Heading upriver.

Last Friday, after 2 nights moored opposite Anderton Marina, we headed to the boat lift for our afternoon booking to drop down to the Weaver Navigation.

Leaving the Anderton Boat Lift.

We didn’t get so far, pulling onto the pleasant moorings just upstream with easy access to the nature park. And here we stayed until yesterday (Wednesday) waiting out the weather and enjoying long but often damp walks through the woods and across the grasslands of the reclaimed settlement lagoons, a legacy of the salt works opposite.

Bookend cormorants on the derelict gantry across the river.

Canine crewmember relaxing.

So yesterday, under grey skies, we headed upstream to Northwich.

Wide water as we bear right to the town with Wincham Brook under the bridge to the left.

The brook used to be navigable up to a mill about a mile upstream but is now overgrown and shallow.

I wasn’t sure where we would finish up moored in Northwich, but as we came  around the last bend I saw that the new pontoon below the Baron’s Quay development was almost empty. That’ll do then.

It’s not ideal for dogs, especially one that wakes in the morning with her legs crossed, with a ten minute walk to any decent grass but it was only for one night.

I got my shopping done mainly in the dry, then we hunkered down as the wind picked up and the rain came down.

This morning, although the river was only up a couple of inches, the stream was running fairly strongly although from experience I knew that most of the water was coming down the Dane and it would be quieter above Town Bridge. So I untied and moved out into the flow, heading across to the water point downstream of the bridge. It’s often tricky getting on here with the flow under the bridge, but this morning was especially challenging! Luckily it was just before 8 so there wasn’t that many people about to watch me dashing from rope to rope to get tied up snuggly!

Watered up we toddled on, pushed sideways by the Dane as we passed, then on to Hunts Lock.

With restrictions on lock operation times currently in force we needed to be there by 9 to catch the first penning up. Hence the getting moving before 8!

Some big and not so big boats moored near the CRT yard.

If you look to the left of the pic you’ll see the new location of the rubbish bins, on a pontoon almost under the old footbridge. 

I wouldn’t want to see Safe Hand’s bows coming at me out of a fog!

A quick interweb search throws up a vessel of this name, built in 1950 and a vegetable oil tanker. Not much info available though.

Surprisingly, although there were three boats tied below Hunts Lock, no-one else was waiting to go up so we had the undivided attention of the two lockies on duty.

In Hunts Lock

Promising to see the lockies again at 10 o’clock up at Vale Royal Lock we headed off upstream, past Jalsea Marina. There are boats of all shapes and sizes here, and in various conditions, too!

Proceed is unlikely to do that in the near future…

…and this Dutch barge type has it’s decks awash.

The river is wide and rural now until the salt mines near Winsford, crossed by Hartford (Blue) Bridge and Vale Royal Railway Viaduct.

 

We pulled onto the waiting pontoon below Vale Royal Lock with a little time to spare before they made it ready for us, so time for a coffee and a belated bowl of muesli!

Spot on 10:00 we moved around the corner to approach the lock.

There are actually three here. The earliest is on the right, now sluices and the source of all the foam floating past. The next, and middle-sized is in the middle and the one in general use while the largest one capable of accommodating 1000 ton vessels is on the left.

The swing bridge across the chamber had to be swung out of the way before we gently but fairly rapidly rose to the highest level pound on the navigation.

Just a short distance further on we pulled onto the mooring rings opposite the old river loop. Only one other boat here, and they’ve left now. Something I said?

 

Soon after we’d tied up the rain started again and it’s been continuous since. It's more like October than August!

We're hoping to get up to Winsford, but the low headroom Newbridge Swing Bridge (that doesn’t swing anymore) ¾ of a mile upstream might put the mockers on that if the river rises any more. Still, we’ll have a look.

Locks 2, boat lifts 1, miles 4¾