Llangollen Tuesday 27 December 2016

Well there was no queue of boats waiting to fill with water at the two waterpoints where we moored last night, but I did fill the tank before we left. It was quite cold this morning with the coldest time being about 9 am this morning when it was just above freezing. The valley however was covered in frost when we left at 10 o’clock..

There was not a breath of wind, but thankfully no fog, I couldn’t take a photo of our shadow in the valley as we crossed the aqueduct because the sun was still low and behind us, but I did get one of the reflection looking towards Trevor with not a ripple in sight.

As we neared the far end of the aqueduct Diana spotted a hire boat approaching Trevor from the Llangollen, so we held back at the end of the aqueduct to let him exit the bridge and turn. We weren’t sure if he would be coming our way or going into the hire yard, in the end he just went straight before coming our way. The basin was full of canoes and one couple in a Canadian canoe, I don’t think they were with the others decided to sit on the inside of the bend as you turn under the bridge, it could well be why the hire boat went straight across. The main group kept well out of the way.

The first section after leaving Trevor is in a concrete channel and the bottom is quite bumpy, we bounce a couple of time going up this section. CRT have now erected small notices saying it single file and keep to the centre. It must be important because they were prepared to invest in an A4 print for them.

One thing that keeps coming into view as you do this stretch of canal is Castell Dinas Bran which is the ruins of a hill top castle originally built in 1073.  In this photo it was dead ahead of us but as you approach Llangollen it is off to your right.

The canal between Trevor and Llangollen has several narrow sections where there is not room for boats to pass, one of these has a passing layby and a boat was just at that layby as we had entered the narrows so waited until we passed. Going up is very slow, not only is the channel shallow and narrow there is also the flow coming the other way and it all has to get round the boat somehow. The best bit of luck was meeting the trip boat just leaving Llangollen at a wide point. We carried up into the basin and moored to one of the pontoons for a couple of hours to walk into town. In previous years Llangollen has been full of boats who have taken a winter mooring, this year there are only 4.

After our walk around the town we returned to Harnser and set sail, I have no desire to pay to moor on a duck poo covered pontoon that is only half the length of the boat overnight.
Again Lady Luck was with us and we met the rip boat coming back just after we had cleared the long narrow section, we continued down past the lift bridge to where there is approximately 100Mt  of piling on a straight bank and tucked in there for the night with 3 other boats. Talking to one of the others who is moored here, the chap single handing the boat moored at out bow is only 89 years old. That has given me hope for the future.

Today’s Journey   5¾ miles in 3¼ hours with no locks.