The Blog That Never Was (Posted)

We have now returned to our winter territory after a brilliant “summer” cruise.

I will try to do a series of blogs that bring us up to date – this may take a whilst!!

We finally left Ellesmere on 17 April heading up to Chirk again, this time we had some fabulous weather on the way across the aquaduct before heading through the tunnel.

 

We didnt rush of course and it was on 19 April that we caught our first glimpse of the Pontcysyllte Aquaduct through the trees.

after a quick top up of water we headed towards the aquaduct following a hireboat over.

We were lucky enough to find a mooring in Trevor Basin, so went into the Telford Inn for Sunday Lunch, and then took a walk along the canal to check out the route for the next day.

The water is clear enough to see the bottom of the canal here – and you can make out the rock and where boats have scrapped through if they get too near to the edge!

By the time we reached The Sun Trevor we needed refreshment!! Earlier we had needed coats, but now it had turned into a hot afternoon!

In the distance and to the left of Gary is Castell Dinas Bran – which we will see much closer later!

On the walk back to Trevor Basin some black clouds were rolling in above the aquaduct.

The next morning we left our nice mooring in the basin and headed down to the main canal,

where Gary had to make a sharp right turn around all the hire boats – and nearly got stuck!

but he did get round – could definately do without the hire boats moored there!

We set off at 9.40am (early for us!) and were lucky to only meet 3 boats heading towards us on the stretch up to The Sun Trevor, so managed to keep clear of that nasty rock near the edges. Here are some photos of that beautiful stretch of canal.

The next stretch of the canal is only wide enough for one boat, so I had to run ahead to make sure no boats were on there way through.

By the time we reached the next “narrow” section a couple of boats were following us which meant when we entered Llangollen mooring area where boats were heading out there was a bit of a hold up!

After successfully negotiating all the narrow sections and other boats I could hop back on board for the final few hundred yards of navigable canal and into the basin.

We pulled in to a nice bankside spot and were soon tied up and plugged into electric. We paid our £12 fee for 2 days mooring and headed off to explore.

First stop was down to the river and drop into the Corn Mill for a drink on their lovely decking over the river.

Next stop was Horse Shoe Falls

and on the way back we dropped in to the Chainbridge Hotel for another drink and to admire the chainbridge being rebuilt.

By the time we got back to the boat the Basin was filling fast, and just a short whilst later we even had a boat squeezed in next to us!

The next day we hopped on the lovely steam train for a trip up the Dee Valley.

We left the train at Carrog and headed over to the Grouse Inn for Lunch. We had a lovely meal and relaxed with a fantastic view whilst waiting for the train to return.

We hopped on the train for the journey back to Llangollen.

It was still such a lovely day we decided to walk up to Castell Dinas Bran.

The walk back down was much quicker than the walk up!!

We had a fabulous time in Langollen and looking back now I think we had some of the best weather this year!

So on 22 April we were ready to head back down the Llangollen Canal – I think I had better save that for another blog!