Saturday 29^th April

Llangollen to Gledrid

Today we started our homeward journey, leaving Llangollen in bright sunshine. This part of the canal has some very scenic views.

It was beginning to look as if the sunshine would not last.

A big black cloud.

So we repeated the last part of yesterday’s trip in the opposite direction – through the narrows with me acting as look-out again, and then over the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct where we stopped and moored up. 

We wanted to go to the visitor centre at Trevor and walk down to the Dee valley and see the aqueduct from below. We walked back across the aqueduct to the wharf at Trevor,  had a coffee from the machine in the Anglo-Welsh hireboat office (the wharf could do with a proper café of some description!) and then made our way down a long flight of steps to the bottom of the valley where there were a couple of places with a good view of the aqueduct. We continued our walk along the River Dee and then climbed another set of steps to another viewpoint before returning to the wharf and another walk across the aqueduct to return to the boat.

Pontcysyllte from river level.

And from a little higher up.

By now it had started to rain, but we decided to move on a bit further. Back through a lift bridge, Whitehouses Tunnel, Chirk Tunnel and Chirk Aqueduct, past Chirk Bank where we had moored a couple of nights ago as far as Gledrid where we decided to stop. The rain continued on and off through the afternoon and evening.

Chirk Aqueduct in the rain.

We made our way through the rain and the puddles to The Poacher for our evening meal.

Today’s miles and locks – 9.50 miles    0 locks      

Total miles and locks – 175.00 miles  98 locks

 Friday 28^th April

Chirk  to Llangollen

The sunshine was back and it was even a little bit warmer.

Very soon after we left our mooring on Chirk Bank, we arrived at Chirk Aqueduct. Rather than try and describe it, I’ll put plenty of photos.

Chirk Aqueduct with Railway Viaduct to the left.

River Ceiriog below.

Showing towpath, channel and an edging (not for walking on!)

Fields and River Ceiriog

Viaduct in use.

After the aqueduct comes Chirk Tunnel, then Whitehouses Tunnel – no photos in tunnels.

Crossing into Wales and heading for Chirk Tunnel

No locks on this section of canal, but there was one lift bridge - actually there are two, but one is permanently open so doesn’t require any action from us.

Then we reached the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct – again photos rather than words.

On to the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct

Down to the fields - no edging to this side of the channel.

River Dee

More River Dee

On the last stretch into Llangollen, there are some very narrow sections where two boats cannot pass each other, so I walked ahead to alert Steve about any boats coming from the Llangollen direction. As it turned out, there were no boats, just a couple of kayakers,

In Llangollen, we moored in the very nice basin provided for boaters to use at the end of navigation for powered boats. 

The horsedrawn boat does go further along right to the absolute end where the River Dee feeds into the canal.

"Dakota" at work

After having lunch we walked down into the town and did some shopping. We took the shopping back to the boat and then walked along the towpath to explore the rest of the canal. We walked right to the end to the Horseshoe Falls before walking back to the boat for the evening.

The canal starts here where water from the Dee is fed into the channel.

The Horseshoe Falls - the weir where water from the Dee is diverted to the canal.

Today’s miles and locks – 8.75 miles    0 locks      

Total miles and locks – 165.50 miles  98 locks

 

 Thursday 27^th April

Maesbury Marsh to Chirk

No sunshine greeted us this morning. Instead it was grey, windy and cold. We moved from our mooring the short distance to the bottom of the Frankton Locks to await the arrival of the lock-keeper at 9.00. (These locks are locked (!) overnight.) He duly arrived and off we went, up these last 4 locks on the Montgomery Canal. We then turned left back on to the Llangollen Canal. There were two more locks to do today, but it took us rather a long time to do them as, when we arrived, there were 4 other boats waiting. However, it was good to be able to chat with other boaters as we helped each other through.

We had a brief stop for lunch, not staying too long as we were aware that heavy rain was forecast. The rain did indeed arrive and we moored up a little sooner than we had originally planned.

Moored at Chirk Bank

Our noisy companions.

We went for a meal at a local pub, The Bridge; from the pub you get a good view of Chirk aqueduct and its accompanying railway bridge. We will go over the aqueduct tomorrow.

 

Chirk Aqueduct and Railway Bridge (the higher one)

Today’s miles and locks – 7.25 miles    6 locks      

Total miles and locks – 156.75 miles  98 locks

 Wednesday 26^th April

Maesbury Marsh to Weston Arm Junction

Having turned round, we are now retracing our steps. We reverted to our usual leaving time of 8.30, but soon stopped at the boaters’ services for a pump out. But as the machine wasn’t working, we had to wait for a Canal and River Trust person to come out and fix it. He did appear within half an hour, but of course, we were delayed somewhat and did not leave there until nearly 11.00.

1st of 4 canal views

2nd view with walkers

3rd view with bridge

4th view with mid-19th century building

Up the three Aston Locks and then lunch, before continuing up a fourth lock and mooring for the night at the Weston Arm Junction. The Weston Arm was intended to go to Shrewsbury – don’t think it ever got that far, but anyway the canal arm was abandoned in 1917.

The Weston Arm - Chyandour moored in the distance by the bridge.

Our early evening walk took us up a minor road towards Lower Frankton and we returned to the boat walking down the towpath past the locks we will go up tomorrow morning.

Another dry day with a lot of sunshine, but not very warm considering it is nearly the end of April.

Today’s miles and locks – 6.00 miles    4 locks      

Total miles and locks – 149.50 miles  92 locks

 Monday 24^th April

Whitchurch to Ellesmere

Today was drier than yesterday, but still grey and chilly.

No locks to do today, but there were 5 lift bridges.

Llangollen Canal View

Today’s excitement was that I fell in the water – slipped off the side of the boat.  I was able to hold onto the side of the canal, and Steve with the help of a man from a nearby boat managed to haul me onto dry land and I was none the worse for my dip.

When we got to Ellesmere, we decided to moor in the arm to make the walk into town shorter!

The Ellesmere Arm

A warehouse awaiting renovation (hopefully)

 We knew that there was a launderette in Ellesmere and had decided to wash the canal-wet clothes there. While the machines were doing their work, we did a little shopping and had a cuppa in a local café. In the launderette, we happened to meet someone we knew and arranged to visit her on her boat later in the evening. Shopping and washing done, we returned to the boat.

After our evening meal, we walked along the canal a little way to The Black Cat and had a cup of tea with Jenny (and her dog and cat).

Today’s miles and locks – 12.75 miles    0 locks      

Total miles and locks – 132.75 miles 79 locks

 

Tuesday 25^th April

Ellesmere to Maesbury Marsh

We made a slightly earlier start than usual as we were due to go down the Montgomery Canal, and you have to book a passage through the locks at the start of the canal.

So at 7.50, we left Ellesmere in bright sunshine – and frost!  No locks and no lift bridges on this first stretch, but as soon as we turned on to the Montgomery, we were faced with a 2 lock staircase and two single locks. 

Turning on to the Montgomery Canal

We did have to wait for a while as there were two boats coming up the locks, but there were two lock-keepers to help and it was still sunny and getting warmer, so there was no problem!

Frankton Locks

Montgomery Canal View

Once we were through these first four locks, we had coffee and then there was just one more lock before we stopped for lunch.

The Montgomery Canal is still under restoration and there is only about 6 miles navigable at this end. We decided to carry on as far as we could, so we did 3 more locks and a lift bridge and then turned round, back through the lift bridge and moored for the night at Maesbury Marsh.

No further!

We went for a walk along the course of the canal, seeing where the work is continuing.

This section is almost ready to be opened.

This section is not yet ready.

Today’s miles and locks – 10.75 miles    8 locks   

Total miles and locks – 143.50 miles 88 locks

 Saturday 22^nd April

Swanley Bridge Marina to Wrenbury

Today we returned to the boat after spending some time at home. Train to Nantwich where we did a little shopping before taking a taxi for the final part of the journey.

We had lunch on board before setting out in lovely sunshine. The first lock came along very soon, and then there were four more before we moored up near Wrenbury. We had a cup of tea and then walked up into the village. We wanted to find out details of morning service at Wrenbury tomorrow – we discovered that there won’t be one! (There are 3 churches in the group and tomorrow’s service will be in one of the others.) We had a walk around the village which has some very attractive houses (and a shop and a couple of pubs).

Not a large family, but the first ones we've seen this year.

Although it was not forecast, we had a lot of warm sunshine today.

Today’s miles and locks – 4.00 miles    5 locks      

Total miles and locks – 113.00 miles  69 locks

 

Sunday 23^rd April

Wrenbury to Whitchurch

Today dawned wet, grey and cold! The rain continued on and off all day until about 7.00 p.m. when the sun came out – by that time we had been moored up for several hours!

But to return to the morning, we left Wrenbury at about 8.30 and straightaway met the first of the Llangollen lift bridges – we also met another boat coming the other way. We were obviously not the only early starters. The next lift bridge has a road across it rather than just a footpath – I have to press buttons to lower gates and stop the traffic – such power!

Lift Bridge carrying a footpath across the canal.

Lift Bridge with road crossing the canal.

10 locks today. The first four were well spaced out and then we arrived at Grindly Brook Locks where there are three individual locks and then the last three are a staircase needing care to navigate. Fortunately, there were volunteer lock-keepers on hand to help us through safely. We stopped for lunch after finishing the locks and then moved on a little way towards Whitchurch and moored up.

We took advantage of a break in the rain to walk into Whitchurch along the line of what used to be a canal arm (now mainly filled in) into the town centre. The rain started again but we continued our walk around the town before returning to the boat.

There were a lot of boats around today – Grindley Brook Locks were especially busy and there is very little space left here at Whitchurch for boats arriving later than mid-afternoon.

Our mooring at Whitchurch

Today’s miles and locks – 7.50 miles    10 locks      

Total miles and locks – 120.50 miles 79 locks