We had no plans to be away early from Llangollen this morning, but as it happened we were awake, decided to get up, and were first out of the basin at 7.20. One other boat was getting ready to leave, but we’re sufficiently behind us that we never saw them. The first section out of town is a narrow one, alongside a castellated house.
It was trying to rain as we left, but didn’t really come to much. At the subsequent, longer narrow sections Adrian walked ahead, although we thought it unlikely we’d meet anything that early. We only met one boat before Trevor, and that was in one of the widest sections. We cautiously made the turn at Trevor Basin, but again there was no-one around and we could head straight over the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct.
We passed the moorings we used at Froncysyllte exactly two hours after leaving Llangollen; when we did the journey up there the other day it had taken three and a half hours. We had a brief pause at Whitehouses Tunnel while a boat came through.
At Chirk Tunnel, there were a couple of boats coming through and one in front of us waiting. I was keen to see what difference it made going with the flow of water rather than against it; it’s more noticeable in the tunnels because of the restricted width. Unfortunately the boat in front went through on tickover, so a real comparison is difficult, it even so we did the tunnel in 7 minutes rather than the 13 it took against the flow.
The boat in front was mooring up in the pool between the tunnel and the aqueduct, so once we’d waited for a boat to come across very slowly, we could go over the aqueduct and back into England.
It’s very tight round Chirk Bank at the best of times, and of course we met couple of boats immediately before the moorings. We all got past each other though. Several houses round here have displays of tat and other things in their canalside gardens. This figure at a mangle was one of the more disturbing!
At the top New Marton Lock we swapped with a boat coming up.
The bottom lock needed turning. Even so, we were making such good progress today that we decided to stop for lunch below the locks. Progress is quicker because we’re going with the flow, and this way you don’t come to a virtual halt at every bridge hole either. We carried on a bit after lunch. At one bridge, it might have been 4W, all the sheep in the field were very purposefully walking towards and over the bridge. No-one appeared to be telling them to do it, but they were all doing the same thing.
We moored up at a little after 2pm on the SUCS moorings immediately before Bridge 1W at Frankton Junction. I’ve made a few phone calls about the boat test I’m currently writing, and within a little while the promised rain arrived.
15 miles, 2 locks. (221 miles, 134 locks)
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