Rowndes No. 2 Bridge to Congleton (Macclesfield Canal)

Leaving our lovely mooring

Heron looking for his breakfast

It was a bit overcast as we set off this morning and for good reason, because we had not gone far and it starting raining hard, it was only a shower but annoying, then it was dry for a while and then we had another shower but that one didn’t last for long either, thank goodness.

We chugged on along the canal, past a heron looking for his breakfast, then under Billy Tights  Footbridge, not sure why it is called that, but it’s a great name.

Going under Billy Tights Footbridge

Snake Bridge

We then came to bridge 77 which is a snake bridge, it takes the canal from one side to the other so that in times when the barges were pulled by horses, they didn’t have to unhook the horse from the boat. There are some moorings just past this bridge but they were pretty full, we managed to get in on the end and the boat in front of us said they would be moving in a couple of hours.  Bill was in front of us and he went across the aqueduct and moored the other side.  It was sunnier where he was, so we moved to there as well but when we tried to get into the bank it was very shallow and we could only get the front in and the back was stuck out a bit, but there was plenty of room for boats to pass so we tied up.

Congleton

We had lunch then we went for a walk along the towpath to where the Railway Station is and then walked to the town, it is quite a walk from there probably about 20 minutes.  

Italian Dolci

Congleton is a nice town with plenty of shops and pubs, although we didn’t try any of them today, the pubs that is not the shops!

There is an Italian Deli called Crema Deli and what a place, we had coffee and Italian Dolci, little pastries filled with lemon and chocolate and yummy they were too.

Cream Deli

We then had a walk around the shops and found the Aldi and Morrisons, then headed back to the Deli to get some delights for tea, home-made Hummus,  stuffed vine leaves, olives, pasta salad, spinach and feta spiral, a piece of chicken and asparagus pie and some lovely ham, oh and a couple of Florentines, so guess what we are having for tea!

We walked another way back to the boat which was a more gradual hill rather than the hill we came down on the way to the shops and a shorter way as well I think.

We are staying here tonight and also tomorrow as we are off to Manchester on the train to meet John, Sharon and Smuggler, our friends from the G&S so looking forward to that.

Moored at Congleton