No room at the inn

The inn in question being the Salt Barge at Marston, where the best spots were all taken as we arrived on Tuesday. So we pushed on until we found this spot where the canal skirts Marbury Country Park.

In many ways it's better than the Salt Barge because we didn't need to shop (shops are closer to the Salt Barge) and we are much closer to all of the paths around Marbury and Anderton. 

Yesterday we followed a trail down to the river Weaver before making our way to Anderton boat lift. Actually I didn't realise we had found the Weaver until this turned up.

Anderton trip boat.

Seriously, the water was so still I didn't believe it was a river. The Llangollen Canal flows more than this! We followed the trip boat as the river wound its way westward until the boat lift came into view.

The boat lift was reopened in 2002, is free to use and drops you the fifty odd feet from the T&M to the Weaver. Here's the same trip boat at the top of the lift, i.e. level with the T&M.

Here, if you look closely amongst the steelwork, you can see a narrowboat leaving the bottom of the lift onto the Weaver.

I think we might have to give this a shot in the autumn! Having stayed there for two nights we are now tied up at Dutton, just past Acton Bridge and will be through Preston Brook tunnel and onto the Bridgewater tomorrow.