Summer Cruise Day 44 Congleton to Hardings wood Junction

This morning's weather can best be described as dull, wet and murky.  Rain in the air and dampness everywhere made getting underway more of an effort for some reason.

Nearby railway viaduct

Rain never far away

Who would live in a house like this?

We stopped at bridge 77 in High Town and walked to the nearby convenience store but only got half what we wanted so another shop is on the cards. 

At this part of Congleton the canal is criss crossed with numerous bridges and at one point the canal is forced to kink round the peers supporting them.  AmyJo only just squeezed through without getting stuck.

Road and rail bridges and the kink in the canal below

We followed another boat from here called nb Slowcoach all the way to Heritage marina where they turned into it. Slowcoach he was not until he reached a bridge 'ole.  He passed under them so slowly we always caught up with him at each one.

Stately Ramsdell hall

We were getting closer to Harding Wood Junction as we came across this quaint little cottage and shortly after Hall Green Stop Lock the original interchange between Macclesfield and Trent and Mersey canals.

Quirky Tea Pot Hall

 Signs the weekend was upon us as unlike yesterday boats were coming at us thick and fast all the way from Congleton despite the wet weather, plenty of helm brollies were being brandished and these were up and down like a brides.... as each shower came and went.

nb Slowcoach ahead weaves round oncoming boats

Many like this one brandishing golfing brollies

Hall Green Stop lock might have been in our favour but with barely a foot drop in level we never could be sure.  In fact the way levels were We could have just opened all the gates and gone through

Hall Green lock is always a joy to pass through as its so pretty with the cottages nearby.

Smudge doing his, eating a large cigar impression, hows about that then boys and gals.

 As we approached the first turn of the junction at Hardings Wood we found a nice mooring at Pool Lane aqueduct so decided to stop for lunch as the rain was now persistent.  We had barely tied up and the heavens really opened up with a heavy downpour.  Looking like it was setting in for the rest of the day we thought we'd stay here the night and have all day for heartbreak hill,  all the locks down to Middlewich on the Trent and Mersey.  

Whilst feeling smug and supping a cuppa listening to the rain hammering on the roof a lady boater tried to moor up nb Tarka in front of us looking absolutely soaked through.  Her boat ran aground whilst she struggled with the center line.  As quick as I could I went to her aid and helped her moor up in the deluge.  Later as a thank you she presented us with a home made Apple and Blackcurrant Crumble.  This was consumed with diner and was really delicious.

After diner and checking the maps we found a Tesco superstore was just half a mile down the cut.  By now the rain had stopped. We crated Smudge and off we went for a shop.  Needless to say our arms are now 2 inches longer from humping the shopping bags back to AmyJo.

Moored up on Pool Lane aqueduct just before the rain got heavy.

 An odd occurrence happened today, or, rather over the last 3 days.  My mobile phone lost signal 3 days ago and has been searching for a network ever since.  Try as I might rebooting it had no effect.  As a last resort I plugged it into the laptop and using itunes managed to update the operating system software (iOS) and bingo the phone now has a good signal.

Stranger still, Chris was checking odd blog posts to see where we moored here last year and exactly the same thing happened to my phone then. (click)  Most odd indeed.

  

Total distance:6.02 miles Elapsed time:3h37m14s Locks:1 Bridges:28 

Average speed:1.66 mph (1.94 lock/mph)