Weaver

The Weaver countryside is truly stunning, the river extremely wide and easy to navigate with manned locks. Mooring unfortunately is a problem as the river edges are shallow and suitable places are unmarked on the map or on riverbanks. There is an element of good fortune if you find mooring and your presence attracts others very quickly. Luckily very few craft appear to be on the river at any given time so overcrowded moorings are a rarity. Phoebe was unimpressed with our very quiet mooring spot, mainly due to the herd of cows and their inevitable droppings, both proving difficult for her to avoid. She has already assumed a "queen of the boat" attitude which lightens the inevitable gloom occasionally, but given past Sadie history we retain positive attitudes.

The weather changed from sunny/warm to windy/cold so we opted to seek shelter back on the canals and moored on the lift holding bays for the upward journey. On the weaver we have seen kingfishers, cormorants and lots of herons, plus evidence of water voles, but no actual voles. One of these days?

An old friend of mine from New Zealand has made contact and is currently in Chester, which is not on our want-list this year, so we have made tentative arrangements to meet at my son's house in Manchester, which is on the Bridgewater canal and one of our intended visiting spots anyway. We stayed overnight at the spot Sadie disappeared and checked with the locals before doing our rounds of the area calling and searching, but all results negative.

A short history of the Anderton lift;  opened in 1875 and designed by Edward Leader Williams , it is of iron construction and originally hydraulically powered by steam, later by electricity and then by water when it recommenced non-commercial use in 2002.