Cruise 3 - Northwich Quay to Anderton  (Anderton Boat Lift) £695pp

We’ll probably have taken a visitor mooring at Northwich Quay (if one is available) and done our ‘turnaround’ using Shoreline.  If so, we’ll cast off when our guests join us about 1.30pm and after the usual introductory blah blah and glass of something fizzy, head upstream.  Hopefully by April 2022 the manned locks will be operating like they used to… assuming the ‘covid excuse’ is no longer being used by CRT to offer reduced working hours -Worse case, we’ll have to moor and go upstream the next day. 

Assuming we HAVE been able to go up the locks, we may have ended up moored in the Arm at Winsford for the our first evening.  Next morning, after breakfast we’ll pull ropes and chug back down stream – this time passing under the Northwich upper and lower swing bridges and head down past the Anderton Boat lift and through Saltersford Locks – perhaps tying up for the day wherever we can get moored.

Next day, we’ll carry on downstream , pass through Dutton Locks and after a stop for lunch (and view of the Ship canal around Weston point, travel to the end of the Navigation to turn around. With luck, we’ll be able to moor at Devils Garden – a charming spot on the river and if it’s not too muddy, we might even have a wander up to a local pub.

After a (hopefully) peaceful night at Devils Garden, we’ll re-trace our chugs up stream and try and tie up for the night on the floating pontoons back in Northwich.  The are ideally located for easy access to the town. 

Northwich is a surprisingly nice place to visit – with nice pubs, reasonable shopping and even a cinema close to the moorings.  On our final full day, we don’t need to move far so it can be a free day to explore all the town has to offer – after dinner we can either cruise down to the holding moorings at the bottom of the boat lift in preparation for our ascent the following morning  OR stay where are and chug off the final morning after an early breakfast to take our place in the queue.

Once up the lift, if we’ve not been able to secure a visitor mooring in either Uplands or or Anderton Marina, we’ll pull in wherever we can so our guests can depart.  This will probably be later than usual ( from memory it’s better to book the 2nd boat lift -less mud falls on the Ellis’s roof) so it’s easier to extend the trip by a couple of hours than spend hours washing mud off the roof. 

It’s a lovely relaxed trip up and down the River Weaver – the highlight being ascending the historic boat lift. Total distance is 30 miles, 8 locks and 11 moveable bridges.