Stuck on the Weaver!

Well today we locked through Vale Royal Lock and on to the upper limit of navigation - very un-impressive!! A road bridge covered in graffiti, a seedy pub with somewhat dilapidated and clearly little used moorings outside, a bunch of trees and bushes and a swinging BW sign is all that marks the end. Apparently, boats can continue into the flashbut are unadvised to do so given the shallow nature of it and the fact that BW jurasdiction has ended here.

Here, Khayamanzi is waiting at the entrance to Vale Royal Lock.

The upper limit of navigations, you can see from the water that engine is hard astern to reverse out!

This sign warns boaters entering the Weaver navigation from the flash of the requirement for a BW licence from this point on.

We stopped off at Northwich to get some shopping - well, quite a lot actually! Sainsbury's turned out to be right up the end of the town and so the need for the 'loan' of a shopping trolley gave rise to some odd looks as we made our way down the bank and along the towpath. We did joke about the even stranger looks as we returned the trolley - I even asked dad if he had been stopped and informed of the river nearby which was the more accustomed local depository for used shopping trolleys!!

We decided at Northwich to phone the boat lift and book the last passage off, only to be laughed at! Apparently they are fully booked today and have only a few slots available for tomorrow - this confirmed our thoughts and discussions with lock keepers regarding the number of people who simply come down the lift for the experience and then straight back up again - especially as we have only seen a handful of craft moving all day today! I have bookedonto the 8.45 passage tomorow morning.

We moored up this evening along the short term visitor moorings just before the boat lift and took a walk up to look round the most impressive exhibition and visitor centre and to buy the obligatory plaques for the kitchen wall and restoration DVD for the next rainy evening! Chris and Geoff from NB LIBS have moore dup behind us and kindly invited us on board for an evening meal that I am eagerly anticipating - our contribution being a lemon meringue pie with cream and a bottle of red!

Tomorrow - off the Weaver,down the Trent and Mersey to King's Lock, along the Middlewich Branch of the Shroppie and on towards Ellesmere Port and the Boat museum before returning either via the Staffs and Worcester or back through Harecastle.