Cruising the Weaver

The rain was off again/on again but we managed to dodge most of the showers. Friday afternoon, after mooring, we locked up the boat and headed across the huge swing bridge to explore Northwich. The main street is predominantly a mall lined on both sides with many black and white Tudor style buildings. This one had been restored and caught my eye.

Northwich, is the northern most of the 'wich'es or salt towns, apparently salt has been mined here before Roman times. We headed up Northwich's long main street seemed to be dominated by banks, real estate agencies, charity shops and fast food stores, not unlike the way many shopping strips are going both here and at home in Australia.We were nearly at the top of the street when we managed to find Wetherspoons, lunch and a drink or two was appreciated.

I thought mooring within 200 metres of the busy traffic on the swing bridge was going to be noisy but we both slept well. Rachael's cousin Stephen, down from Scotland found us having breakfast first thing this morning. Stephen had told us he planned to drop in us this weekend but we weren't sure exactly when. After a long chat and another showery day, there was a break in the clouds and we headed off further upstream heading for Windsford, the terminus for this end of the Weaver. It wasn't a long trip, about an hour and a half before we winded in the mouth of the flash and returned to the moorings right outside The Red Lion Pub, we were joined by David and Gwen from NB Haribell and Stephen there in the background.

An afternoon of drinks and food before we came to the realisation that things were getting quite rowdy in the pub a few doors up. David had moored Haribell in the park but a quick check and fireworks were being let off by quite a crowd of people, we decided to make the move to the moorings at Vale Royal Cut at around 7:30pm for a quieter Saturday Night.

Great moorings at Vale Royal Cut; picture perfect! and a beautiful morning as we headed downstream back to Northwich for the night. Back at Northwich it was time to say farewell to Stephen after his short visit. Monday, and another fine day and it was time to check out downstream, we headed for Acton Bridge Moorings. A bit more industrial this way as we headed back past the boat lift.

Coming up on Saltersford Lock I headed for the smaller of the two chambers but the Lock Keeper signaled me to the larger of the locks and started opening the gate. We had managed to catch him just before he was about to fill the lock. lots of room in here, even with three narrow boats in side.

Coming up on Saltersford Lock

Closing the gates at Saltersford Lock

Acton Bridge Moorings

Acton Bridge in the background is typical of the swing bridges on the Weaver although this one pivots in the centre.

This is where Rachael and I terminated our tour of the Weaver and after a quiet night at The Leigh Arms where we looked around the pub near 9pm and we were the last people there. We left David and Gwen who headed further downstream while we headed back to the Boat Lift to go up on to the Trent and Mersey Canal and moor at Anderton.

We shared the ride up with a Canadian couple who spend the cruising season here in the UK.

We finished the day, the only boat on the Anderton Visitor Moorings, I'm sure it won't be like this in a few more weeks when it gets a bit warmer.