Having returned to Disley on Saturday we stayed put yesterday. Well, the boat stayed put but we went to Westhoughton for a christening. It was quite an adventure on the railways - Disley to Piccadilly, Piccadilly to Oxford Road then Oxford Road to Daisy Hill and all for £17.70. Bargain!
Today we tackled the locks at Marple, then threw in an aqueduct and two small tunnels for good measure. The 16 locks drop you a total of 208ft and weren't much fun to be honest.
The gear was very stiff and on the first few locks I couldn't get off to give Elaine a hand. Also, most of the locks leaked quite badly. Here's a picture of one that didn't leak as I descended
Unfortunately, most of them were like this
As you go down you risk a bit of a dunking from the water pouring through the walls. I don't know how you could stay dry in a 70ft boat - at least I could move about a bit to avoid the worst of it.
It wasn't all bad, of course. Here is the horse shaped tunnel under the road at lock 9 with Oldknowe's Warehouse, now converted to offices
I was able to get off the boat and help out lower down the flight but, as usual, almost all of the work fell on Elaine.
Speaking of falling, we were warned as we got to Marple Aqueduct.
It's a long way down with no fence on one side!
After this were the tunnels at Hyde Bank and Woodley
and we finally called it a day somewhere between Romiley and Hyde. Tomorrow we'll get to the Ashton canal then will probably descend into Manchester the day after. That'll be a minimum of 18 locks, possibly 29 if we can't moor up at Piccadilly Village. Poor Elaine!
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