Bye, Bye, Llangollen, Until November
(Pass your cursor over the picture to see the title)
Tuesday, 1st April
This is it! After five months of indolence, indulgence, eating, drinking, flying half way round the world (and back........), late get ups, etc., etc. we're off! Friend Cherry joined us yesterday, as she wants to go over the Ponty wotsit, and now we're setting off on the Grand Summer Voyage.
First, friends Beryl and Trevor came to join us. They were moored up here last winter, but now they have sold their boat and become land lubbers. We all had coffee together and then it was anchors away: well ropes, anyway, and up to the basin to turn the boat round.
(See that house, back left? I want it--it's for sale, trouble is, it's GBP695,000. And to think of the stink there was when BW wanted to create the basin--wrangling and negative comments. Now the houses have all gone up in price, by a suggested factor of 17.5%, because of the beautiful views of all the picturesque narrowboats!! And mooring there is still restricted to 48 hours. Seems like they've got it all ways........... There was even a complaint when the children of some boaters pitched a play tent there.)
Then we set off along the canal, towards its junction with the Shropshire Union, 46 miles and 21 locks away. I cycled ahead for the first couple of miles, as there are some narrow parts, cut through the rock, where two boats cannot pass. Then we put the bike back on and made our way to Trevor Basin--well we had got two Trevors on the boat! Here there is a sharp right hand turn onto the aqueduct. Over we went, in a really strong wind. We moored up on the other side, and took on water as we had some lunch. Then it was goodbye to Trevor and Beryl until November, and on along the canal.
We continued on, through the Whitehouse Tunnel and the Chirk Tunnel, then over the Chirk Aqueduct, with the railway running alongside on a most impressive viaduct. We moored eventually at St. Martins. It was so windy, I didn't need to steer into the side, the wind took us there any way. For supper we had a most delicious free range chicken, from Gwyn Davies the Meat in Llangollen. (I saw the Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall programmes--did you? It nearly made me a veggie, let alone not eat pink, watery, cruelly raised, tasteless, soggy cardboard battery hens. However, I digress.) Gwyn sells excellent meat and we bought all our meaty requirements from him whilst we were in Llangollen in the winter. When we left, we gave him an order to fill the freezer, and he packed everything individually, labelled it, froze it for us and even gave us a discount. We'll be back Gwyn!
Wednesday, 2nd April
Trev was up with the lark. By the time Cherry and I had surfaced, he'd walked across the fields to Stan's supermarket and had a breakfast there, bought some shopping and walked back. The weather was much better today, and we got through Marton Locks without a problem. They're really hard work in the wind, as they're exposed and the boats get blown against the banks and stay there--unless, of course, you have a wimpy bowthruster, in which case you press a button and off you come. But we like it hard! So we just keep fighting the wind and in about half an hour or so, we usually manage to get going again!
We passed 'Shush' and 'Bendigedig' moored up a little further on. Both of these boats were moored up with us in Llangollen for the winter. Apparently Bendigedig means Splendid in Welsh, and we all know what Shush means! We went past the end of the Montgomery Canal, and then encountered dredgers a little further on and had to wait about fifteen minutes whilst they finished what they were doing. Shush and Bendigedig caught up with us and we travelled together for a short while.
You can read their blogs:
Benbigedig's blog
(I'm still waiting for Shush's blog address.)
We pulled into the Ellesmere Arm to moor up for lunch. I must warn you that the part of the trip along the Llangollen became an eating extravaganza, and we both blame Cherry for it! We don't normally keep eating out.............much. So we had an excellent lunch at the Black Lion, Ellesmere, and their prices are very reasonable. We limited ourselves to one drink each, so that we didn't go back to the boat and fall asleep. We had miles to cover. The Ellesmere Arm is having a lot of work done on it, it should look good when it's finished. There will be new shops, cafes, offices, etc. if I understand correctly.
We eventually moored up between Bridges 49 & 50, and shortly after, Barbara and Mac came by on 'Doris'. They were on their way back to their moorings after three weeks out. We first met them on the Thames at Eynsham, and got on well together. They had been teachers too, and we had a lot in common. We arranged to meet in Nantwich on Saturday evening for a jar or three.
Thursday, 3rd April
A fairly uneventful day. We did twelve miles and nine locks--we have to get Cherry to Nantwich by Saturday--well we've had enough of her! (Not--she's good company, with a wicked sense of humour.) Tonight we moored up just above Marbury lock, and went to eat at the Swan in the village. It's an excellent pub, more like a restaurant really, and sadly it was my turn to pay! But I didn't begrudge it at all, it was so good.
Click here to read about the pub.
Friday, 4th April
This morning we went on down through Marbury lock, and then arrived at Wrenbury. We moored up and walked across the field and through the churchyard to the village. There's a good shop and post office here, and we stocked up with a few essentials. Then back to the boat and on through the three Baddesley and two Swanley locks, to moor up in one of our favourite spots, between bridges 4&5, ready for the last few miles and locks at the end of the Golly tomorrow. The weather was lovely today and we ate on board tonight.
Saturday, 5th April
We filled up with water at Hurleston, went down through the four locks and turned sharp right onto the Shropshire Union Canal right into Nantwich. There weren't many boats about, and it was a surprise to us that there was no mooring before the aqueduct. It was pretty full, with about 8 metre gaps between many of the boats. Most frustrating. If they had collected themselves together, and moored a bit smarter, we could have got in. Never mind. We went on over the aqueduct and moored on the other side of the residential mooring.
Cherry got her things together and we set off into Nantwich. She treated us to lunch at The Pillory Cafe, which was delicious, and then it was goodbyes all round as we left her at the station to wait for her train. We shall probably see her again in August, when we pass through Warwick. We did some shopping and then walked back to the boat. In the evening, Barbara and Mac came to pick us up and we went to a delightful pub, the name of which quite escapes me, except it wasn't far from Wrenbury, and had an Indian name.
I shall leave you here my friends, and start my next page in about a week, with the Shropshire Union section. Thank you for coming back to read the website after such a long period of no postings. I hope to post each week now.
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