44. Day 39 – Anderton Boat Lift near Manchester to Lake Windermere
Sunday 19 November 2006
45° Fahrenheit, a fine sunny day at last
Pip had a lie in while Dick walked along to the Anderton Boat Lift, and noticed that it didn’t open until 10.30am.
Dick also went for a walk to the Barnton tunnel about a mile to the northwest along the upper canal.
A home beside the canal at AndertonHouse boats in the canal at Anderton
England in the 1700s and early 1800s before railways, used canals to transport heavy freight right across the country-even across the mountain ranges.
The Anderton Boat Lift is a fascinating piece of engineering which the British – through their income from lotteries – have spent millions of dollars in refurbishing. It’s a hydraulic lift which takes boats from the lower river and canal from the Weaver River to the upper level canal.
Anderton Boat LiftSide view of the Anderton Boat LiftAnderton Boat Lift from the lower canal
When Dick arrived back from his walk we wandered down to the visitors centre which was really excellent, we recommend it.
We then headed North to the M56 and towards Manchester to see our friends Rachel and Lesley who live in a beautiful English two storey house with their twins Giselle and Lucia.
Rachel and Leslie Gelis’ beautiful home near ManchesterRachel, Pip and LeslieRachel and her twin daughters Giselle & Lucia
We parked the Earthroamer on a suburban street up on the footpath. The Earthroamer started to sink in but not too far, it does weigh seven tonnes!
At 1.30pm after coffee and pastries we left heading on the M56 back along our tracks and then north on the M6 towards the Lakes district.
Street in Hale near Manchester
We turned off on A591 towards Lake Windermere unfortunately it became overcast temperature about 47° Fahrenheit with a cold wind outside.
There were beautiful farms and we even saw the turn off to Beatrix Potter’s farm.
The city of Windermere was chock a block with tourists – we couldn’t believe it, most places we had been to so far have virtually no tourists because the English summer holiday season is over. We could hardly get through the main street.
Tourist town of Lake Windermere
We grabbed the Lonely Planet – deciding on a bit of luxury for the night – and found an ideal place called Miller House. We keyed the address into the GPS and drove straight there arriving at 3.30pm.
Miller House, the hotel where we stayed overnight
Miller House is a magnificent old home, that has been done up as a luxury hotel with a direct frontage on Lake Windermere. We were given a beautiful English style room so we relaxed and read our books for awhile and then we went down for pre-dinner drinks, Pimm’s of course and hors d’oeuvre and then a magnificent two course dinner.
Our beautiful English hotel roomThe view over Lake Windermere from our hotel roomThe lounge in the Miller House Hotel
Well it did cost $707 for the two of us for the night including dinner and breakfast but every now and then you have got to splurge. After all, we had been saving a fortune by sleeping in the back of the Earthroamer!
