At one point we encountered a BW maintenance pan (70 foot in length) lying across the width of the canal, having lost its mooring at one end. Rather than fend off and leave it as a navigation hazard, we decided to make it safe which, with the help of the next boat following behind us, we eventually managed, even though its rope was rather tattered!
As a result, queues of up to four boats could build up at the locks where there was only a singleton, speeding up through the doubles. Frustratingly for us, two boats ahead of us, on holiday together, worked through rather slowly.
Eventually, however, we reached Red Bull where there is a motorway-style flyover bridge as the Macclesfield Canal turns off, back over on the Trent and Mersey across an aqueduct.
By now we seemed to have lost most of the crowds and when we arrived at the Bosley Flight of twelve locks, they were all set in our direction and the only thing to slow us down at all were two boats coming down the flight. As a result, we were able to work the whole flight in an hour and twenty minutes!
The Macclesfield is a very pretty canal and its original features particulartly interesting. The locks are unusual in that they have twin gates at the top as well as at the bottom - usually on a narrow canal the top of the lock only has a single gate. Also, there are five 'snake' (or turnover) bridges where the towpath transfers from one side of the canal to then other. These particular bridges were specially designed so that the horse could make the crossing without having to untie the towing rope.
