A good day today, we are now on the river Weaver.  Left last nights mooring at about 10:00am and I steered the boat whilst Graham walked the dogs.  I was a bit twitchy every time I had to pass under a bridge as we now have the new exhaust chimney on and I don't want to break this one!  Picked Graham up at the entrance to Saltersford Tunnel and waited until the time slot for going through.  Getting used to these narrow tunnels now.  Shortly after exiting Saltersford Tunnel we entered Barnton Tunnel.  No time restriction here as you can see the other end and whether any boats are in the tunnel.  

Arrived at the top of the Anderton Lift at about 12:30 and went to speak to the lady in the office, who said we could go down in the lift at 12:50.  Not too long to wait, just time for a quick lunch.

The Anderton Lift is an amazing and impressive piece of engineering, built in 1875 to connect the Trent and Mersey Canal to the River Weaver below.  The lift consists of two large water filled tanks one above on the canal and one below on the river, they are connected hydraulically and balance each other.  The boats enter the lift and they then raise/lower past each other.

Once on the River Weaver we turned left to go upstream towards Winsford.  All the locks on the Weaver are manned so we are back to phoning ahead and the lock is ready for us when we get there.  A great way to boat, pity all locks aren't either manned or mechanised it makes life so much easier.  Two locks this afternoon and then moored up just past Vale Royal Locks in a very pleasant rural mooring.  A lovely sunny afternoon and early evening, but it is raining again now.  Very warm though, I can't quite work out why people around us have fires alight as we have windows open and are still too hot. 

Town Bridge at Northwhich.  The first electrically powered swing bridge in the UK

 

Earlier a pair of swans came around the boat with their 8 cygnets, but Jake took exception to them and chased them away.  He is such a daft dog as he ignores ducks and geese but hates swans for some reason.

Tomorrow we will continue to Winsford which is the end of the navigation.  Will probably do some food shopping here or if not head back to Northwhich for shopping.  Then a leisurely cruise of the rest of the navigation downstream to Runcorn.