Vale Royal Moorings to Little Leigh

We stayed at the moorings for a couple of days, making use of the great pathway and cycled to Winsford which is as far as you can get with a narrow boat. There is a pub there, The Red Lion, in our River Weaver guide it says good moorings there, but in reality there are two spaces for full size narrowboats, when we went there was one and two very small cruisers, there didn't seem to be anywhere to moor on route either so it could be a five mile journey there and back to Vale Royal.

We went down and had a look at the flash where a sailing boat was out but unfortunately for them there was very little wind. And then we went up into the town which has a bit of an indoor shopping centre and market but no real high street (well we didn't find one).

Big float island passing us

On Thursday our neighbour in front left, they reversed up a bit and out into the main stream, I suddenly noticed him at the front of his boat dropping the anchor, we wondered if he was just doing a test so asked if he was OK and did he want to throw a rope he was only 15ft or so from the bank, his very embarrassed reply was he was OK but had managed to get the stern rope caught round the prop, his boat swung round on the anchor towards us so I held it steady against us whilst he went down the weed hatch to remove it, after a few minutes he reappeared with an undamaged rope in hand and was soon on his way.

On Friday we headed off as well giving the guys at Vale Royal Lock a call as we left, once again the lock was all ready to enter and all the hard work done for us, same again at Hunt's Lock and we were soon in Northwich where we stopped again for a quick visit to the shops. We had intended continuing and going back up the lift today but it started to pour with rain and the journey wouldn't have been a pleasant one so we decided to stay put for the evening. We unexpectedly met a couple of friends and it was lovely to catch up again briefly.

Saturday we continued our journey and we moored up on the holding moorings for the lift, we made for the booking office in the visitor centre in the hope that we could get the 12:50 lift up. We went through to the administration office where there were two receptionist sat behind their glass windows, they were chatting together when we got there, not acknowledging us at all, then after a few minutes one of them started tapping on her phone, looked like sending a text to me, then finally after a a good while they actually acknowledged us and slid the glass screen open. One just sat looking whilst the other very unhelpfully booked us on the 14:15, so we had time to look around the visitor centre before getting back to LJ. The attitude of these women behind the desk was so different to the helpful cheery lady we booked our passage down with, they really both could so with going on a customer care course or finding a job where they don't have to interact with people.

Railway bridge

10 minute prior to the lift time one of the guys came round asked us how many onboard and then we could enter the caisson,  he went back off to his little hut to wait, after a while we were on our way up and soon met by chatty and helpful Dave at the top. We had to wait a while before the gates of the caisson could be opened as a boat had entered the basin and the gates can't be opened whilst it was there, three CRT guys approached him and he was soon reversing out back onto the canal, we were finally released from the caisson and were on our way heading up the Trent and Mersey northwards.

Entering the caisson from the river

View to the side  

Nearly at the top

We then had two tunnels, Barnton and Saltersford, they are both crooked and one way, Barton you can just about see through so can just go if it is clear but Saltersford is a timed one so we waited our turn and followed another narrowboat with the crew singing its way their way through.

We moored up just before bridge 208 with the nearest village being Little Leigh.

Moored up for a couple of days

8 miles and 2 locks

Total 268.75 miles and 162 locks

Anderton to Vale Royal Moorings

On Monday we sorted out our anchor as we were heading down to the River Weaver. First it was a stroll to the boat lift to book a slot, where the helpful receptionist got us booked in for 11:30am.

Anderton Boat Lift from the visitors centre

And down by the river

We went back to LJ and moved onto the holding moorings for the lift, we were booked for the next one. We had our safety briefing and then moved to the aqueduct across to the lift, once the gates to the canal were closed we could get into the lift caisson. Here one of the friendly and helpful operators, Dave, told us all about the history of the lift as we were waiting for a trip boat to get into the caisson at the bottom to come up. It wasn't long before we started our descent, it took around six minutes to get to the bottom passing the trip boat on its way up. It took a while for the gates to be opened allowing water to flood up to our caisson, the final gate was raised and we were released onto the River Weaver. 

In the aqueduct, with the caisson gate still closed

View up the Weaver from the top

Caisson gate lift for us to enter

Aqueduct gate closing behind us

Full dredging barge going to be emptied

On our way down, back up there is the gate to the aqueduct

Half way and passing the trip boat on its way up

All being overlooked by Dave (on the right) and his colleague

That's the other caisson on its way up with the trip boat in it

We're at the bottom and this is the view looking up

Final gate opened and we are released onto the river

We turned left heading for Winsford, passing by the barge being emptied of dredged mud. We were soon approaching Northwich, where we stopped on the visitor moorings with the town being right beside us. 

Lift from the river with a boat waiting to go up

Water levels are a bit down

LJ on the right, the cars are parked behind the high street shops

After a bit of lunch we continued on our way. We were asked to call the lock keepers prior to arrival at the locks so first up was Hunt's Lock where the very helpful lock keeper said he would set the lock and as we entered to grab the rope he lowered and attach our centre line to it and they would hold us to the side. There are two locks here really massive ones, or the one we were in which was still pretty big being much larger than the broad locks on the canals. All we had to do then was wait and we were soon at the top of the lock where the gates were opened for us and we were on our way with the lockie informing their colleagues at Vale Royal Lock we were on our way. Exactly the same process here, with again friendly and helpful lock keepers. We were soon at the Vale Royal moorings, which by the evening were nearly full.

Approaching Hunt's locks

And inside, with our centre line being held for us

We passed this huge boats, making us feel quite small

Lovely view back

Entering Vale Royal Lock

And moored up at Vale Royal Moorings

4.5 miles and 2 locks

Total 260.75 and 160 locks