3 Tunnels and a Lift

Waiting to enter Preston Brook Tunnel

After a night within earshot of the traffic on the M56, we awoke refreshed and set off in time to catch our time slot on the 1500 yard Preston Brook tunnel. The tunnel operates a timed slot system to ensure boats do not meet head-on in the narrow tunnel. Going south you need to set off between 30 and 40 minutes past the hour. Angela took the opportunity to make more friends.

Approaching Saltersford Tunnel

 Next came Saltersford Tunnel - shorter but narrow and so operating a similar timing system - this time, between 30 and 50 minutes past the hour.

 Negotiating bends in Saltersford Tunnel

The tunnel has several bends in it and is really narrow making it a real challenge to get through without hitting the sides. This tunnel was clearly built by the B team! After this came another short tunnel - Barnton Tunnel - only 500 yards or so long and almost straight.

 The Anderton Boat Lift

And then we arrived at Anderton where the amazing Anderton Lift is situated. This incredible feat of engineering takes boats up and down the 50 feet between the Trent and Mersey and the River Weaver. Boats sail into one of two caissons, two at a time, and the mechanism working like a see-saw lowers two boats while raising two others. We just had to have a go since we were this close, so we booked in to what turned out to be the last available slot for the day, 15:30.

 Watching boats in the lift

 While waiting we eandered about the information centre and watched other boats coming and going.

 In we go

 Now it was our turn, and we and another boat sailed onto the aqueduct leading to the lift.

 View down to the River Weaver from the lift

 The view from up here is pretty spectacular with an enourmous salt processing works opposite and the River Weaver stretching away towards Northwich.

 About to descend

Once into the caisson, large guillotine gates descend and seal the ends. After a lot of whirring and clanking, we slowly started to drop - just like an elevator, but on a massive scale. It was really weird to be on a boat, floating, but going down in a lift.

 Our lift mates emerging after us

 Once down at river level, the water levels in the caisson and the river are equalised and another guillotine gate opens to let us out. As we exited, the freshly raised gate was pouring water down and even though it wasn't raining for once, we got wet.

 The River Weaver

 It was nice to be on a big river again and the views were lovely.

Tonight's mooring in Northwich

 We made it into Northwich, and found a good spot to moor for the night. We had a walk around the town which was quite a bit bigger than we expected, and gathered some provisions before returning to Banjo.