I’ve been waiting / trying to do this particular cruise for a number of years now.. CoVID-19 very much getting in the way. But I was lucky enough to be offered the chance to be taken as a guest for a present for my 40th Birthday which I recently celebrated. It was a day trip cruise on a Mersey Ferry – Royal Iris – up the Mersey and into and along part of the Manchester Ship Canal. A few years ago the cruise continued up the canal and into Manchester via Salford Keys where you would be able to walk around and explore for a while before a chartered coach brought you back to Liverpool. Nowadays this is no longer the case. Since Covid and beyond it seems that the cruise now goes as far up the Manchester Ship Canal as Latchford Locks where it does a a 180 u-turn and then returns to Liverpool’s Pier Head.

Our cruise left on time at 11:15am after initially picking up passengers from the Wirral at Woodside. Once the Ferry arrived at the Pier head it was a scramble to board and find somewhere to sit down. We had arrived early and John had kept a place for us in the queue, so we as a group were second to get on to the boat. A table was found on the ground deck just ahead of the rear doors. It was inside so protected from the wind. It was not upstairs as we had planned, but it was ok as we could get up and walk around the boat as we pleased. We got a round of Tea’s, Coffee’s and Hot Chocolates before we had left the Pier Head. There might have been a few drinks for a celebration too…

We set sale and headed as if we were going to Woodside but as the Ferry came from there we cruised passed. Then we were asked to turn around and so actually started sailing back towards Liverpool, the Pier Head and the Estuary of the Mersey, before turning again to complete the loop. We were being asked to save some time as a large tanker was being pushed into position by tub boats. Soon however we were passed the obstruction and on our way headed on the Wirral side of the River towards the entrance to the Manchester Ship Canal. We enjoyed some good audio commentary from the team on the Ferry of what we were seeing on both sides of the Mersey and we all had a trip or two outside to watch the world going by.

When we approached the Ship Canal, to get inside you have to go through Eastham Locks. The lock is huge. Large enough for massive oil tankers who pass through and out of this active shipping lane multiple times on a daily basis. A Ferry being inside of a lock is a strange experience. As the Mersey is a tidal river, there is the tide level to consider too. So when we entered, the tide on the Wirral side of the River was low when we arrived at Eastham lock so the lock was empty when we arrived. Then the boat is tied to the side of the lock and the massive size of the lock doors hit you. They closed and without any sense of any movement the boat starts to rise slowly as the water level rises. Significantly to a different level to that of the river. It’s strange sitting inside a boat where nothing you can see through the windows is the steel and stone sides of the lock. Then when you start to rise and see the side of the lock, then another lock next to it, and a basin with two huge ships berthed, it is only then when you start to get a sense of the scale of the lock and the ship canal as a whole. While in the lock we were boarded by a Pilot who is on board to help and assist the Captain of our ship to navigate down and through the Manchester Ship Canal. The purpose of the Pilot is to provide information on the traffic that is traveling through the canal on the day and time of our cruise. They advise on times to arrive at all of the swing bridges along our route that have to be swung out of the way to allow us to pass through underneath. The three or four we went under all have roads running on the top of them, so there is a pause / delay made to traffic when ships are traveling up and down the Ship Canal.

We made it all the way to Latchford Locks, which would be the point at which we are turned around for the journey back along the canal and home to the Pier Head. A perfect u-turn and headed back up the canal we just came down. The Latchford locks looked like they were being worked on in some sense of the word, but the lock we would have traveled through now looks overgrown and disused, which makes me wonder is any travel on the canal now able to travel further past Latchford Locks. It seems a shame that the connection into the Manchester Salford Keys was never maintained post-covid. – We learned that this was out of the control of the company running the Ferry Cruises. It was Manchester that was to blame for not maintaining the Locks at Latchford and the subsequent dredging that would need to be completed to reinstate the complete route via the canal.

On the way back, being sat on the right with the Ferry now turned around we were getting to see all of the things that we didn’t see on the way down the canal. Most of the side of the return journey was grassy banks, which made a change from the industrial nature of the other side particularly when passing around and under both of the Runcorn Bridges. Through the Runcorn section on the right as you are looking towards the Liverpool side of the river is a narrow canal wall. I have an early childhood memory of walking along that canal wall for a while with my Father. Can’t remember any of the time period or circumstances or anything else, but I can remember walking along that narrow wall with him.

Anyway on the way back up the canal towards Eastham locks we were made to pull over and make a full stop as a Tug pulling a wide barge was making its way down the canal towards Manchester. The barge didn’t seem to have much on it at the time, but it was still wide enough to need most of the width of the canal. You wouldn’t have wanted to have to get out of its way when moving. We set off again at some speed to make up some time, but shortly afterwards we were asked to stop again, this time for a humongous oil tanker to come passed. We had seen this tanker berthed on the Mersey much earlier in the day. Sometimes you don’t get to appreciate just how large these tankers are when you see them out on the River at a distance. We were perhaps two-feet away from the side of it when it was passing. It was being guided by two tugs, one in front and one behind too. Guiding it through the narrow shipping channel of the canal. It took a good 5-10 minutes for it to pass and for us to be able to be on our way again down the remainder of the canal and back into the Eastham locks. That was impressive!

When we got into the locks, due to the tanker having just come through into the shipping canal we went in when the tide was high, so we were above the sides of the canal and this time we would be going down down down to enter back into the River Mersey. Going down is just as exciting as going up was when we entered. But seemed much faster and we seemed to drop much less than we needed to rise. The tide I guess being at a different height aided that swiffer exit from the Lock. From there it was foot down and we made the six miles back to the Pier Head in around 25 minutes in the end. It was a thoroughly enjoyable day I think we all enjoyed it for different aspects of it. I really appreciated being on a Ferry for the 5-6 hours that it took, I’ve wanted to go on that trip for ages and it didn’t matter to me that we didn’t make it to Manchester itself. The scenery on the way through and back was great. Discussing how the canal was made with good company was great and simply sitting relaxing on the way back was soothing. Would I go again? – Absolutely yes! Thank you to Linda & John for a great day out!

Again a huge thank you to Linda & John for inviting us out along with them. Love you both. x