Heading back…

After a couple of days moored at Trevor we’re now heading back downstream towards the Shropshire Union. We decided not to go all the way to Llangollen, it’s too busy at this time of year and I reckon we’d have spent most of the trip scraping the bottom as we avoided oncoming boats.

Yesterday we spent a lovely afternoon with friends Val and John. Lovely as in the weather, lovely as in the company.

Mags enjoying the sunshine in the garden.
It really has been a fine few days, but it’s set to change again this weekend. Still, it was good while it lasted.

Pontcysyllte Aqueduct from just upstream on the Dee
Pity about the water treatment plant pumping station, though.

Leaving the Trevor Branch this morning.

We dropped lucky at the aqueduct, just a couple of boats heading across to wait for.







Our shadow cast down onto the football field below

Then we filled up with water at the Fron moorings and toddled around the corner, through the lift bridge and past the limekiln moorings.

If we’d left a half-hour later we’d have to wait for the six or seven boat convoy we met after the moorings. They just kept coming…

Thankfully there was no-one coming at that awkward bend under Irish Bridge.

We didn’t go much further, past Whitehouse Bridge and pulling over on the moorings before the tunnel.


We’re going to have a steady trip back to Hurleston then decide which way to turn when we get there.

Locks 0, miles 2½

Two tunnels, two aqueducts and lots of boats…

Okay, so what have we been up to since the last post. Well, we left the Poacher’s moorings on Friday morning, an overcast sort of day but dry, at least. We were heading round onto Chirk Bank, then across the aqueduct carrying the canal over the River Ceiriog, and over the border into Wales.

The bluebells are out near Monk’s Bridge

We were hoping we’d timed it right to get across the single width Chirk Aqueduct and through Chirk Tunnel without having to queue or wait for boats coming the other way. And that’s how it turned out.

Chirk Aqueduct, with the slightly later railway viaduct alongside.





Into the tunnel.

The tunnels and aqueducts make slow going, pushing against the steady flow running down from Horseshoe Falls.

By the time we emerged back into daylight there were a couple of boats waiting to go through the other way.


Through Chirk Tunnel cutting.


We needed diesel so pulled into Chirk Marina, a bit tight to turn around but we got onto a pontoon and had to wait for half an hour or so before we were dealt with.
I’d already rung to ask about convenient times and days, with hire fleets to service and turn around it’s not always possible for private boats to be helped at the marinas. I was told to be there before noon, and we pulled in at around half-ten, leaving soon after eleven.
I expected an eye-watering bill for the 140 litres we took on board, but in fact the base rate for the diesel was a very reasonable 75p per litre. And we could self-declare our usual 20%/80% split.

Out of the marina and we pulled in just a few hundred yards on.

A job I’d been putting off for a while was the cleaning and painting of the swim under the battery tray. There’s no room to get in there without removing the batteries, quite a big deal.

So I set to first thing on Saturday, disconnecting and removing the six batteries, then connecting temporary leads to a couple of them to keep the water pump and fridge and freezer running. Then I had to cut the ½” ply base board in half to get it out, as the cabinet work had been completed before the electrical gubbins was installed. I could have removed the invertor, charge controller, solar panel MPPT, fuse boxes for the invertor and VSR and the Voltage Sensitive Relay itself, but that would have been a step too far!

With the floor of the compartment out the steel of the inner surface of the swim was exposed in all it’s glory, and it wasn’t as bad as I supposed. Being close to open cell lead acid batteries for a considerable time had stripped some of the paint and started to rust the exposed steel, but it was only on the surface. (Remember the 1960s motor cars with the battery in a tray on the inner wing? In a couple of years the tray had started to disintegrate, another couple of years after that the inner wing had gone the same way!)

A good wire brushing…


…followed by a couple of coats of Hammerite…
…should see it through the next several years.

All re-assembled and running again by half-six.

There were a few bits and pieces to sort out on Sunday, cable runs to clip neatly, things like that, then I could put my feet up.

So yesterday (Monday) we were on the move again. Whitehouse Tunnel was around the corner, it’s short and is the only one you can see through without sticking your nose in if you’re heading west.

Whitehouse Tunnel, you can see if anyone’s coming from a distance.

An awkward left turn takes the canal along the slope above the Dee Valley.

A fleeting glimpse through the trees of THAT Ponty-watsit aqueduct!

Just after Fron Lift Bridge the canal makes a right turn, heading for the crossing over the Dee. Up until now we’d only seen two or three boats, but it was all to change as we waited for the water tank to fill at the end of the Fron long-term moorings.

We had to hold off while a couple of boats came across the aqueduct, then set off ourselves, following a hirer. Another two joined our little convoy shortly after we’d embarked on the crossing.

Over the Dee.




Mags didn’t like me getting off to take photos…

Instead of turning left under the bridge to Llangollen we went straight on, past the Anglo-Welsh base and under the bridge into Trevor Basin. We’d hoped to moor here, but alas there was no room, so we came back out and moored on the left side just before the footbridge.
I’m glad we came in when we did, the two following boats also tried the basin and had to turn around, and there’s not a lot of room. Then Jones the Boat, the trip boat that runs across the aqueduct from there turned up, and they took half an hour to get themselves sorted out.
Meanwhile we were say smugly on the only free mooring in the place…
In the winter both sides of the arm leading to the basin are full of hire boats laid up for the off-season. But at this time of year you can moor on the east side – if there’s space!

Locks 0, miles 5 (since The Poacher’s)

We’ve never seen it so busy…

If this is what it’s like on here in April and May, I’d hate to be heading up to Llangollen in the summer!

It’s been about a week again since I last posted. To be frank there’s nothing much to say, the number of times we’ve come this way I’ve pretty well said it all!

We headed to Ellesmere last Wednesday, passing the base of the Lyneal Trust where the charity’s boats are based.

Huddled together to keep warm…


After a few miles of beautiful open countryside, the canal now enters the wooded area surrounding The Meres, like the Mosses further downstream an ancient landscape dating back to the last Ice Age.

As the ice melted it left a network of shallow lakes or meres filled by meltwater. Some of the smaller ones filled with vegetation over time, which decayed and formed peat in the mosses around Whixall. But these have remained open, the largest, Ellesmere, sitting to the west of the town of the same name.

The wooded section ends at the ridge that is pierced by 87 yard Ellesmere Tunnel, then there’s about ¾ of a mile to the junction with the short Ellesmere Arm.



We pulled into the arm to moor for a couple of days.

So on Saturday we were on the move again, pausing to fill the water tank and dispose of rubbish and recycling at the old wharf.

Ellesmere Wharf was the canal company’s main maintenance depot, with workshops to cater for the needs of the boats. Alongside is Beech House, once the company offices and residence of Thomas Telford, now apartments.

The lambs are getting fat now…


Beautiful countryside.
It was bright and sunny but that wind from the northeast kept the temperature down to around 10°.

We found a pleasant spot to moor past Coachman’s Bridge, open to the sun but sheltered by a hedge to windward. A field of rape wafted it’s perfume across to us.

Come Monday we were on the way again, joining the procession of boats heading west. Ahead of us the canal twists through a series of bends and blind bridges as it winds around Val Hill, not a place to meet oncoming boats.


Of course it was inevitable that we would…
But only the one, luckily.

The last time we came this way this field was full of sheep - eating turnips, or should that be sheep, eating turnips?


Clear…


…and clear again!

Looking west across Shropshire to the hills on the Welsh Border beyond Oswestry.

Frankton Junction was a little frantic as we came past, with one boat winding and another trying to turn in towards the locks.

Both trying to avoid a couple of grumpy anglers.



The bridges from here to Llangollen are now numbered starting from one again, with a suffix”W” to avoid confusion. This is because the original line should have followed what we now call the Montgomery Canal.






The awkward Maestermyn Bridge, with The Narrowboat Inn just beyond.

The fine curved brickwork of Bridge 6W carries the towpath over to the left side.

We pulled in yesterday lunchtime below New Marton Locks, and spent the afternoon watching boat after boat passing in both directions.

The early rush of a half-dozen boats passed us this morning before we were ready to move on. We just hit it right, one boat was just going up New Marton Bottom Lock as we arrived.

It’s only 5 minutes between the two locks, and we caught up again at the top lock. There was a hirer waiting to come down, and judging by the lady steerer’s stress levels she’s not going to forget this holiday in a hurry! I gave them a run-down on locking principals and practice and helped them down. I hope they managed ok on the next one…

Mags finally coming up New Marton Top Lock

We topped up the water tank above the lock then toddled on, across St. Martin’s Moor. The open flat land to the southwest can make it challenging on a windy day, but today the wind was light.


An hour’s gentle cruising and we arrived at our destination, the moorings near the Poacher’s Pocket.
 
We arrived at the right time, there were a couple of spaces to choose from, but now it’s full.

We’ll be here for a day or two now.

Locks 2, miles 14 (since last post)