had to wait for an hour before starting while some C&RT chaps let some water down the flight on account of water problems further down. Finally we started into the first lock, Lock 1.

Alongside some of these locks are "side pounds" that were built to conserve water but now this side pound has become a water feature in the cottage garden. It was once the Lock Keeper's cottage.

The views down the lock flight are beautiful. The hilltop in the distance is called "The Cloud" and is renowned for its far-reaching views. We walked to the top last year in driving rain and were rewarded with views only of mist and cloud. Perhaps a reason for its name?

We made good progress down this pretty flight, partly on account of the nice weather but also due to the kindness of the people on the boat in front of us, as they opened the top paddle of each lock as they left it - so it was full by the time we arrived. We, in turn, did the same for the boat following us.
Between locks 9 and 10, the pound was so low that R could not get MM out of the lock as she was sitting on the bottom. We had to open the top paddles on lock 9 to flush MM out of the lock and across the pound.
Despite the water problems, we did the flight in just over two hours. For some reason, M thought that there were 16 locks in the flight - so she was very pleasantly surprised when we arrived at lock 12 to discover it was the last one!

A sad sight is the disused railway line which crosses lock 12 on a bridge; we walked part of the line when we were here last year; it must have been a beautiful route in its time.
We normally have our main meal in the evening but, as this is such a pleasant spot just below the locks, we decided to stop and have a proper Sunday Lunch on board here.

Afterwards, we cruised on south, intending to moor up on the aqueduct in Congleton. In actual fact, we cruised on for two hours past Congleton to a very pretty rural spot where we had moored up last year. Unfortunately, the afternoon got colder and colder and by the time we moored up we were both frozen and we stayed inside MM to get warm (hence no photo of our mooring!).
However, we were entertained by three cows - this jolly psychedelic one...

And a mother and calf watching us from across the canal.

Today: 8 miles, 12 locks and 6.4 hours.
Trip: 340 miles, 275 locks and 263.7 hours.