Tag Archives: Weaver

The Grand Tour

Day 72 – Messing About On The River

The forecast today was hot, hot, hot! This is the view of our mooring for last night, we were moored on the right hand side.

One low swing bridge which we fitted under no problem, the same can’t be said for the other boat who were waiting for the lockies to open the swing bridge.

There are a number of salt mines in this area, it made me think of the wild west era, it certainly didn’t look like a modern bit of kit.

Within an hour we had reached the navigable end and ‘The Flashes’, we were told by all the lockies and the guide books not to proceed any further as there are a number of sandbanks, and as it’s not CRT waters, you’re on your own if you get stuck!

Two locks today, both manned. We went through with the same pair of boats as yesterday. It was good fun steering, as neither of the other ladies on board the boats would steer in a lock. This is me giving a thumbs up thank you to the lockies – who we also fed with homemade flapjacks.

Toby seems to like this picture so it’s gone in, I’ve no idea what I’m looking at!

We reached Northwich by lunchtime, the pukka visitor moorings where all full, so we turned and moored on the offside, a better mooring in the end as the buildings have blocked the sun and kept the boat and us cool. We opened the side hatch and we heard a quack quack and then a slightly higher pitched quack quack, how can you not feed a duckling with those hopeful eyes.

Toby wasn’t feeling so good (another headache/possibly migraine), so he stayed on board while I went for a wander. I was drawn to this shoe shop as they sold fitflops (no, not flipflops), although I was quite taken by these shoes although I’d never wear them, blimey I couldn’t even stand up in them! The pair on the right remind me of watermelons, Toby thinks more ladybird……just shows I’m always thinking about food!

Toby’s afternoon sleep and migraine medication seemed to have done the trick, so we’re off to see The Lion King at the cinema across the river. We’ve booked an evening viewing so hopefully no little ones kicking the back of the chair.

The Grand Tour

Day 71 – Lift Going Down

Today we ticked off another of our big-ticket items for this trip – the Anderton Boat Lift, otherwise known as the ‘Cathedral of the Canals’. Built in 1875 to convey ships down from the canal and onto the River Weaver, it ran up until 1983 when it was closed in need of repairs. It was then restored in 2001-2002 and has been running ever since (excluding a fair few breakdowns!)

You can just turn up and go on the next available lift, with no charge at all, but Sarah was keen to book in advance. It cost all of £5 to do so, and Sarah looked very pleased with herself when we found another two boats waiting before us to go in, but two hadn’t booked so had to wait another 45 minutes.

All in all it takes about half an hour, and then out we popped at the bottom onto the River Weaver.

The river is wide enough that you can turn around pretty much anywhere. It’s not fast flowing so it’s quite relaxing to pootle along. The wildlife seem to like it here; apparently, there are otters in the area, so I’ll be keeping a lookout this evening. In the meantime, we’ll make do with a heron standing on one leg, karate-kid style.

It seemed like only minutes before we reached Northwich, where we just squeezed into a spot on the first pontoon, touching fenders with the boats fore and aft of us. A quick trip to Waitrose to restock on food supplies and the fridge was bursting at the seams.

Replenished, we moved on to Hunt’s Lock. We phoned the lock keeper to let him know we were coming, and were instructed to moor up on the left. We were in for a bit of a wait as another set of boats had just been up, and two more were on their way to come down but wouldn’t get there for 10 minutes, so it was the perfect chance for some lunch. I also finished off the bottle of wine that we no longer had space in the fridge for!

The locks are all manned; we drive in and the lock keeper drops us a rope with a loop on the end, which we then put our centre line through and he pulls it back up and pulls us in. We had three of us in the lock together as they’re quite wide, but with three boats there’s not much space to bump around and the locks filled very gently so it was probably one of the easiest locks ever.

The second lock, Vale Royal, was similar and with the same three boats again. Shortly afterwards we pulled over at the Vale Royal moorings, which everyone has said are a lovely place to stop. At first it was quite busy with fishermen, walkers and cyclists all enjoying the warm weather, but it’s now lovely and peaceful here.