Monday 11 July 2016

It’s 11 July – it might as well be 11 November!  What a cold, wet miserable day.  Three layers of clothes on today and we lit a fire tonight, although I was very quickly too hot but it was nice to feel dry!

We left our mooring when the rain eased a bit and made our way to the Anderton Boat Lift.  There was hardly anyone around as the weather was so bad so we managed to book on straight away.  The lady in the office was also very helpful and printed the form off for us to complete to book our passage into Albert Dock which I was able to photograph and email back to CRT. 

The Anderton Boat Lift – what an amazing experience.  We went down in the lift with another boat, the man on board had done it twice before and had made a contribution to its upkeep.  It was interesting talking to him because he could explain exactly how it all worked.  Incredible, the lifts go up and down on huge pistons - you have to see it to believe it.

We turned right and made our way to the Northern end of the River Weaver where it meets the Manchester Ship Canal and the River Mersey – we always say the same thing – it’s nice to get back on a river occasionally – it’s wide and naturally beautiful.  We saw two kingfishers today – I haven’t seen one for a while.  It was very quiet – we only passed one boat going in the opposite direction.  There is a huge power station at the end.  We turned around and moored up in Frodsham. 

Tomorrow we will make our way to the other end of the River Weaver.

Goodbye silly moo - whichever one you are!

Turning left into the Anderton Lift - very exciting!

Heading for the lift chamber where we have to tie up.

Hello down there!

Then I looked right down and there is the boat trip ferry in the chamber about to go up!

The gate comes down and locks us in the lift chamber.

Passing the ferry in the middle.

Up they go, down we go.

Ground level.

Leaving the lift.  We are going right and he is going left - we should have discussed that before we went in! 

Wow - fantastic - what a piece of engineering.

Back on the river - we could be on the Great Ouze or the Thames!

Pink Floyd I think!

Arriving at our first lock - they are all manned on this river - very similar to the Thames.

A big lock for a little narrowboat.

Abandon ship.

It's all large scale here - under the viaduct.

Chucking it down!

Under the Railway approaching the M56.

The power station - and that's just a tiny part of it - it goes on forever.

Reaching Marsh Lock that leads out to the Manchester Ship Canal - this is where we turn around.

The mechanics of the swing bridges are amazing too - it's not necessary to open it for us, we can fit underneath.