From Northwich Visitor Moorings to Lymm Visitor Moorings, a distance of 19 miles, 5 flg and 1 lock.
The two week holiday had been planned with quite a bit of slack in it and we didn’t need to get back to the moorings before the weekend so we decided that we’d take a bit of a detour from the planned trip and head over to Lymn – it’s an easy run and the town has some good pubs, so why not?
Turn Round Here : Lymm Wharf Winding Hole
Start : Northwich Visitor Moorings
Finish : Lymm Visitor Moorings
We were on the first up passage on the Anderton lift. As both caissons are kept at the River Weaver level overnight the first run in the morning is always up from the River (with no matching down) so you end up with one caisson at each level. We shared the lift with another boat and as we wanted to turn in the winding hole we let them out first as they had told us they were heading towards Middlewich. We followed them out and turned in [CP:Anderton Winding Hole|576n]] and then headed off north. Just past Soot Hill Bridge No 200 the canal enters a small wooded area and you immediately feel miles away from Anderton and the chemical works on the banks of the Weaver. This tranquillity doesn’t last long as you soon reach Barnton Road Bridge which sits at a silly angle to the canal, on a bend with the canal narrowing just before you get to it – Joy!
We pulled in at Bartington Wharf and got a pump out where the boatyard cat checked out the boat from the towpath, and then we continued on our way to Dutton Stop Lock No 76 which was a complete pain to operate as the water was flowing over the gates as fast as the paddles let it out. We had to wait for about 10 minutes before we could go into the tunnel – it would have been nice if there hadn’t been two abandoned fibreglass cruisers tied up on the holding moorings but luckily we were the only boat waiting to go through.
The Bridgewater was even quieter than the Trent and Mersey and with very few boats moored up we were able to move at a good speed. The research centre at Daresbury seemed as desolate as ever – there never seems to be anyone there, no-one wandering round, no-one sitting on of the many benches – it’s all very odd.
Lymn was quite quiet in terms of moored boats – not that there was any room on the offside due to very inconsiderate mooring by about 5 boats. We went to Lymm Wharf Winding Hole , turned round and moored up for the night on the towpath. We ate at Grill on the Cross – a Greek restaurant before ending up for the night in the Lymn brewery tap.