Day Out at Frodsham and from Northwich to Vale Royal Moorings (River Weaver)

Thursday 7^th August

The Old Hall, Frodsham

Frodsham

The forecast wasn’t too good for today, so we decided to stay put in Northwich and go out for the day, so we caught a bus to Frodsham, about 50 minutes by bus.  The bus station is not far from the river where we were moored.  There are a lot of road works in Northwich at the moment, so the bus was nearly half an hour late.  Got to Frodsham, it is a really nice town.  Had a walk around, then went in the Old Hall Hotel for lunch.  The food was really nice but the inside and all of it really was old fashioned, wish we had gone somewhere a bit more modern!  Had another walk around, there is a Morrisons there, so got a few things, then went to a nice tea shop and had a lovely scone, home made and really fresh.  Caught the bus back, walked back to the boat and just chilled out.  We were lucky with the weather as it didn’t rain and turned out really nice in the afternoon.  Staying here again tonight, then off down the river tomorrow. 

Friday 8th August

 

Going up in the Lock

Going in Hunt's Lock

Leaving Hunt's Lock

The sun was shining as we set off down the river from Northwich.  Kev phoned the lock to let them know we were coming.  We went under two swing bridges and then we were at Hunt’s Lock.  The lock gate was open, so we went straight in.  They passed a blue rope down to Kev with a loop and we put our centre rope through it and they took it up, put it round a bollard and then passed it back down to Kev.  Then we went up in the lock nice and steady, the two chaps on the lock were really friendly and chatty.  The lock gates are operated by hand. 

Going in Vale Royal Lock

Going up in the Lock

They opened the gate and out we went on along the river, past a boat yard and into the next lock, Vale Royal, same procedure in this one as well.  Up we went and out through the lock.  

Leaving Vale Royal Lock

Moored at Vale Royal Moorings

Vale Royal Moorings

This part of the Weaver is really lovely, on we went around the corner and moored up on the Vale Royal Visitor Moorings.  They are opposite a weir and on the weir there were lots of geese, a few ducks and a heron, such a lovely place to moor.

We chilled out for a bit, then walked along the very good tow path up to the Salt Works, then came back as we could hear thunder in the distance and the sky was abit black.  When we were walking back, there was a Heron on the bank and he let us get us really close before he flew off.

Luckily, it didn’t come our way and soon the sun was back out and it was really warm for the rest of the day.

Heron on Tow Path