Continuing along the Llangollen Canal

On Monday we visited the pretty village of Wrenbury. On Tuesday we visited the picturesque town of Whitchurch, where we had to deal with 4 lift bridges, which take a hell of a lot of winding with a windlass to open and then close again. We moored in the middle of nowhere on Tuesday night, it was so remote, and the tow path was overgrown and so far below the level of the canal, that Nic didn’t even set foot of the boat (Roger did the mooring up!)

On Wednesday, after another lift bridge, (thankfully we followed another boat through so we didn’t have to do the winding), we moored next to Blakemere (nr Ellesmere), so across the towpath, there were a couple of trees and fishing spot (we do not fish, but a good set up for the chairs) then a fabulous view onto Blakemere. That fabulous view included lots of wildlife on the mere including a Heron, Great Crested Grebe, a couple of Kingfishers, a Buzzard, Turns and many more. It was a wonderful mooring spot, one of our best … and we have to go back past it on the way out of the Llangollen Canal, so will probably stay there again, if we can get it..!

Thursday, we passed the end of the Montgomery Canal, with a passing thought that we would go and do it, however you have to book passage via the locks for between 9 and 12 noon and they only allow 12 boats a day down, so we couldn’t do it.. but after talking to a few fellow boats about it, we’ll be booking it on our way back. (follow the blog to find out more … !)

On Friday we cruised all the way to Trevor over the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, a World Heritage Site (photos below) a stunning piece of architecture, designed by Thomas Telford, we were also really lucky with finding a lovely mooring spot in the Trevor basin, a small tree lined canal arm. We are just past a boat yard, in a dead end – a chap who had just spend a week on a hire boat came to talk to us and said “if I’d have known this was here, I would have just reversed the boat into here and not cruised anywhere”.

On Saturday, given the restricted draft (depth) of the rest of the Llangollen Canal, up to Llangollen, and the fact we were actually on sure of the draft of Life in Slow Motion we decided to not take the boat to Llangollen but cycle the towpath (National Cycle Route 85). We are thankful that we did, as the canal is really narrow and windy, hats off to the first time boaters who hire from Trevor boat yard and cruise straight to Llangollen.

On returning to the boat, Nic gave assistance to a fellow boater, who it transpires has had a mild stroke. Mainly just checking on him every few minutes, until his family arrived to take him to hospital.

Today, Sunday we have walked along the River Dee, to the Ty Mawr country Park then back along the canal. on this walk we needed to go alongside a road for part of it, we were wondering how busy it would be on this glorious weekend, however it turned out that the road was closed to motor traffic, as part of the roadside had slipped into the valley and was awaiting repairs, so in actual fact it was a very peaceful road!