There was a lot of rain overnight, but it was pretty bright this morning when we set off at about 9 — past The Navigation, where we had an excellent dinner last night. Adrian had the lamb shank and I had the duck, and both were very good.
A couple of bridges further on is a lift bridge. It’s in a rather nice setting.
The first time we came down here, on Debdale in 2010, the end of the navigation was a couple of hundred metres further on. When we were here two years ago, another couple of miles had been opened earlier that year. Then we did the new bit and turned around and retraced our steps. Today we were taking more time over it. The canal is pretty narrow, but there’s some nice scenery.
When we got to the end, at Crickheath, we turned in the huge winding hole and reversed onto a mooring. The edge here has been provided with huge yellow mooring rings.
Not long after we arrived, the rain started, and at times it was heavy. So we decided we’d have lunch and head out after that. It got to the stage where we just accepted we might get a bit wet, but had to go for it anyway. The reason was that we wanted to walk the next section, which is being worked on by volunteers. There are two miles between here and the next part that’s properly in water. It goes from lined, to cleared, to full of trees; but Schoolhouse Bridge has been rebuilt and opened last year.
The part where there’s water, actually hasn’t got any at the moment because of the drought and some problem with a weir.
There’s a trip boat at Llanymynech Wharf which is currently sitting on the bottom. The bridge there is the border with Wales.
We went into the canal centre, surprising the volunteers there, and had cups of tea. They then suggested we take a look at the heritage area just behind, where there are some really well preserved lime kilns. The chimney was the flue for a Hoffman kiln, used for the continuous burning of limestone
There used to be inclined plane railways up the hill to bring the limestone down using counterbalances. We had a good wander round, then returned to the canal, crossed the dry bed, and walked back. By now the sun had come out and it was warming up. We’d walked about 2.5 miles each way, so we’ve done far more on foot than we have by boat today.
2 miles, 0 locks. (45 miles, 27 locks)
