Sunday, 20 May 2012

Down the Anderton Lift and onto the Weaver

Ali walked to the Visitors Centre this morning and booked us on the first passage down at 10:45.  We immediately had to move onto the waiting moorings and as soon as we had moored up the BW Lift Guy came and talked us through the procedure and we were off.
Moving onto the aqueduct


into the chamber

We had to wait a while once we were on, for the trip boat to go into the other chamber to come up as we were going down.  Once the hydraulica rams started the chamber bounced about a bit, the Lift operator said this would last for a few minutes and to be fair it did settle down.  

The view from the top

The very helpful and very nice BW chap

Trip boat coming up as we went down

Looking up

Going out

Looking back

Once we were down we turned right heading towards the Manchester Ship Canal.  We passed through Saltersford Lock and Dutton Lock, both are manned, we had to wait at Salterford as there was a boat in the lock, but Dutton was opened as we approached.  We continued down the Weaver, it is a mixture of pleasant countryside and wooded hillsides and industry, past and present.  We continued as far as Weston Canal and then turned around and retraced our route.  We had planned to moor at Devils Garden as it had been recommended by a couple of people, however we were not that impressed and decided to return to Saltersford Lock, which is where we are moored for tonight.  




These are for Sue
These are big locks but not deep!







 20 miles 3 (manned) locks, & the Anderton Lift

2 comments:

  1. Hi both, sorry to hear that you didn't think much of Devil's Garden as a mooring. Last year it was lovely, admittedly a little rough, with a bit a bit of a scramble to get on and off the boat, but with the glorious weather we had, it was the ideal place to stop and have a barbecue, with plenty of space for Karen and Ian's two lively nephews to run around in and trees to climb, also heaven for Cassie, with a little stream to paddle in. Hope you are enjoying your visit to the Weaver in spite of that though.
    Pip & Roger

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  2. It was just Devils Garden, a few people had told us to moor there and it wasn't what we expected. The other moorings were fine. We have enjoyed the Weaver and the lift is not to be missed but we are glad to be back on the canal. Can't really explain why but we felt the same about the Avon and Severn!

    Weather much improved, boots off sandals on!

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