Greater Cheshire: Day 5

We had a rather slow start to the day, because Keith Wilson was coming at 11 to discuss an alteration to our new cratch cover, to make it fit a little better.  While we waited for him, we went for a walk to see the gardens of the Lion Salt Works, as it was much better weather than yesterday’s rain.  Their butterfly garden contains the Cheshire buddleia collection, which has more than thirty named varieties.  I didn’t even know there were that many.

Then we walked over the canal bridge, where there are two larges flashes.

Keith arrived and we came up with a plan which will mean we’re not without a cover for very long, and then we set off at about 11.30.  We continued to Anderton where we stopped on the services to get rid of rubbish and recycling (although there are no separate bins here yet), and fill the water tank.  Then we moved round the corner and moored up.  It turned out we were right in front of  Amy Jo, so we had a quick chat with Chris and Steve, whom we first met many years ago in Chester.  We walked up to the Anderton Lift visitor centre and have a very nice and very reasonably priced lunch in the cafe.  It has a great view of the lift.

Unfortunately the lift is out of action at the moment, otherwise we’d have taken the opportunity to go down onto the Weaver for a few days.  It needs £15 million pounds worth of works, which won’t happen quickly.  Our friend and fellow Braidbar owner, Erika, works there, so we were able to have a chat with her too.  We’ll be back here in a few days, so we decided to leave a proper look round the site until then, and set off once again north.  There is a nice house up on the hill overlooking the approach to Barnton Tunnel.

Barnton Tunnel is one way but doesn’t have the time restrictions that other tunnels up here do, because you can see right through it — although only really at the last moment.  

It’s only a short tunnel but it is far from straight.  In fact, the kinks in it are so pronounced you actually have to steer round them!  At the far end of the tunnel is a wide pool, before Saltersford Tunnel.  A boat was already on the best mooring, but we tied up with a lovely view out the front of the boat.

We went for a walk down the lane to the River Weaver and along to the Saltersford Locks.  The small lock clearly hasn’t been used for some time, and with the lift closed there must be very little traffic on the river at all.

Surprisingly, given that we’re surrounded by hill here, we both have excellent mobile internet signals.

3 miles, 0 locks.  (23 miles, 12 locks)

Northern Exposure: Day 11

After yesterday evening’s government announcement about Coronavirus restrictions, we had a long think about what we should do.  We continued thinking about it this morning, and have discussed the issues with other boaters, CRT contacts, and my sister who’s a hospital doctor.  Our conclusion was that being on the canals is pretty safe — it’s fairly easy to practice social distancing, as it’s seldom you need to get within 2m of other people.  If we went home, I’d undoubtedly go back to work which would mean using trains and tubes, which is far more risky.  So we decided to carry on, while obviously keeping the situation under review.

Before leaving Middlewich we walked up to a different supermarket, to see whether it could fill some of the gaps left by yesterday’s.  All this meant it was nearly 10.30 before we set off; I walked down and set Big Lock while Adrian brought the boat.  The pub alongside the lock is being renovated.  The details of the lease being advertised showed they’re spending £281,000 and expect turnover north of £800,000 (although these are obviously pre-Coronavirus figures).

We stopped on the water point below the lock, filled the tank, and started some washing.  The next stretch is rather pretty, with a couple of flashes to go through.

The bridges in this area are flat rather than arched so they could be more easily raised if needed because of subsidence.  They’re also white, apparently so the fly boats which operated round the clock could see them at night.

The contrast is dramatic when you have to go right through the middle of the Tata chemical works, with steam fizzing out of pipes, and a chemical smell in the air.

The pipe bridges at the northern end of the site have been given a makeover since we were last here, with a series of designs.  They include a chemical formula which Google tells me is the chloralkali process.

We made a brief stop at the services at Anderton to put rubbish in the bins — actually, we didn’t really stop, Adrian jumped off with the rubbish and jumped back on a few yards further on.  Then we passed the Anderton Lift, which hasn’t begun operations this year.  The next stretch gives views across the River Weaver to Northwich, where there’s a huge housing development being built.  The approach to Barnton Tunnel is very twisty, and when you get there you can just about see the far end, so you know whether there’s anyone coming the other way.

The tunnel is far from straight, and you have to steer round some very sizeable kinks.  We moored in the pool beyond, between Barnton and Saltersford Tunnels, somewhere I’ve always fancied stopping.  There are a few boats here, so we had to stop by the track rather than the prime spots further round by the grass.

Once moored, we walked down the hill to the Weaver, where Saltersford Locks are just along a bit.

11 miles, 1 lock.  (143 miles, 95 locks)