A multinational border crossing, lunch with friends and queueing for the locks…

After a few days sitting watching the boats go by we decided it was time to move on. Waiting for a gap in the passing traffic we set off, heading for Whitehouse Tunnel. Unfortunate timing though, with a boat heading through which turned out to be two…
…Then a third came in just as the second came out! That’s the problem with these tunnels and aqueducts, they’re all single width and if a boat crew sees a boat moving away from them they’ll dive in no matter who’s waiting.

By the time we got in we were leading a short convoy with two behind us.

There’s about a mile between Whitehouse and Chirk Tunnels, and once again there were boats coming through so we had to pull over. Roll on those quiet winter months!
This time though it was a longer wait, long enough that there were five of us waiting by the time the tunnel was clear.


But fortunately Chirk Aqueduct was empty so we were able to scuttle across there without delay. It would have been interesting with all these boats if we’d had to wait in the intermediate basin…

Crossing the aqueduct back into England I looked back at the family of Texans immediately behind, a day boat full of Irish after them and two Japanese couples tagging along. The final boat was English though.

It was just before noon that we pulled in outside The Poachers at Gledrid Bridge.

We stayed put yesterday, Val and John came over and we treated them to lunch for all the help they’ve been while we’ve been in this neck of the woods.

Waiting for lunch at The Poachers.
We had a very convivial afternoon, and a couple of pints of Hobgoblin washed the meal down nicely.

There was another family looking for lunch too…

So this morning, in bright sunshine after a cold night, we left Gledrid heading towards Ellesmere.

We’d decided to have gentle days to get there on Friday before the mayhem of another Bank Holiday weekend descended.
The popular moorings here had emptied yesterday and first thing this morning; with us off as well that left just two boats.

We both commented on the fact that there seemed to be few boats about, but of course we had to meet one at the awkward Moreton Bridge.
Hello the crew of Calon Lân, thanks for reading the blog! have a good trip.

There was one boat on the water point above New Marton Locks as we pulled in to top up our own tank. There were a couple of boats waiting to go down Top Lock, but they kept on coming and by the time we filled we were fourth or fifth in the queue. At least we hadn’t far to go, unlike some of those waiting that were heading for Ellesmere today!

Queueing at New Marton Top Lock

It was slow going, with a lot of the crews being inexperienced, but we all helped each other and shuffled along until it was our turn. A couple waiting below dropped us down, then we had the quarter-mile to the bottom lock where we had another short wait but the queue had thinned considerably.

After descending this one we pulled in on a pleasantly open bit of towpath to enjoy the sunshine.


Tomorrow we’ll head past Frankton to moor near Coachman’s Bridge.

Locks 2, miles 6¼