We spent the morning visiting the exhibition at the Anderton Boat Lift and watching it work. It takes about five minutes for the lift to raise (or lower) boats between the River Weaver and the canal but if you are actually doing the trip it will take you about half an hour. The rest of the time seems to be spent getting the boats in and out of the lift, sealing the caissons (the bath-like containers that hold the boats), doing technical stuff and getting the water levels in the caissons and the canal and river the same so the boats can exit.
Top right leads to the canal, bottom left to the river
The entrance at the top
The river trip boat entering at the bottom
The chap you can see is stood on the back of his boat in the top caisson
Halfway up (and down)
Narrowboat joining the river
And the trip boat now at the top
After a morning watching other people being busy we decided to move on, so we bid Kathy and Chris a fond farewell, after checking that none of us had anything that the others would need while we are apart. Things like mugs and glasses tend to migrate between the boats. We planned to reach Middlewich but found a lovely, offside mooring with picnic tables and space for the kittens to roam without disappearing into a hedge so we stopped about a couple of miles before reaching there. It did seem a bit strange only needing space to moor Morgana and Merlin!
Gwynie and Lance had great fun, running around, chasing each other and climbing trees. Ray rescued Gwynie from about ten foot up a tree, I'm sure she would have got down but he was worried she would climb even higher! It's his fault for letting her climb up his jeans.
Gwynie's favourite trick at mealtimes
Tomorrow we will continue our journey south and onto the Shropshire Union Canal, we probably won't get as far as Nantwich but we should still reach Audlem Bottom Lock on Friday.
Today's journey 7.9 miles
So far we have travelled 473.7 miles, 447 locks, 53 swing bridges, 4 lift bridges and 14 tunnels
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