Wed 14th June Llangollen to Offa’s Dyke
We had a leisurely
morning. As we were about to go, we realised that Hawk, the hire boat nearby,
was also ready to go, but a trip boat was turning in the basin entrance. When the
trip boat had turned, another two boats came to turn. Then Hawk left, and so
did we, but another boat left their mooring and nipped in front of us. The trip
boat stopped to take on passengers, and the boat in front of us decided to wait
for the trip boat to go again. It could have been another 30 minutes, so we
persuaded him to go without waiting. Another boat had appeared behind us, so
there were now six boats in a convoy, and we were number 5.
We paused to empty a
cassette at the facilities, and the last boat went past, so we were now number
6.
Travelling in a convoy is
quite useful on the Llangollen, because you don’t have to check what is coming
on the narrow sections, as long as you follow another boat. However, the
cautious boat had not cottoned on to this, so he stopped before Bridge 42, and
started banging in mooring spikes. The boat in front of us went past, and we
followed, and discovered that Hawk had moored up opposite the Sun Trevor pub
for lunch. There were still three boats in front of us, and we were now number
4.
On arrival at Trevor, we
wanted to stop for lunch, and discovered that almost all the moorings were
taken by Anglo-Welsh. They allowed us to pause for an hour, as long as we left
room for the trip boat. James went to investigate the moorings at the end of
the arm, where we had stayed for four days with Gospel Belle and
Trinity five years ago. The end is two-pronged like a tuning fork, and both
prongs were now drained and being re-furbished, with wall repairs and new
mooring rings. Who will be allowed to moor there? We are not sure. We hope
there will be enough visitor spaces.
We found Colin and
Shirley’s boat Brace Yourself moored by the footbridge, but no-one was
aboard.
A boat came from the
aqueduct and went past us, until we pointed out that it was a dead end, and
they needed to turn left. There must be many more boaters who do this, as the
entrance to the Llangollen Arm is narrow and insignificant. When they had gone
back and turned left as instructed, we reversed to the junction and turned, and
set off across the aqueduct. It was even better in this direction, and the flow
was in our favour as we took our boat above the trees. We saw a raven fly under
our boat! Exhilarating!
At the other end there
was a flotilla of canoes waiting to cross, plus three narrow boats. We were
ushered through the lift bridge by a hire boat, who agreed to lower the bridge
afterwards.
We stopped on rings close
to the limekilns, but moved on later to a quieter spot beyond the aqueduct.
There were rings, and a wide grassy area where we set up a table and chairs in
the shade. A lovely mooring. There was a view across to the railway viaduct that crosses the Dee valley.
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| Llangollen Basin with a trip boat turning |
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| The Narrows |
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| Castell Dinas Bran |
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| Convoy hold up |
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| One gives up |
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| Pause for lunch in Trevor Arm |
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| The end of the arm |
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| Repairing the arm at Trevor |
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| Telford's masterpiece |
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| Crossing again |
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| Canoes waiting |
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| Froncysyllte Life Bridge |
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| Dining out |
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| Railway viaduct |
Thu 15th
June Offa’s Dyke to Paddock Bridge 8
We left our very pleasant
mooring, and followed a hire boat. We were soon negotiating Whitehouse Tunnel,
and then we met Toasty coming the other way. We had had chats with him at
Ellesmere, and he had provided toasties for the team on Saturday.
We went through Chirk
Tunnel, using torches once more. We had no waiting to do, and were straight
through across the aqueduct, back into England. The aqueduct itself appears to
be in no-mans land, as the Welcome to England sign, and the Welcome to Wales
sign are at opposite ends of the aqueduct.
Just after this, there
were moored boats on the left. A boat was coming through the narrow channel on
the right, so the hire boat in front of us pulled in to the left behind the
moored boats, to let the oncoming boat through on the right. The oncoming boat,
instead of continuing, pulled over in front of the hire boat, and the guy got
off and told off the hire boat crew, and pushed them out into the channel, so
that they could keep to the right, the usual passing position for boats. Then
we discovered that the oncoming boat was Esio Trot. They had had similar
argumentative encounters with some of our team before the mission. It seems
that the guy likes to assert authority.
The hire boat in front of
us were first timers, and quite slow. They wanted to moor at the Poachers
Pocket, but found it difficult to steer in to the side. Two crew got off
without ropes – not helpful. The guy on the helm then took the boat to the winding
hole, where he turned with his stern into the turning area (not generally a
clever idea as you might pick up things on the prop). When he returned to the
mooring spot his crew had gone to the pub, leaving him to moor the boat on his
own.
We continued past and
stopped briefly for lunch at Bridge 14/13. We found that the café that had once
been in a cottage by bridge 13 had gone – now just a private dwelling.
Moving on once more, we arrived at New Marton Locks and found a lock queue. It
was a bit confusing, as there is only space for three boats on the bollards
south of the bridge and before the lock, and queuing boats have to go onto the
water point bollards north of the bridge. It took an hour in the queue before
we reached the lock. One of the top paddles was not connecting properly.
We picked up a pipe fender on the prop, and James went down the weed hatch to disentangle the fender rope, which needed some action from our bread knife. The fender was OK, and James gave it to a guy from Eastern Europe who came from a boat called Kirianna nearby. We moved on a little way and moored before bridge 8, where we had shade. There were noisy sheep in the field opposite, several of whom had injured legs or feet. A dog was howling in a cottage nearby. A family of Mandarin Ducks came to visit.
Later
there was an animal splashing in the water, but we couldn’t see what it was in the gloom. It
disappeared under the water so it must have been a mink or an otter.
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| Leaving Whitehouse Tunnel |
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| Chirk Tunnel |
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| Out of the tunnel towards the aqueduct |
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| Chirk Aqueduct |
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| Back into England |
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| New Marton Locks |
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| Moored opposite the sheep |
2 locks, 7 miles, 2
tunnels, 1 aqueduct. 1045 Dep, arr 1300 Br 14. Dep 1335, arr 1620, Br 8.
Fri 16th
June Paddock Bridge 8 to Tetchill Br
63/64.
James had a go at
cleaning the starboard side of the boat this morning, as we have not moored on
this side for a few days.
We estimate that 8 out of
10 boats are hire boats at the moment, and at Whittington Wharf several were
having a changeover. This used to be called Maestermyn Marine, but it now
Bettisfield Boats. At least it is easier to pronounce!
We passed Frankton
Junction, where boats were in a queue for the locks. A hire boat ahead of us
had got stuck on a bend, and there was considerable revving and reversing
before they were free. They stopped where we had planned to, after bridge 67,
so we continued through Bridge 64, and found rings with shade. We hung out the
washing which dried very quickly. There was some sloping ground where we put
chairs and a table out. They had to be levelled by sinking the back legs in and
raising the front legs. We also had to rake up the loose grass left by the
mowers, to save bringing it into the boat. There was a lovely cool breeze, and
a buzzard circling.
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| Early morning light |
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| Turnover Bridge |
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| Moored at Tetchill |
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| Levelling up |
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| Buzzard |
Sat 17th
June Tetchill to Ellesmere
We had a little rain this
morning, so we waited for it to pass. That was our undoing, because several
boats passed us, and by the time we reached the Ellesmere Arm there were no
spaces left. On the way we paused at the facilities for water, elsan and
rubbish, and noticed Kirianna opposite, trading as a tea and coffee
boat. We moored on the two bollards by
the old Shropshire Union warehouse, and waited for a boat to leave. Hazel went
to meet Rachel in the church café, called “More Than a Sundae”.
In the end, no boats
left, so we stayed there. We went for an Indian meal in Asian Spices, which was
excellent. We have never before seen so many different variations of Chicken
Tikka on a menu! Sadly, no dessert menu, as we fancied a kulfi.
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| The water point at Ellesmere |
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| Moored by the warehouse |
Sun 18th
Jun Ellesmere
The hire boat opposite
departed, and we moved Gabriel across to their space. As we were tying
up, the rings we needed were missing, so James used the centre line to stop us
moving forward. As he flicked it up onto the roof, it caught the bathroom
porthole, and the glass fell onto the loo and smashed. What a mess!
We visited the Cellar
Church for their 10am Father’s Day service. Phil was preaching, and talked
about Mordecai, and how he acted as a good father to Esther. On the way back to
the boat we tried to find somewhere for lunch, and ended up having fish and chips
in the chippy.
We cleared up the glass
from the porthole, which had shattered into hundreds of bits. Rachel came
aboard for a chat with Hazel. Later it rained heavily. We had a Zoom call with
Jack and Sandra. During the call a guy knocked on the boat and said he wanted
to talk at some stage. He is moored at Blake Mere, where we have other team
members. He had been drinking, and he said he had lots to talk about, and he
was probably going to prison soon. Better to talk when he is sober.
No meaningful boating
today.
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| Broken glass |
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| What it should look like |
Next: Trying to sort
out some replacement glass in the morning, and then heading back down the
Llangollen in the direction of Wrenbury, Middlewich and Manchester.
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