Anderton Country Park

Temporarily, we have come to a halt in our journey north, which in a way is just as well, since heavy rain showers, frequently of hail, keep thrashing us relentlessly today and would have caused the fair-weather sailors in this little fleet to have given up the task ages ago anyway.

However the official reason for our stoppage at a very quiet part of the towpath deep in the centre of quiet wooded country about a mile east of the famous boat lift, is to allow Janis to get away on one of her energetic weekends, this time to Snowdonia with her good friend Tina. The latter picked her up by car yesterday and they are due to return on Tuesday. So, in the meantime I am up to my well rehearsed ship sitting duties again.

 

The Anderton Boat Lift

We arrived here on Friday afternoon after an uneventful passage along the  upper Trent and Mersey Canal from Middlewich. Unfortunately the stretch of countryside on both sides of us along this part of the waterway has been scarred by land subsidence over time caused by the greedy extraction of brine far below the surface. This is the prime ingredient in the manufacture of salt. However Nature as always has made the best of mankind’s voracity and the land, with careful management this time on the latter’s behalf, is now designated the Anderton Country Park. There are lots of wonderful wooded walks and the many depressions in the land, known locally as flashes, have filled with rainwater creating havens for all types of wildlife.

 

Our quiet mooring at Bridge 196, Anderton

 

Since there are no roads close to the towpath where we are moored, yesterday Janis and I walked as far as the lift with all her weekend kit and met Tina in the car park. But while there we made arrangements to travel down the fifty feet on the lift on Wednesday next. We plan to spend a few days on The River Weaver before coming up again the same way and resuming our passage north.