Back over the border and on to Trevor.

On Friday morning we moved the short distance to the moorings outside The Poachers at Gledrid. Here we met Richard on Mountbatten, taking advantage of a window between the finish of one set of stoppages and the start of the next, at Maestermyn. With him arriving by boat instead of by van, we could fill the fuel tank and take several bags of solid fuel as well as a replacement gas cylinder.

Part way through the delivery I had to leave, though. Val and John had arrived a little earlier to take Meg and I up to the Chirk vet, and time was pressing so Mags dealt with paying for the fuel and seeing Richard off.
The vet was pleased with Meg’s steady improvement, and agreed that we should halve the steroid dosage to 5mg every other day. If there’s no problems we’ll stop them completely in a fortnight. That’s the problem with long term steroid use, you have to slowly reduce the dosage over time or the dog can have an adverse reaction. So far so good… If she does start to suffer with arthritis again we’ll be able to use the Metacam anti- inflammatory that she’s been on for the last three years or so, but only when the steroids have cleared through her system.

So on Saturday we moved on, to moor near Chirk Marina.

A beautiful morning as we turn onto Chirk Bank

More daffs out now near Monks Bridge


Crossing over the River Ceiriog into Wales – again!

As I swung round to enter Chirk Tunnel at the end of the aqueduct I could see the silhouettes of several canoes against the light from the west portal. Not being able to tell whether they were coming or going I waited in the basin for a few minutes until it was clear they were moving away, then followed them through.
They pulled in to let us pass in the cutting…



Chirk Marina

We spent Saturday and Sunday evenings just along here, then set off again this morning. A bit damp and drizzly, but not too bad.

Whitehouse Tunnel.

I made a mistake by putting some fuel on the fire, forgetting how close the tunnel was. Luckily the draught was blowing the same way as us, taking the smoke forward… Made a couple walking on the towpath cough a bit, though.

We’d just got Fron Lift Bridge up when another boat came around the corner from the direction of Trevor, so I didn’t have to drop it again after Mags had gone through.

We topped up the water tank then crossed over the Dee on Pontcysylte Aqueduct.

Looking up the valley from near the lift bridge. It really is pretty impressive...

Looking upstream, the cloud is on the tops and it looks gloomy.

But it’s brighter to the east.

We wiggled our way through the chicane formed by the moored up Anglo-Welsh hire boats on the Trevor Arm, then turned at the bottom and moored up.

Mags photo-bombing a picture looking back up the arm 

A couple of nights here, I guess.

Hi Alf. Owl nesting boxes, eh. It seems they put them up in pairs. One for the wife and kids and one for Dad to get away for a bit…

Hi Jennifer. I couldn’t just leave Shaun there, could I. You’ll be due across some time soon, won’t you? Might get to meet up. Hope so.

Locks 0, miles 5¾