Anderton Boat Lift and a while bobbing about on the river.

I know - I'm getting worse at keeping the blog updated... it's cause we're out and about boating again.

Last time  I left you, we were at the top of the boat lift waiting to go down on to the Weaver.    We'd discovered a place not far from the service block where we can get an intermittent phone/tv signal - not an ideal mooring (bit it IS an official one) as it's on a narrow, blind bend - over grown with reeds on the off side... no matter - it's fun shouting "slow down" at every private boat that goes by - the hirers generally being a bit more considerate... Tbh, when only tying up for a night or so, I don't bother setting springs but in hindsight I should have so it was my own fault when we clonked against the side... frequently.

Annoyingly, whilst we were booked for the first passage down, a couple of other boats booked for later had gotten themselves into pole position - grumpy old git that I am more confident than I used to be, I moored up along side of one 30 mins before the booking as instructed.

Due to the rain over the previous days, there was a little more flow than usual on the river but compared to most, it was still quite benign - certainly compared to the fast flowing Aire & Calder.


 In  typical 'Ellis' style,  we found once down on to the river, due to restricted operating hours on the manned locks, we weren't actually able to go through any if we were to be able to meet our return booking.

Hmmmf.

Oh well - Northwich is actually not a bad place to spend a few days... SO we did!

Tying up on the floating pontoons at Barrons Quay (Odeon Cinema - closed of course) we went exploring into town and went into a 'Spoons' for the first time this year...  I have to say, it was quite organised, well 'socially distanced' and a nice bit of "normal" .

After a night on the pontoon, we went up stream to the lock (to turn around/take rubbish and fill with water) - the sun was now shining so I took a load of photos which I'll add in below ... suffice to say, I'm quite taken with the river now.  

As per usual, we spent the night before our ascension (that sounds way too biblical) moored at the bottom of the lift and it really was a  pleasant evening... despite the factory sounds.

Once up, we chugged on as far as Lymm before ending the day - having arranged for a friend to come along for a trip (neither of us had 'bubbled' yet so covid risk was minimal) and on route, we overtook our friends boat.  They were out walking as we passed, but I did take a nice snap of Jane's lovely floral display... which is much better than my rubbish plastic bucket affair this year.

Tying up in Lymm, the sun came back out again and I went off to get Fish and chips for tea.

Until next time...