Big Push to Llangollen

We left our mooring at Wrenbury on Saturday morning and, after a couple of swing bridges we were soon at our first lock.

Marbury lock has a pretty and well kept cottage next to it and heralds the start of a quartet of locks with the consequent (and rather quaint) names of Quoisley, Willey Moor and Povey.

A bit further on and we tackled the six locks at Grindley Brook. The last three being a staircase set next to the busy little café where the “gongoozlers” can sit and watch us over their elevenses.

Along the way we come across a boat with a name we know well -  this is for you Vicky B!

We tackled the horseshoe bend and lift bridge at Whitchurch soon after Grindley Brook and then, before long, found ourselves in the middle-of-nowhere. It would have been sacrilege not to take up the offer of a delightful mooring in this picturesque area around Fenn’s Wood.

Sunday morning didn’t start off with the intention of a big push forward but it turned out like that in more ways than one.  After the rather boring mile long straights before and after Prees Junction (although they do border the lovely Nature Reserve known as Fenn’s, Whixall & Bettisfield Mosses) we passed from Shropshire into Wales and were soon enjoying the lovely Meres either side of the canal approaching Ellesmere. The heavy, tree-lined section of the canal at this point gives only tantalising bright glimpses of the waters on each side.

After the Ellesmere junction our comparative solitude changed rapidly with the most hire boats we’ve ever had the misfortune to experience. Two hours of hilarious chaos was our enjoyment – we’d happily have bought tickets for the entertainment value!

The hours passed and so to did Frankton Junction where the Montgomery Canal branches off. We continued on and eventually, after a tedious hold up at New Marton locks (where the aforesaid hire boaters had their very first encounter with a lock! – and where Doug volunteered his enthusiastic and efficient labour to get ten hire boats and their bemused crews through in an hour), we got to the superb Chirk Aqueduct. Paralleled by the railway viaduct as well, it’s a good practice run for the next  aqueduct ……….

………. the 1000 foot long, 127 foot high Pontcysyllte! Pronounced ‘Pont-ker-sulth-tee’ it’s famous for putting the fear of God into many narrow boaters – including James!

It consists of an iron trough supported by eighteen stone piers. Completed in 1805 it’s, arguably, Thomas Telford’s most outstanding achievement.

The tiny, four inch thick trough wall is the only thing that stops us from plummeting down ………

……… and into the River Dee below!

That’s why James walks across and Doug has to steer!

Immediately after the aqueduct the canal branches sharp left at Trevor and we were then onto the last leg of our journey to reach the end of the line at Llangollen. The reason for the enormous ‘push’ to get the miles under our belt this Sunday was because of the chance of a first meeting with some fellow boaters and blog readers who were already at Llangollen and about to leave on Monday! The scenery gets very “Welsh” on this last section with glorious views mountains, valleys, hills and trees.

The ‘push’ took on a different meaning as we tackled two sections of one-way working. The canal is so narrow that only one boat at a time can use it. Along with the difficulties of the narrow channel is the fact that a proportion of the River Dee has been diverted is flowing against us! It seemed that someone had decided to divert a bigger percentage of the river than we’d experienced on our last journey up to the pretty Welsh town and it seemed to take forever as “Chance” struggled against the flow.

Once in and safely moored up in the Llangollen basin we entertained the folks we’d ‘pushed’ to see after our ten hours of cruising – from nb “Cleddau! and nb “Tentatrice” we met Ken and Sue and Chris and Jennie. They were the perfect guests of course as they brought two bottles of Champers to celebrate our long awaited meeting. Ken, Chris, Jennie, Doug and Sue. The long day’s travel was very much worth it as we had a lovely, laughter filled evening together. Very nice to meet you all and safe cruising! 

On Monday we had a walk up towards the far end of the canal, where the river is diverted to form the canal, and on the way got a lovely view of the basin with “Chance” in the far corner.

The aim of our walk, apart from gaining some well overdue exercise, was to visit the Chain Bridge hotel at Berwyn and the adjacent, and recently restored, Chain Bridge.

Made perfect again in 2015 it’s said to be one of the oldest chain bridges in the Western World and it had been languishing unused and deteriorating since the 1980’s.

It’s been beautifully restored and, true to most chain bridges, it’s rather bouncy when you walk across! Guess who was the first to jump up and down?

Getting the bus back from Berwyn to Llangollen saved our legs on the two miles distance (what happened to the exercise?!) and we had time to enjoy the town with the swift flowing River Dee running through it.

We were in time to witness some very skilful kayaking on the white water rapids next to the town bridge (all three successfully tackled this spot) before enjoying a late lunch in one of the many pubs available.

As always, Llangollen puts on a wonderful floral display around the town for the benefit of its summer visitors.

Returning to “Chance” mid afternoon and we had time to get some housework done and for James to make progress on some winter preparation and maintenance before hunkering down for the evening.

“Don’t Worry, Be Happy!”

On Wednesday we took the train from Nantwich to Macclesfield to attend the funeral of Elaine McBride. Having met Paul and Elaine for the first time some years ago on a River Thames tideway cruising outing, we never thought that we would be meeting up with so many of their friends and family on such a sad occasion.

As we heard from Paul’s tribute to Elaine during the service, she was a bright, vivacious and deeply caring human being and, although taken from this life so soon, her life was wonderfully and beautifully lived. The very moving service, approved and planned by Elaine herself, ended with her message to all of us in the the song “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”. God Bless you Elaine!

Returning from Macclesfield we needed a very speedy wash and brush up on “Chance” before taking the train to Manchester to meet up with friend Donroy for dinner.

We also had the pleasure of meeting Roy, a long term family friend of Donroy and his husband Will where we all had a marvellous Thai meal at Vivid Lounge in Piccadilly Village.

We spent the night, and much of Thursday, in Manchester before training it back to Nantwich where we began an evening cruise onto the Llangollen Canal.

Evening cruising is not the norm for us but we really enjoyed the last hours of the day. Here we are at the foot of the Hurleston flight of locks which took us up the 34 feet onto the Llangollen.

If we didn’t know which way to go the signs are clear enough!

It’s soon apparent as you start cruising that the canal takes about 10% of the flow of the River Dee up at Llangollen to feed Chester’s water requirements and the flow against us makes the bridge ‘oles a bit dodgy to get through sometimes. However, it certainly doesn’t detract from the canal’s lovely tranquil surroundings.

As the light began to fade we worked our first two locks at Swanley …….

……. after which the three locks at Baddiley required headlights!

Once through Baddiley locks we thought we ought to soon moor up for the night! Our tiny, but incredibly bright, LED headlights did their job well for the last half hour of the journey and had got us to where we wanted to be.

On Friday, after a very quiet and dark night in the heart of the countryside, we made the short hop to Wrenbury where we’d planned to meet up with friends Paul and Chris who were on holiday in the area. We had a nice pub lunch in the Cotton Arms before returning to “Chance” for coffee and drinks. Paul and Doug are the ‘clowns’ as you can see!!!!!!

Chris, James, Doug and Paul. Thanks guys for travelling to see us we had a great day with you (and thanks also to our blog readers and fellow boaters on nb “3 No Trumps” for coming to say Hello!).

Meet-ups Galore!

We were soon in Middlewich after leaving our mooring on the “flashes” at the ungodly hour of 7 o’ clock. We had a good passage through the locks as there were few people around at 8:00.

Turning right at Middlewich to get onto the Middlewich Arm of Shropshire Union Canal we use the shortest canal in the country: the Wardle Canal at just 154 feet long. This is it – from the bridge to Wardle lock 150 feet ahead!

We don’t know why but Wardle lock seems to have something which others don’t. It’s good to see Maureen’s old lock cottage is now being lived in.

The views from the Middlewich Arm across the countryside are truly wonderful. A great pleasure on a nice day.

We’d got a ‘wiggle’ on to get to Nantwich by mid afternoon as we only had a small ‘window’ in which to catch up with our dear friends Eileen and Bill before they left for a holiday. We had coffee at the little café in Nantwich marina before going back to their home for a chat and a glass of wine with them. Marvellous to catch up with them and it was well worth starting early that morning in order to see them.

Another lovely meet–up on Sunday evening was with boating friends Richard and Sue (nb “Indigo Dream”). We haven’t seen them for quite a while so it was a well overdue catch-up chat and over a lovely meal at The Thatch, at Faddiley.

Sue and Richard also popped in on Monday morning with a couple of jars of Sue’s wonderful (fund raising) marmalade. They also came armed with four of the most enormous cakes which went down very well with a fresh brew of coffee. So very good to see them both again.

These are a few views of charming Nantwich – so rich in history and architecture. The parish church has an unusual octagonal tower.

Much timbered construction to be enjoyed.

The River Weaver flows quietly through the town.

The superb Black Lion pub just has to be frequented when you visit the town.

The CAMRA pub is sensational inside ……..

…… it’s olde world charm is very inviting ………

…… and it’s garden space is very snug and lovely.

While relaxing back on board ”Chance”,  nb “Inca” with Gary and Carolyn on board came past. We haven’t see them for a very long time. We had a good boat-to-boat chat and Carolyn gave us a jar of her newly made damson jam. Thank you guys for stopping for a chat and a lovely reminder of our Devon years.

On Tuesday afternoon our dear friend George, who’d recently entertained us with a wonderful evening at his home at Stockton Heath, arrived in his superbly turned out boat “Lady Patricia”. He, and friend David, came round to dinner on “Chance” where we were enjoying a relaxing time when, suddenly, there was one of those ‘exciting moments’ on the canal.

A “floating home” shall we call it (!) was approaching, at tick over speed very thankfully, with the steerer completely the worse for wear! He hadn’t a clue which way he was going or what he collided with.

After fending him away from “Chance” three times George and James headed round to where “Lady Patricia” was moored to do the same there. You couldn’t really be angry with him as he was such a happy man!

He even smiled for the camera! We don’t know who he was (and he probably doesn’t know himself come to that!) but we wish him well and hope he got to his destination safely!

Next to “Lady Patricia” was the lovely, Hudson boat “Barolo”, owned by blog readers, who were very grateful for the help to protect their boat as well.

Anyway, back to dinner on “Chance”. Manchester friend Donroy had arrived for dinner during the exciting proceedings and we all had a hoot of evening together. Doug, Donroy, George and David. Thanks for making the evening such a fun occasion all of you.