THE BIG SUMMER CRUISE--September 8th--14th


Monday, 8th September
We walked in to Whitchurch and found the railway station.
It was time to say goodbye to Cherry. We'd had a great time.
She's very good company, with a great sense of humour.
She told us that she spent a fortune on a trip on the Nile
and not had nearly as much fun as she'd had on this cruise! Praise indeed.
We shopped in Whitchurch and bought so much
we couldn't see how we would get it back to the boat.
But, as we came out of Tesco's, there was a bus,
and it was going right by the canal.
So that solved the problem.

Tuesday, 9th September
Trev cycled in to Whitchurch and picked up our post
and the new mouse for the computer,
which had all been sent Poste Restante to the PO.
We carried on along the canal, to Ellesmere, where we moored for the night.
It was chilly this evening, so we lit the fire.
It's very cosy on board when the fire's going, a sort of safe cocoon!

Wednesday, 10th September
We walked in to Ellesmere. It's not a very attractive town,
but it had an excellent deli, where we spent far too much on treats!
We made up for it by going in to the Ellesmere Hotel and ordering coffee,
expecting it to be expensive, and it was £1 for two large mugs, albeit instant.
As we came back to the boat, we chatted with some Americans
who were on a boating holiday,
and who came from Vermont. We were able to swap a few anecdotes,
as we've been to Vermont, and it turned out they were UU's.

NOW............you'll have no idea what UU's are!
Well, some of you will know that I'm a Unitarian.
And some of you will also know that we have good friends in The States,
Judy & Leonard--at whose doorstep, incidentally,
a large part of the blame for our now living on a narrowboat
may firmly be laid, but that's another story!
Well, in America, Unitarians are called Unitarian Universalists, UU's for short,
and Judy and Leonard are UU's. We've met a lot of UU's through them.
So we had another strand in common with these Americans from Vermont.

After that digression
--but I am determined to give you these educational nuggets as we go along!--
we started up the engine and moved off, but only for a few hundred yards
before the heavens opened, and we moored up again and stayed put for the night.
Big treat night tonight--we had a Chinese take away.
There aren't many of these along the canal.

Thursday, 11th September
Two years ago today, we were on a canal hire boat with my brother and sister-in-law and two other friends.
We were passing the Shroppie Fly, a pub on the Audlem Flight,
when someone called out to tell us about the dreadful events in New York.
We really couldn't take it in, and, as we didn't have a tv on the boat,
we stopped at the Shroppie Fly and went in to see our worst fears confirmed on their tv.

Today is a much better day, thank heavens.

We continued on along the canal, through some of the UK's best scenery.
We're in Wales, and the richness of the greenery is beautiful.
And, at last, we reached the first part of our goal--the Pontcyssylte Aqueduct.
We had talked so often of reaching this on our own boat,
and could hardly believe that we'd done it.

You can see from the picture, I hope, that there is a towpath with railings on one side,
but nothing except a 4" ledge on the other!
Once, when we were walking across the aqueduct some years ago,
there was a hire boat coming across,
and one of its occupants was walking on the 4" ledge, holding on to the boat as he went.
There's a 120' drop, and absolutely no need whatsoever to walk on the ledge.
It made us feel sick, we couldn't bear to watch.



We had several toasts, and then several more.
At the end of the aqueduct, at a place called Trevor,
there's a sharp turn left on to the last four miles of the canal.
(The Llangollen canal is a cul-de-sac.)
It's fed by the River Dee, and so there's quite a current on it.
We were really lucky tonight, as we didn't meet one boat.
The Llangollen is one of the most popular canals, and is often choked with boats.
This is one of the reasons we've taken our time getting here,
we wanted to miss the school holidays.
It was quite late in the evening, and in the end we had to moor up
a mile or so before the end, as it was too dark to see.



Friday, 12th September
Today we reached the final goal of our journey, the end of the Llangollen canal.
It's very narrow towards the end, often only one boat's width,
as it's cut out from the rock in places.
The narrowness of the channel, combined with the current
meant that we really had to rev the engine up to make headway.
At several points there are notices telling you not to proceed
until you've made sure there are no boats coming the other way.
The one way stretches are quite long--500 metres--
so I went ahead on "Colin's bike"
and phoned back to tell Trev it was OK to proceed.
It must be difficult to tell each other if it's OK to go ahead
if you don't have two phones and/or a bike.
By the time you'd got back to say it was OK,
a boat might have started to come towards you!

As we went down here quite early in the morning,
we were able to get through with little bother.
We went right to the end, winded and came back,
and we were lucky in finding a mooring spot right near the path in to town.

We walked in to Llangollen, only a few hundred yards,
and checked out the Steam Train timetable for a ride tomorrow.
We also found a lovely pub, a converted cornmill,
right on the river, where we shall eat tonight.
Such courage, valour and intrepidness (or is it intrepidity?!)
as we have shown over this long and arduous trip (!) needed rewarding.
So we had a drink at The Cornmill, just to make sure it was OK.
We got talking to another couple on our table,
both of whom had been teachers,
but had now taken career changes.
Like us, and so many of our friends, they had no regrets.

The meal at the Cornmill came up to scratch, even though the waitress only ordered one steak, not two!
So Trev had finished his by the time mine arrived.
Those of you who know us well, and who know particularly Trev's eating habits,
will know that it was the wisest thing to let him have the first one
to come from the kitchen!

Saturday, 13th September
Today we caught the Llangollen Steam train, and saw some more of the lovely countryside.



At the far end, there is a little station called Carrog, and a lovely pub, The Grouse.
It must have one of the best views in the world,
and we sat there for a couple of hours
drinking in the view, and the wine!
In the evening we walked up to the Horseshoe Falls to see the source of the canal.



The water is routed from the river Dee down the Llangollen canal
but at this point it is too narrow to accept boats.

Sunday, 14th September
And so, today we set off on the long haul "home" if home is where we moor!
I'm not quite sure I know where home is now!
I rode on ahead to check out the narrow bits.
It was much busier today than when we came up, because a lot of hire boats
change over on a Saturday, and they all start by going to the end of the Llangollen.
The steerers are often out for the first time, and don't always believe
the instruction about the one way bit of the canal.
Nor do they believe the bit they're told by the hire company,
that they shouldn't exceed 4 mph.
We were lucky when we were moored in Llangollen,
but other boats were hit by a hirer
who came through very early one morning,
and who seemed to think that the only way to do it was FAST.

At Trevor, where we had to do a right hand turn on to the aqueduct, there was almost a gridlock,
due to boats coming across the aqueduct in to the basin,
and not allowing any of us to go across.
(I don't think I mentioned that the aqueduct is only one way.)
We continued through two tunnels and another aqueduct, the Froncyssylte,
and eventually moored up in a lovely spot, on our own, totally peaceful.

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