Helo pawb. Sut ydych chi i gyd yn ei wneud? In our very best Welsh , this means “Hello everyone. How are you all doing?”
The Llangollen canal has not disappointed us. 41 miles of stunning scenery through the Shropshire hills and into Wales. Fortunately , as it is still out of season, there are very few other boaters on this canal and so we have been able to enjoy our travels at our own pace – well until we reached the famous aqueduct, that is!
Whilst there are only 21 locks on the Llangollen canal, our boating skills have been tested in many other ways.
First of all, there was the triple staircase lock at Grindley Brook to conquer. Unfortunately, there weren’t any ‘lockies’ on duty but we figured that we are now seasoned enough to be able to give it a go!
It was actually a breeze. You just need to follow the instructions, stay calm and vigilant and have faith in the engineering. It took us less than 20 mins to ascend the flight in front of an audience outside the cafe and we were off feeling very proud of ourselves, but not before Zak had demolished a dog ice cream that a walker treated him to.
The next challenge was to navigate the numerous lift bridges along the way. One of which has been out of action for a good few weeks and so we were a bit wary. Again though, we took these in our stride and even waved a much faster fellow boater through ahead of us.
I have to say though, I can’t help but look away when Paul goes through the lift bridges just in case the ropes snap and the heavy bridge falls down!
Then, there is another two tunnels to navigate. The first one was 459 yards long and the second was 191 yards. Both were extremely narrow with a low roof and no room to pass.
We were lucky enough to follow a boat through the first tunnel so they had to deal with any potential oncoming traffic. However, we did have a boozy day boat hire in hot pursuit behind us and they literally crashed into both sides of the tunnel before eventually getting in.
It was very daunting being in the pitch black with the noise of three engines reverberating around the tunnel. At one point, I thought that the hire boat was going to crash into the back of us and so I shouted at them to stay back, which they thankfully did.
When the tunnels are narrow with a walk path like these, we work as a team. Paul jumps off with the centre line so that he can pull the boat in tight if needed. I then drive us through it with Zak hiding between my legs. We have found that this works well for us.
Whilst on our travels through this beautiful countryside, we have also seen lots of birds pairing off for the mating season. It always makes me smile to see the numerous male ducks with their beautiful colours fighting over a single female duck with plain brown feathers. We also saw some of the geese with the yellow beaks that are a bit scary, they are certainly the most aggressive.
We celebrated the Spring equinox in Ellesmere with a lovely home cooked meal, a drink at a cool underground pub and I also planted some herbs, strawberries, tomatoes and chilli peppers which hopefully we will be able to eat this summer.
And now, the biggie you have all been waiting for! The famous Pontsysyllte Aquaduct. The aqueduct was built in 1795 – 1805 and designed by Thomas Telford. It is 307 metres long and there is a sheer drop of 126 feet on one side. It is quite deservedly one of the seven wonders of the canal system.
We moored up just before the aqueduct on Friday evening and walked across it to carry out a risk assessment! There was no debating that we would have the sides secured so that there was no danger of anyone falling off, oh and that Paul would drive us across it 🤣
Having carried out the risk assessment we went to steady our nerves at the local pub which is high up on the hillside and if you zoom in on the middle picture, you can see Daisy on her own on the starboard (right) side of the canal.
Whilst at the pub, we made good friends with a couple named Emma and Stryk, who are on their own adventures by campervan. They are from Stafford so hopefully our paths will cross again.
On the big day, we were joined by Lucy and Anthony and their boys Rupert & Bob (as they had previously missed out on the opportunity to traverse the aqueduct on their canoes when it was shut for repairs).
I managed to video a section of the journey across but have to say that the filming made me feel quite ill so I soon safely tucked myself back in the front of Daisy!
Enjoy!
Once safely across the aqueduct, it was then a four mile journey into Llangollen itself . The journey was slow and painful as the waterway is very shallow and narrow in places and only room for one boat to pass. This resulted in a number of stops and reverses. Paul did extremely well to stay calm as this section was also the busiest.
It was worth it though, Llangollen is a beautiful town nestled into the hills and the moorings have electric and water for £13 per night. Llangollen is very quaint and picturesque. It is clearly the place to be for water sports!
Tomorrow we will be setting the alarm for 5am so that we can be on our way by 6am in order to miss any traffic on the canal and aqueduct. Let’s just hope that no one coming the other way has the same idea!
The Montgomery canal is an arm off the Llangollen and that is where we are headed next!
We hope you are all well and look forward to hearing what you have been up to!
Lots of love, Paul, Jo, Zak & Daisy xxxx
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