Llangollen, Llandyn Lift Bridge

We left at about ten to ten, half an hour too early, as we left it started to rain which continued over Chirk Aqueduct to the tunnel.

At the tunnel with the help of the two boats ahead we set a new world record for the tunnel transit time of 25 minutes with the front boat walking it through on ropes. Once the other side the rain had gone and soon the sun was out, so if we had just waited until the rain had stopped there would have been no holdup at the tunnel and I wouldn’t have needed the brolly. The canal was reasonably quiet and we didn’t have to wait to enter ether tunnel or aqueducts

Crossing the River Dee on the aqueduct it looks to still have plenty of water in it, unlike some rivers.

I thought this rustic seat was quite charming, kids with short legs one end and longer legged individuals at the other.

We met two Trip boats, both with lady skippers, the first was waiting to cross the Pontcysyllte aqueduct and is the new replacement for Jones the Boat and the other was near The Sun at Trevor and both boats were happy to give way to other users.
After Trevor much of the canal is concrete edged which causes problems for any animals that fall in, Years ago they use to build ramps on the towpath side to get horses out that might have slipped in, but here they have built steps on the offside, these lambs fond them very useful for drinking.

This end of the Llangollen canal is very much a contour canal and really hangs onto the hill side in places, this means the land one side is much lower that the other  so the bridges are not hump backed bridges but often sloping from one level to the other.

We decided not to go into town tonight as we spotted a vacant mooring spot with rings just past Llandyn Lift Bridge. You have to pay to moor in Llangollen its self and I refuse to pay for an unreserved towpath mooring and if we had gone to town to wind this mooring may have been taken when we returned.

ALL CHANGE
Half five and Diana and I are talking and decide we will run up the the basin in Llangollen and wind this evening while there is no traffic about. I think it may be cost effective to fell some of these trees before they fall into the cut. This is looking almost straight up.We had a clean run through the narrows and then through town to the basin which is quite full where we winded and came back down.
For several years now you have had to pay to mooron the towpath in Llangollen, something I refuse to do. Tonight there are just 2 boats there and I suspect one of those arrived after the canal centre closed. I wonder what sort of return CRT are getting on the towpath moorings as they still require maintaining even if not used.

As you approach the head of navigation I think this house looks splendid on the hill side. As you can see its raining again for about 3 minutes

We ran downstream past where we had been moored this afternoon and moored the other side of the bridge, this puts us further away from the road. By the back of the boat is this fallen tree and going by the date carved into it, it was made into a seat just this year, but I liked the little house in the end.

Its all carved in 3D. I will try and get a better photo in the morning

 

Todays Journey

10 miles, no locks in 5 hours