England - August 9, 2014

Awoke earlier than planned but that enabled me to get packed before going to breakfast.  At 9:15 a taxi came to the mooring to take Estelle and me to Llangollen.  The other travelers were getting to train stations by bus and taxi, but Estelle wanted to spend the day in Llangollen, and I would be staying there for several days.  It was too early to check in at my lodging, the Gales of Llangollen Wine Bar and Hotel, but we were able to leave our luggage and go off to explore the town a bit.  It was delightful having Estelle there because she’d been to the town several times before so had some knowledge; also she was good company.

The first item on the agenda was finding a chemist’s (drug store) so I could get some cold medicine that would, I hope, work better.  Found “Day Nurse’s Cold Capsules” with pseudoephedrine, purchased, and immediately swallowed two.  Help on the way. . . .

We wandered the town, stopped for coffee at the Dee Side Bistro with beautiful views of the river and rapids going under the 16^th century bridge, found a launderette (and later returned there with a bagful of my clothes to be washed), found the tourist information office to pick up brochures, checked out the canal and the horse-drawn canal boat trips, observed the steam railway (which was having a special “Thomas the Tank Engine” Day), and generally acted as tourists. 

We were in good company.  Llangollen obviously has a large number of tourists, and this was a weekend day.  The traffic was horrendous, and there are few official pedestrian crossings, so one takes major risks just crossing Castle Street, the main street which crosses the river connecting the two portions of the town. 

At 3 p.m. Estelle’s taxi picked her up to take her to Wrexham and the train that would eventually get her home to the Birmingham area.  I picked up my clean laundry and returned to The Gales where I was able to check in and unpacked a bit.  When I went down to the restaurant at the hotel, I discovered my voice was almost totally gone resulting in being barely able to croak out my order.  I felt slightly better overall but sounded dreadful!

Returned to my room and watched TV for the first time in 11 days.  Learned about the U.S. air strikes in Iraq and the death of Jim Brady.  Not keeping up on the news is sometimes enjoyable.

England - August 8, 2014

Head cold at its most miserable, despite the cold medicine (I need pseudoephedrine!) which resulted in a poor night’s sleep.  But I am determined to enjoy the last and most exciting day of canal boat travel on the trip.  We took off at 9:20 a.m. from our mooring, went around the corner by the pub, and immediately faced Bridge 19W.  The canal was too shallow, and Duke is very heavy.  Some dredging at this point in the canal is needed.  Allison and Andy have made complaints, but so far have had no results.

Andy worked diligently to get by the obstruction:  Removed Duchess and left us moored.  Tried going gently; tried gunning the engine.  Got rid of all the water in the tanks to lighten the load/decrease the draft.  Pushed with a pole; pulled with a rope.  As all this was happening, other boats, from both directions, had to be allowed to make their way through the bridge hole, stopping his efforts for the moment.  

Finally, a double boat like ours made it through from the other direction, with Andy and Tom’s help.  The crew of that boat stopped and assisted us by turning their engine boat around and pulling Duke.  That was still not enough.  Finally the captain of that boat (we believe a former military man) basically commandeered a day rental boat going in our direction and pushed Duke at the same time his boat was pulling – and various of his young helpers were using ropes to pull as well.  This is a picture of the boat pushing; there is another boat in front pulling with Duke sandwiched in the middle.

While all this was happening, Allison was frantically making arrangements with an aqueduct tour boat company and a taxi driver to collect us passengers so we could travel on the aqueduct if Duke was permanently stuck since she knew the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct was to be the highlight of the trip and wanted to be sure we didn't miss it.

Finally, and miraculously, Duke got through (think champagne cork popping out of the bottle!).  Duchess, a much lighter boat, was pulled through with no problems, and we were on our way, only two hours late!  Allison canceled the emergency plans she’d made since we will be able to reach and travel the aqueduct in “our” boat.  However, the two-hour delay means that we won’t reach the Llangollen mooring by the end of the day.  Instead we’ll moor at the Trevor Basin, a few miles from the town, but those few miles on the canal would take at least two hours.

The Chirk Aqueduct was quite impressive.  It’s not as long or high as Pontcysyllte, but there’s a railroad bridge built beside it that’s even higher, more impressive. 

Shortly thereafter was the lengthy Chirk tunnel (459 yards); at the entry was a “Welcome to Wales” sign.  It seems we’ve been in and out of Wales several times already; perhaps now we’re there for the duration of the trip.

Before entering the tunnel, we all went aboard Duke for lunch.  To make up time we’ll eat on the move, and there’s nothing to see while going through the tunnel anyway.  At 2 p.m. three of us returned to Duchess, I to lie down and rest a bit.  From my bed I saw us enter the Whitehorses Tunnel (191 yards); since there’s nothing to see, napping was fine!  An hour later I was up and at the front of Duchess admiring some lovely houses and gardens.  This part of the canal is more “urban;” the footpath is wider and paved, people, not on canal boats, are using it, and there are houses in close proximity.

There was a hand-operated bridge that needed to be raised so we could go through,

and then we were at Pontcysyllte Aqueduct.  It’s really quite amazing to be so high (126 feet), looking down at the valley  and the River Dee while floating on a canal. Thomas Telford is assigned credit for designing and overseeing the construction; he proceeded in spite of initial derision.

Some folk got out and walked along the walkway/tow path; I stayed aboard, taking a picture of Estelle and having her take a picture of me (and Sally).

The aqueduct is even more impressive when one realizes it was constructed between 1795 and 1805, when construction techniques and machinery were more limited.  No wonder it has been designated a World Heritage Site.

When not thinking about/noticing the impressive engineering, one can enjoy the beautiful Dee Valley spread out below.

 

At about 3:30 we arrived at a crossroads (cross canal?) where instead of making the turn to go to Llangollen, we went straight ahead and moored at Trevor Basin.

One advantage of this location is the Telford Inn, a pub just on the other side of the canal – and there is a convenient bridge!  We went over for a drink.  Andy joined us as Allison was on the phone making arrangements with the guests arriving on Saturday since, similar to when I joined at Chester, the boat was in a different location than had originally been planned.

We returned to Duke for our final dinner.  It was excellent (carrot and coriander soup, lamb chops, whole potatoes, snow peas, chocolate mousse), but I was feeling lousy and didn’t do the food full justice. 

 

Got to bed early so could do organizing and packing in the morning.

England - August 7, 2014

Almost 6 hours of solid sleep, but then a stuffed nose and pounding head woke me up and kept me awake.  Colds are not fun.  After breakfast I returned to Duchess and was able to doze for about an hour which did make me feel a bit better.  I think I may have some cold medication – but it’s in the large suitcase that is encased in plastic and stored for the duration in the engine room of Duke.  Ah, well. . . .

Estelle, Bill, Ros, and Barrie got off to walk along the towpath.  The walk here is lovely, under large oak trees and beside a large lake just behind the towpath.  This area is well forested since it was the policy of the Shropshire Union company to plant elms and oaks along the canal in order to provide raw materials for replacement for their fleet of wooden commercial craft.  (The elms have long since succumbed to Dutch elm disease, but the oaks remain).  Estelle marched along vigorously. . . .

There have been no locks which increases our speed.  Unfortunately this canal is shallow which creates a different set of problems – particularly when Andy must maneuver the boats around difficult turns and through narrow bridge holes.  So we continued moving through lunch since we’re aiming to moor for the evening at Chirk, with a good pub that is supposed to have WiFi.  

Every morning the menus for lunch and dinner would be posted on a board hanging in the main salon.  This is the scheduled dinner for this evening.  Behind it are several steam railway pictures posted because that’s where Andy works during the off season.

About 3:30 we hit the first lock of the day.  Made a nice diversion from the placid floating down the canal we’ve been doing, although the calm water and lovely trees alongside the canal made for some lovely scenery. 

The New Marton Bottom Lock was followed fairly quickly by the New Marton Upper Lock which together raised the canal by 12’ 4”.  While locking through and waiting we had tea, with homemade carrot cake, and then continued on our way at 4:40.  Andy was determined to arrive at Chirk while the shops were still open, a goal I supported in the hopes there might be cold medicine to be purchased.  (There was; not the best kind, but I’m sure it will help to some degree.)

At 5:30 we moored around the corner from the Poacher’s Pocket pub, a great location.  The pub had WiFi so in addition to enjoying a half pint of cider I was able to catch up on some e-mails.   

Returned to Duke at 7 for our evening meal of bangers and mash.  The portions were substantial.

To the cabin at 8:30, hopeful that the cold medicine will result in more and better sleep.