Narrowboat Serafina: The Last Fling - Almost Half of the Cheshire Ring and Back

Back in Stoke on Trent tonight and preparing to go home for the Australian summer.

We had about two weeks to go before we had to head home a little early this year. Initially we thought we would complete the Cheshire Ring which is said can be completed in a week. Once I completed my planning and taking into consideration that we only had two weeks remaining , we were going to be cruising for five hours a day, everyday and that wasn't the point of buying a boat. Meanwhile, our friends Kevin and Carole were looking at options for their next trip and volunteered to help with the planning and come along with us. We chose to cruise along the Macclesfield Canal to Marple Junction then on to the Peak Forest Canal, going as far as Romiley where we would moor for a few days and take a train into Manchester each day. We would then return via the same route instead of completing the ring. The two days of 'training it' into Manchester saved us at least a week!

The canals have become very busy now that it is the UK school long summer break which meant a lot queuing for locks and bridges, slowing our trip considerably. It also meant that it's more competitive for popular mooring spots particularly since the Macclesfield canal seems to suffer from a genuine lack of moorings, in addition to requiring dredging and a lot of tree and bush pruning and removal. As we cruised we regularly moved over from the centre of the canal to pass by oncoming boats only to both be grounded in mud and the propeller full of weeds. I had to check and clear the weed hatch most days of our trip.

The locks on this trip were mainly in two groups, Bosley Locks which totals twelve in just over one mile and Marple Locks which number sixteen over the same distance, so a total of twenty eight major locks, a stop lock which is approximately one foot deep, an assortment of electric and manual swing bridges and several tunnels ranging in length from 176 yards up to 2926 yards.

Cruising from Stoke on Trent it didn't take all that long to get into the countryside. I often think how long it would take to cruise at 4mph from the centre of Melbourne, Australian cities are so sprawling compared to the compactness of English cities. Even getting close to Manchester, mooring in Romiley, it was not until we walked the 10 minutes to the train station that we noticed all the rushing and busy roads.

A feature of our trip back was a visit to a National Trust property called Little Moreton Hall. On our way back we set off early from our overnight mooring in Macclesfield to arrive in Congleton around lunch-time. We had a couple of jobs to do in Congleton, stock up the cupboards, buy a clothes hoist at Argos and take a bus to Little Moreton Hall. Argos is an interesting store that we are not used to seeing in Australia. It is basically a large warehouse with a small shopfront where you choose items from a catalogue, pass the catalogue number to the attendant, pay for the item, take a seat until your number is called when your item arrives about 4 - 5 minutes later. Little Morton Hall was interesting, built around five hundred years ago, this Tudor Manor House has very few straight lines left about it. Other interesting points of this building are the moat that surrounds the building and the number of toilets it contained, this is where the moat was most handy!

Our last day of cruising towards Stoke, the ladies had booked a stop at the Royal Doulton Outlet for a quick look around. It never works out that way and now we have more 'stuff' we have to find a place for in our limited baggage allowance.

We didn't break any speed or distance records getting as far as Romiley since we stopped at each major stop along the way. Our stops were not always overnight, some were just for a look around and to grab a coffee or a bite to eat for lunch. Some of our cruising days only lasted a couple of hours, a few lasted much longer.