Marple Locks…

On Sunday morning we set off up Marple Locks at about 9.30, taking it slowly as we had strict instructions to save some for Russ and Nat.  The 16 locks in this flight were an absolute pleasure to work after the Ashton Flight!  Although the last boat to have used them went up on Saturday afternoon, the bottom gates of most of the locks are leaky, so the majority of them were empty and waiting for us. Yes, the bottom paddles of the few that were full were stiff, but not as bad as some we have done this trip.  That probably makes the trip down harder work than the trip up.

Russ and Nat arrived just as I was preparing Lock No 8.  As soon as the boat was at the top, Russ chucked his Dad off and insisted on driving the next one – Rog got off the boat looking very confused.  ‘There’s something wrong about this’! he said.  Russ let him back on after he had had his little drive, so we had our muscle working after all! We made short work of the rest, and turned onto the Macc for water filling and loo emptying.   We moored just up the Macc, below the Ring O’ Bells pub and went for a late lunch, then idled the rest of the day away.

Shoulder height beams.

Pretty as a picture!  They were all as pretty as this

Rog heading off to empty the next lock

Lovely view back

Russ at the helm waiting for Lock 9

Lots of gongoozlers about

Today we cruised the Upper Peak Forest to Bugsworth Basin, I’ll blog about that tomorrow as we have decided to stay here until Wednesday.

1.3 miles and 16 locks