Since leaving Manchester we have been very busy!  We have been on four different canals and in the next couple of days will have moved onto the Trent and Mersey Canal.

The morning we left Manchester it was throwing it down with rain as we left.  We were lucky enough to team up with narrowboat Bullfinch at the bottom of the Rochdale nine and had a good though not uneventful trip up the nine locks with them.  Moored up overnight at Piccadilly Basin and had a wander around Piccadilly area of Manchester in the afternoon.  Tried Krispy Creme doughnuts for the first time.  Nice but not sure what all the fuss is about!

Bottom lock in the Rochdale nine.  nb Bullfinch waited for us in the pound above.

The following morning we hightailed it up the Ashton Canal, as the advice is not to moor overnight on this canal.  Have done the Ashton Canal twice now and to me it doesn't seem that bad.  However we took the advice and completed it in the day.  Turned into the Peak Forest Canal to moor for the night.

The Ashton Canal

Turning onto the Peak Forest Canal

We spent several very pleasant days cruising the Lower Peak Forest Canal, which we have not been on before.  It is a very picturesque canal with some beautiful scenery.

Lower Peak Forest Canal

Only one flight of locks on the Peak Forest Canal, sixteen locks though some of them seeming really deep! The flight takes you up to Marple and the junction with the Macclesfield Canal.  Marple Flight has to be one of the most stunning lock flights on the system.  However it is not without its problems one of which is that the water level in the pounds gets very low.  So low on the day that we went up that I got stuck several times.

Coming up Marple Flight

Having come up Marple flight we turned onto the Macclesfield Canal and moored up to spent a few days in Marple.  I was happy because I managed to buy some yarn I was short of to finish a cardigan, well chuffed as I originally bought the yarn a year ago in Marple and they still had stocks of it.

This time we managed to moor up in Macclesfield, which we couldn't do last year.  Nice town with some impressive buildings and reasonable shops.

The Macclesfield Canal also only has one lock flight, with 12 locks!  Another flight of locks set in lovely countryside.

 Bosley Locks on the Macclesfield Canal

We moored at the bottom of Bosley locks for a couple of nights and Graham went walking with the dogs to the top of the hill in the picture below, The Cloud.  I did start off to go as well but decided before we began the climb that I probably wouldn't make it, so I went back to the boat and had a cup of coffee.

The Cloud, that Graham walked up on his birthday!

Mooring at the bottom of Bosley Locks

 Tonight we are moored opposite Ramsdell Hall and it is raining again.  Still on the Macclesfield Canal next stop the Trent and Mersey Canal and Harecastle Tunnel.