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.

Pontcysyllte Monday 26 December 2016

Yesterday evening we had our Christmas dinner in full festive spirit, except I have just realised we didn’t have any crackers.

The canal here is very shallow and we woke with a bit of a list on,  I had to push us out  about 4 foot from the side to get on an even keel. As I could see the bottom quite clearly I tested the depth all the way across with my boat pole. The red marker just visible is the 3ft marker.So the maximum depth on this section of canal this morning was just 3ft. and as we made our way towards The Jack Mytton pub we hit things on the bottom several times.  Once through New Marton Lock things improved greatly and we were able to get above 2 mph again.

Chirk Bank has an interesting display of painted pots on the off side, most of them look like chimney pots to me, but pleasantly painted. The morning had been mainly sunny but now the clouds were gathering and it felt a bit cooker although in practice it didn’t fall below 6°C.

I found it quite slow going crossing Chirk aqueduct, in all the times I have crossed it I have never noticed this stone work on the adjacent railway viaduct before, it was here that we entered Wales, but I didn’t see Passport control.
I thought I was going to come to a standstill as I approached the far end of Chirk tunnel, it was just like trying to drive uphill. We did clear the tunnel just before the boat coming the other way arrived.

Chirk Marina looked full to bursting point, its hard to see how boats get from one end to the other. Not long after this we were at Whitehouse Tunnel, much shorter than Chirk so much lighter so you could see the way that the tow path is built above the water so that the water can flow round the boat easier. A short way past the tunnel is bridge 27W known as Irish Bridge, just through the bridge is a very sharp left turn, for some reason this boat thought the bend would be a good place to moor his boat, so when leaving the bridge you now have to turn very sharply to get round.

We wanted to moor before the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct as we were pretty sure there would be no moorings in Trevor with all the hire boats in. There are a couple of Shropshire Union Society 48 hr moorings but in view of another forecast storm and some very tall trees we pushed on under the lift bridge and moored on the offside at the end of the water point, not something I would normally do, but there are two water points and we have only seen 3 boats on the move all day, so it is very unlikely that 2 will turn up wanting water at the same time before we leave in the morning.

Today’s Journey     8¾ miles, 2 locks in 4 hours.

Hindford Sunday December 25 2016 Christmas Day

The weather although looking very threatening yesterday afternoon didn’t actually do anything, however while I was getting Diana a Beecham’s at 5-30 this morning it was quite blowy and I could hear the tin rattling on the roof of the old canal building at the end of the arm. Following that we overslept a bit so didn’t get away until 1045 am. by now it was all calm again with lots of blue in the sky.

Our first port of call was the Canal and River Trust “CRT” maintenance yard back at the junction to fill with water and dump our rubbish. This is one of the few with recycling facilities. I think its the first time I have ever seen the dry dock empty.The yard has many fine buildings but some of them, just like the waterways that CRT looks after could do with a little tender care. 

Almost opposite here there are plans to build a new marina between the houses and the canal. 

It seemed hard to realise that today was actually Christmas Day, we saw a few walkers and and several hire boats about, some of them enjoying the odd glass of bubbly, but the weather felt more like spring with the gorse in flower and catkins on the trees.Some were green and some were brown.

We considered stopping at the mouth of the Montgomery canal at Frankton Junction but as there was a boat there already and I needed another couple of hours battery charging we pushed on. As you can see the weather was still good but as the day progressed if got not only cloudier but also windier.

The other day  I posted a picture of a car with a large vinyl picture on the side, today we saw a van that was sign written. 

A little past here there at bridge 6W, the W is due to the fact that they restarted numbering the bridges again from Frankton Junction, is a very nice example of a turnover bridge where the towpath changes side. We pushed on finally mooring at the visitor moorings at Hindford where we moored for the night, by now it was just starting to drizzle, in the field opposite where we have moored there are six Little Egrets just sitting in the field, I didn’t expect to see them so far away from a large expanse of water or a good size river. Since we have been here the wind has continued to freshen and is well into the upper twenties now.

Today’s Journey  5½ miles in 2¾ hours

Ellesmere Saturday 24 December 2016

Well storm Barbara was somewhat over rated from where we where and if I had not have heard the forecast I wouldn’t have moored up at mid day. I don’t know how the rest of you fared.

This morning while having breakfast we had a bit of rain so I set off a little before 9-30 am it full wet weather gear, however it wasn’t needed and the weather not only stayed fine all day but the morning was so calm there wasn’t a ripple on the canal.

No locks today but a few more of the lift bridges to contend with. As we passed the Prees branch there was a sign saying the towpath was close.The reason soon became obvious with major piling works taking place with some serious length piles.

Just past the junction the pilled edging is marked up as
“No mooring” for some reason.

We only saw one boat on the move and that was a hire boat just before we reached Ellesmere, the other thing we saw was a rather smart stop plank store, it would look nice in our back yard with a BBQ in it. We expected the Ellesmere Branch to be packed out as the full length is a designated a “winter mooring” but when we arrived there were probably only about 6 boats moored there and only 2 of them had winter mooring permits, so that left plenty of room for us. Tesco are located at the end of the arm which allowed us to top up on Beechams Powders, Diana already has a stinking cold so I expect I will end up with flu.

Today’s Journey  10¾ miles in 4 hours with no locks but 2 junctions and a tunnel.

Old Mans Bridge Friday 23 December 2016

An early start by our standards, in light of the weather forecast for today we pushed off at 9am, It was fine, a little breezy but not cold or damp. The plan was to have the locks done before the rain arrived. The locks in question where the Grindley Brook ones, 3 individual locks followed by a staircase of three. Once at the top we stopped at the water point to fill the water tank, by now the wind had died down.  
A friendly fisherman told me that the wind was swinging round and the storm would soon be with us, this didn’t seem possible as the wind was light, it was warm and the sky was clearing nicely. I wonder if it was the same fisherman who had given me weather advice the other day, he was right as well.

One thing we noticed is that the catkins are already out on some of the canal side trees. What does that say about the weather, it’s certainly not going to be the coldest Christmas on record as predicted by some of the media.

Diana hopped off and opened Whitchurch lift bridge, this is another manual hydraulic bridge opened with a lock windlass, as she was walking back to the boat a cruised and Narrowboat came into sight behind us. As I waited for her to get back onboard I noticed that the Whitchurch Arm has a notice saying its closed. I have not seen anything about this on the Canal & River Trust stoppage web site, so I am now wondering if the Whitchurch are is actually a private arm from the canal.

Whitchurch Marina had most of their boats at base, we have seen 2 out. We counted 17 of them, moored 5 abreast in one place and with 6 lifted out onto the bank, all with nice new shining propellers fitted.
At Hassells No.1 Lift bridge the cruiser caught up with us and I pulled over after going through the bridge to let him pass while Diana worked the bridge, I asked about the Narrowboat but he said he had turned round. Once he was passed Diana closed the bridge and walked to the second one.
By the time we got there the crew from the cruiser had it open the bridge and the steerer was pulling the cruiser through, he had motored through the last one and caught his canopy on the bridge with the wind. As the cruiser was clearing the bridge his crew hopped onto the stern of the boat and off they went, leaving the bridge open and Diana the opposite side of the canal to the closing mechanism, so I had to stop and ferry her over to the off side of the canal to close the bridge behind us. We never saw the cruiser again.

By now the wind was freshening quite a bit so we started to look for somewhere nice to moor, by nice I mean straight bank, preferably with rings or good piling and no large trees. I have seen to many canal side trees come down in high winds so avoid them if at all possible and this afternoon and evening we have storm Barbara forecast.
We spotted a nice place just passed the end of one of the visitor moorings a short way before Old Mans Bridge, so we pulled in there just as it started to rain at mid day. The rain didn’t actually come to anything and we had a bit more at about 2pm, the wind has continued to freshen and is quite gusty so we decided to stay put for the night.

Today’s Journey  3¾ miles, 6 locks in 2¾ hours

Below Grindley Brook Thursday 22 December 2016

We woke to a smashing morning, the sun climbing in a clear blue sky, but this morning we were not leaving at our normal 10am. My son and grandsons were coming up with our Christmas presents from Gloucestershire. They arrived about 11am and after us opening their presents to us and having coffee we adjourned to The Dusty Miller for lunch.

They departed about 2pm and we set off on our way, I had only gone about 100 mts when a  Keir Construction came hurrying along the towpath calling to me. He found a BW key in the Lift bridge and thought it may be ours, he had seen us leave but didn’t see us unmoor.

At bridge 22 where Keir had been working all the pipe that had been used to transport the water past the drained section was laying on the bank. I would like to see how they seal the dam round this. The pipe lengths are just a push fit together but to make sure they don’t blow apart the screw lengths of flat bar across the joint. As we passed under the bridge you could see the new brickwork under the water.

As most blogs seam to have a quiz at Christmas her is mine. How many other locations do you know where the winding hole has a name?

There is a lot of work going on at Quoisley Lock with some very heavy stones topping the wall at the mouth of the lock, This bit of wall takes a good battering as boat approach the lock and get caught by the flow of water from the bywash coming in on the left hand side. This canal takes water from the river Dee at Horseshoe Falls and transports it to the reservoir at Hurleston so there is a flow of about 13.7 million imperial gallons per day flowing out of each bywash. Willey Moor Lock shows what happens opposite these bywashes, as you can see the top of the piling is completely flattened in the section leading up to the lock. This is due to the 14 tons of hire boat that goes sideways into it because the holiday makers are not prepared for the cross flow, that is on top of some of the private owners who don’t allow for it as well.

By now it was 4 pm. a little after sunset and the light was fading, we only planned to do one more lock today  and that was Poveys Lock and once through that we were looking for somewhere to moor for the night, the plan was the visitor moorings with rings just below the Grindley Brook locks, but we thought there may be other boats there and I wanted to run the engine for another hour to get a bit more into the batteries tonight. Also I wanted somewhere with no trees as high winds and storm Beryl is forecast, so we stopped about halfway between the last lock and Grindley Brook bottom at about 1620 hrs.

Today’s Journey

5 miles, 4 Locks in 2½ hours

Wrenbury Wednesday 21 December 2016

We didn’t get the forecast rain last night and the weather had actually warmed up a bit by this morning. We were away just before 10am taking a sharp right up the Hurleston flight onto the Llangollen Canal. The Hurleston locks are a bit on the tight side and some older boats can’t get them. There is a notice at the bottom telling boaters not to enter the locks with their fenders down. Maybe when they next do major work on the lock they will widen it by a few inches and with the amount of water now coming right through the lower abutments that may not be too long.

Needless to say all four locks were against us. As you make your way up the flight there is a large car graveyard visible in the distance, this has grown over the last few years. 

Parked by the top lock was a car with some interesting art work on it, I think the owner may have some connection with the canals. Here we filled up with some much needed water before continuing on our way. Our first target was Swanley Marina to get a pump out. Just before the marina we passed a fisherman, one who spoke. He said that the wind had just gone round and there would be rain within the hour. He was spot on as ¾hour later I had my raincoat on and it was wet.

Swanley Marina is on the right hand side of the canal and their DIY pumpout is on the canal bank, out pumpout connection is on the left hand side of the boat so I had to turn in the marina entrance, reverse up to the service point before spending
£18-50  on a card to operate the pumpout machine. Once finished in was back into the marina entrance to turn round once more.

As we passed under bridge 11 we met a workman with a lifejacket, I guessed he came from the worksite at bridge 13. The canal has been drained under this bridge to carry out brickwork repairs on a submerged area of the bridge and the canal was due to open midnight tonight, I was relieved to find that it is open now, even if the towpath looks as if it will be closed for some time yet. The green sheeting is what they construct the dam in the canal with, setting it against a scaffold type frame and the pile of stone is what they have removed from under the water level.

The rain didn’t last to long and the latter part of the afternoon was quite pleasant. The Llangollen Canal has quite a few lift bridges along its length, the first of these is Wrenbury Church Bridge which carries a footpath across the canal. This is lifted hydraulically with the motive force being Diana with a lock windlass.   A little further on is where the main road crosses the canal, another lift bridge, but this time the motive force is an electric motor, all Diana needed to do was to put her CRT key in the panel and switch on, cross the canal and close the road barrier, then back to the control panel and press the up button, at this point if all is well the bridge goes up. Right beside the bridge is the Alvechurch Narrowboat Hire base and of course all there boats are in at the moment looking splendid. The bridge is just to the left of the photograph.

There were more workmen by the bridge, they were waiting for a work boat to arrive from the other bridge that had been working on number 22, as was pleased to find out they had the canal open there as well as we will pass that way tomorrow. Once they had gone by with their workboat we went just round the corner and moored for the night.

Today’s Journey  6¼ miles 9 locks 1 Junction 2 Canals in 4¾ hours

Hurleston Junction Tuesday 20 December 2016

Made our normal 10 am start on a fine sunny morning, even if it was a bit cooler than yesterday. A couple of boat we saw yesterday passed before we set off. We caught up with a boat at Aqueduct Marina so were behind them at the lock, at the same time the boat behind us caught us up at quite a speed, he didn’t slow at all until he pulled into the bank behind us at the lock. The reason for his speed became clear when he came up to the lock, he wanted to be in Stone tonight but unfortunately he turned right in Middlewich as someone told him to go that way towards Chester, the first question he asked was how far to Chester, then how far from there to Stone. At this point Di pointed out he was going in the wrong direction. I told him I didn’t think he would have made Stone even if he had carried on, but he assured me they had floodlights, I pointed out that they had to go through Harecastle Tunnel but again he referred to the lights so I pointed out that you can only go through during opening hours. It then turned out they were actually heading for Oxford and the river, so at a rough guess another one London bound. We pushed on leaving them to decide what to do and never saw them again.

We made a mistake stopping for lunch a short way before Venetian Marina, The reason it was a mistake was that when we arrived in the afternoon hoping for a pumpout they were closed, as they are only working 10 until 2 on the week running up to Christmas. This left us three choices, turn round and go back to Aqueduct Marina, carry on passed Hurleston Junction to Nantwich and come back to the junction in the morning and finally go up the Llangollen and hope to get one there before Christmas. In the end I rang Swanley Marina on the Llangollen and they confirmed they could do it in the morning, so sorted. At the end of the Middlewich Branch we turned left and did about a mile to moor for the night at Hurleston Junction, in the morning we will be heading up to Llangollen.

Today’s Journey

10 miles, 2 locks, 1 junction, 2 canals in 4¼hours

Middlewich Arm. Monday 19 December 2016

After seeing my son, daughter, their partners and all the Grandchildren over the weekend we arrived at the boat this morning and set off at 1145 am. The morning didn’t go quite as planned as first stop was Middlewich Tesco where we thought we may be able to get breakfast, wrong, no cafe so no breakfast today. had we have known we would have had breakfast at the Harvester pub before going shopping.

Some bright spark has dumped a load of lorry tyres in the canal at an old off side wharf where the lane runs close to the canal, we saw the first two just floating in the middle flash but there was no way I would pull those out by my self, then when we approached the wharf there were about 8 of them half afloat and half resting on the bottom.

We didn’t expect to see any boats on the move but as we approached Middlewich Big Lock we could see a boat just leaving and when we arrived at the 3 Middlewich locks there was on, a single hander waiting to go up, one just going into the bottom lock and one in the middle lock, not only that but there was a CRT work boat coming down, they were heading off to retrieve the tyres. When we finally got to the junction with the Middlewich arm I went on to fill with diesel at Kings Lock chandlery where his prices are still reasonable at 68p, but he is expecting a rise on the next delivery.  Once full I backed up and we headed up Wardle Lock and then Stanthorne lock before mooring for the night on the visitor moorings just on 4pm. The weather has been quite reasonable, not to cold and mostly dry, we did have just a few spits of rain while we were filling with diesel.

Today’s Journey 

6¾ miles 6 locks in 4 hours.