Hiya guys we haven’t sunk, well not yet. We’re well clear of the Llangollen canal now, we left there on 23^rd August after a 3hour queue at Hurlston Locks to get out. Once out the locks we turned left and headed north up the Shropshire Union Canal for a couple of miles before mooring up near Barbridge Junction for the evening. The following morning we made a right turn at the junction onto the Middlewich branch of the Shropshire Union Canal. This branch of the canal was only 10miles and after being on the Llangollen Canal for so long it seemed extremely wide and very straight, we should do the 10miles in no time. Our plans were to head to the Anderton Boat Lift on the Trent and Mersey Canal/River Weaver.

Known as the “Cathedral of the Canals” the Anderton Boatlift is near Northwich in Cheshire is an outstanding monument to the canal age. Built in 1875 it was constructed to transport boats between the Trent and Mersey Canal and the River Weaver. Once being operated by pulleys and weights it has now been fully restored to hydraulic operation with the pulley wheels retained as a static monument.

We made very short work of the 3 locks and the 10miles and found ourselves on the outskirts of Middlewich by mid afternoon. We ended up staying in Middlewich for the whole weekend as we forgot it was the bank holiday and people had told us it was chock-a-block at the boatlift. Bank Holiday Monday we cruised the final length of the Middlewich branch and turned left onto the Trent and Mersey Canal. We were now only about 10miles away from the boat lift. We cruised for a few hours and then moored up for the day about 2miles short of the boatlift. We planned to get there on Tuesday as this would give time for all the bank holiday boats to move off. It was Tuesday morning, the sun was shining and we were both quite excited about seeing the boatlift. We cruised the final 2miles, which seemed to take a matter of minutes, moored up and went to see the boatlift.