Hindford

Last night about half seven we had visitors who came for a drink, just a quickie and they were off again.

It was a wise move going up and winding last night as 4 boats had come down before we set off at 9AM this morning.  We had quite a good run down, these paddle boarders pulled in hard to the side as I

passed them, the sun was low and in my eyes so the photo was taken looking back. Into the narrows, Diana walked round the first bend to make sure all was clear and off we went, no problem until the last 50 yards when a hire boat who must have seen us came through the bridge into the narrows, luckily at that point with him in the brambles there is just room to pass. Someone has put a small garden which looks well tended around this seat.

Luckily we didn’t meet anyone as we approached Trevor Basin  or in the narrow, shallow section just above it. Trevor basin was well packed with hire boats getting ready for the off.

We had a short wait at the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct for one boat coming across which was lucky as once we had crossed with the photo of our shadow below

there were 2 boats waiting to cross and two more the other side of the lift bridge. At Whitehouse Tunnel there was already a boat waiting and one coming through, the boat waiting invited us to go first. At Chirk tunnel it was straight through catching up with a day boat just entering the Aqueduct so straight across there as well. At Chirk bank they now have community allotments on a piece of land owned by CRT which they no longer use, run by the Chirk Bank Community Group

I think CRT must employ some very fast walkers as this fingerboard is on the towpath by bridge 17W and the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct is about 5 miles away. Maybe they meant Chirk Aqueduct, well its on the same canal.

We got as far as bridge 13W and there were 2 boats moored just before the bridge, the chap on the back one waved me down and explained there were 3 hire boat at different angles all aground just through the bridge with different people with poles and ropes getting them back in the channel, it was soon sorted and we were all on our way but with 5 boats just ahead and New Martin locks not far away I decided to pull over and do an oil and filter change plus top up the batteries, its a job I do every 250 hrs. While we were stopped I walked back to the tree with the Ukraine colours painted on it and found this notice.

Once I had had finished in the engine hole we set off again, the canal is much busier today and there was a boat just coming up the lock as we arrived, down at New Martin bottom lock there was a queue of 5 to come up. We continued on with a view to mooring outside the now closed Jack Mitton pub but the only bit without overhanging trees was occupied so we carried on to the 48 hour moorings just below bridge 10W.

Todays Journey

12¾ miles, 2 locks in 5¼ hours.

The Chester to Llangollen Google map is now complete and can be found HERE