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6 American Couples Chirk - Ellesmere - Llangollen - Chirk


tipton1947

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In June my wife and I and two other couples completed a narrowboat cruise on the Llangollen Canal. For my wife and I and one couple it was our second narrowboat adventure, for the other couple it their first. In July 0f 2016 we attempted a 10 day round trip from Middlewich to Llangollen. I was warned that I might be biting off more than we could chew. On the fourth day we arrived in Ellesmere. We realized that to complete the trip as planned would have to push hard to get to Llangollen and then return to Middlewich. We decided that such a plan would not be fun. We spent two nights in Ellesmere and made a leisurely pub to pub return to Middlewich. We had a great time! On this first trip, each couple had their own boat, scheme that worked out very well.

 

The plan for this second trip was to complete the first in very leisurely manner. We hired three boats from Crest Narrowboats, Chirk Marina, for pickup on Saturday, June 16. We would return the boats on Saturday, June 23.  So, from the get-go, we were traveling at much less busy time than the end of July!

 

One of our lessons learned from the first trip was not to get off the train and go directly to pickup our boats. I made reservations for Friday night at the Hand Hotel. Staying at the Hand would enable us to leisurely shop for groceries (a grocery store, a butcher shop, a bakery, and vegetable store just down the street from the hotel) in the morning before we picked up our boats. We had a bit of problem when checking in at the Hand, but it was solved to everyone’s satisfaction. We had dinner at the Indian restaurant across the street from the hotel.

 

On Saturday morning our plan worked out fine. We had time to complete grocery shopping and even spend some time at Chirk Castle. We took a taxi from the Hand to Chirk marina. One of the things that we discovered on this trip was how (relatively) inexpensive the cost of a local taxi is when split among 6 or 4 people. The pickup time was 2:30. We were a little early, but I think that we were loaded up, briefed and out of there by 3:30 or 4:00. The briefing was pretty simple; how to operate the bilge pump, how to start the motor, how to push grease into the prop shaft gland every day, how to turn on the furnace, how to turn the AC power. There were warnings to run the engine at least 5 hours a day to insure a full charge on the household battery, and a stern warning to have two people in the cockpit when traversing a tunnel. And a warning to stay off the gunwales. And fill with water on a daily basis (we didn’t). A marina guy helped each boat get out onto the canal and we were on our way to Ellesmere.

 

My plan was for us to spend the first night tied up near the Poacher’s Pocket pub. We transited the Chirk Tunnel and Chirk aqueduct without incident and without encountering any traffic.  Some of the women expressed a desire to eat indoors, but it was packed so we ate outside. The weather was nice so that happened to be my personal preference. As this was our second narrowboat outing I have become used to ordering at the bar and can waltz into a pub and with perfect equanimity order a “half pint of diet coke” for my wife!

 

The next morning there was a bit of excitement (Chinese fire drill) watching an inexperienced crew attempt to turn their boat around in the nearby winding hole. The had people ashore with lines and lots of shouting. I spoke to one of them. They were having fun!

 

The cruise to Ellesmere was pretty uneventful.  There was once case of having to suddenly stop and back up at a bridge as another boat came through. The boat following me managed to get crosswise in the canal. But things were sorted out without banging of boats or ill will! Somehow Thomas Telford had a knack for locating bridges at blind corners on the canal!

 

We traversed the New Marton Locks without event. The two experienced lock “wenches” were able to show the new one how to do it. I decided that we should tie up and have lunch right beyond the lock. Then I realized that tying up at the bollards at approaches to the lock was not a good idea and we moved until we were well clear of the lock. There were few initial complaints from the others, but they pretty quickly realized that I was right.

 

When we got to Ellesmere we turned around in the big pool in front Thomas Telford’s house where the Ellesmere arm takes off into town. We tied up on the “upstream” side of the canal. Two years before we had dinner at the Red Lion Inn. Visions of a repeat performance was dancing in our heads. Until were informed that two weeks previously there had been a serious fire in their kitchen. Only soup and sandwich were available! What a letdown! We did some looking. It was Sunday evening; the choices were limited. The Greek place was booked solid. We ended up at the Indian restaurant. This was Indian for the second time in three nights. In the UK Indian food is pretty reliable. But!

 

The next day (we planned two nights in Ellesmere) we performed one of our traditions. The women went exploring and the men went to the launderette (laundromat as we call them). While we had been on the canal for only two nights, we had been in the UK for five nights and knew this was an opportunity not to be missed. As before the only customers in the launderette were male (must be the 21st century). We had a quite a conversation with another retired fellow. He had become (made?) redundant in the 1980s. Spent a couple of years exploring Europe with his wife with a caravan and then took job training to be a long-haul truck driver for another 20 years. In the course of our conversation we told him that seemed like every eatery in town had taken advantage of the fire at Red Lion to do maintenance on their kitchens. He gave a recommendation for dinner. On the way back to the boats we checked out the dinner place. A fish and chips and fried chicken take away and eat in restaurant. It looked ok, better than Indian again. We decided to return for dinner.

 

We met the wives back at the boats and decided to walk up the tow path to Blake’s Mere. Blake’s is pretty but nothing special (I am from Minnesota, I have seen lots of lakes!). It did look like good place to fish if you had the requisite permit.

 

We had dinner at the fish and chips place I previously mentioned. The food was fine. In the travel forums there is always someone raving about the “best fish and chips ever” that they have someplace in the UK. I don’t eat fish and chips, but the input from my companions is that all of the fish that they have had in the UK have been very good. Far superior to anything you can get in the USA.

 

The next day, Tuesday, was to be our longest day on the water. Our goal was to cross two aqueducts and traverse two tunnels and end up in the Trevor. Some confusion on my part precipitated my  “adventure” in Trevor.

There were only two minor incidents during the trip to the entrance of the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct.  At the Marton Locks someone decided that the bollards at the entrance to the lock would be a good place to tie up for lunch! This caused some otherwise unnecessary congestion.

 

We were lucky at the Chirk Aqueduct, Chirk Tunnel, and the White Houses Tunnel and encountered no oncoming traffic as we traversed them.

 

There was a little traffic on the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. We had to tie-up and wait it out.  The wait was probably longer than necessary due to a tour boat just cutting into line to cross the aqueduct. But the wait was not really very long. At the end of July, it was probably a lot longer! Crossing the aqueduct was pretty cool. But it is difficult to take a picture from a boat that really shows just how high and how long the aqueduct is!

 

My first real adventure occurred in Trevor. I naively thought that we could tie for the night in the Trevor basin. I entered the basin after passing the excitement at the Anglo Welsh docks. I found a single spot to tie up. No room at all for the two other boats. Fortunately, they were smart enough to make the turnaround immediately when they say that there was no room available for them and to continue up the canal toward Llangollen.  I, however, had to come off the quay and turn around. Without getting in the way of Jones the Boats. And it had become very windy! With the wind it took quite a bit of backing and filling to turn around. In the process I completely misjudged the distance from the bow of the boat to quay and hit it dead on at while attempting full speed! With the result of putting a dent in the bow of the boat and spilling must of the glassware off the shelves in the galley and breaking it!  Shortly thereafter, on the way out of the basin I hit the quay again and knocked a glass bowl off the table in the salon and broke it. My wife was not a happy camper as she tried to clean up the mess. There were no more bare feet in the galley and the salon after these episodes!

 

I caught up with our companions about quarter mile up the main canal where they were tied up. There was no more drama or adventure for the day. We had dinner at the Thomas Telford Inn. Being ignorant Americans, we were mystified and entertained by the “Welsh Faggots” on the menu board. The meatballs were ok.

 

We got going fairly early to get through the two one-way spots on the final stretch of the canal to Llangollen. When we reached the first of these we sent the women forward with a phone to warn oncoming traffic and to give us the all clear. This worked out fine. Except there were a couple of boats tied in Llangollen that were hot to go and the skippers were sort of put out when told that there were boats approaching and to not get on the canal yet. When I arrived, I was not aware of the minor confrontation and cheerfully greeted someone who was he who had been upset. The fellow sort of snarled back at me for taking so long. I think it was personal problem!

 

The wives urged us to tie up on the mooring on the east end of town. The first that you encounter. I thought that I knew better and wanted to tie in the marina. So, I proceeded to marina (you have to go there to turn around) and secured the bow of the boat. The other guys followed me, turned around and proceeded back to where the wives were waiting, as originally instructed. I was rather irked about being ignored but decided that I needed to join the rest of them. So, I tried to back out and join them. But I wasn’t getting anywhere! After thrashing a lot of water, it dawned on me that I hadn’t untied the bow rope! Cursing myself, I sorted this out and proceeded back to where the other guys were now tied up and the ladies were waiting for me. There are some one-way spots as you pass the wharf area that are not mentioned in the guides. But I didn’t encounter anyone. The mooring location was excellent. The wives were right. They are always right!

 

We split up and did some exploring. We had dinner at the Gallery. It was very good!

 

The next morning two of us went to the m’Eating Point for breakfast. It was pretty good. It opened at 9:00 am. Where I live that would be late for breakfast, the places that serve breakfast open by 7:00 am.

 

The whole group, all six of us, met at the railway station to take the train to Berwyn so we could visit Horseshoe Falls. I had hoped to take the horse drawn narrowboat to the falls, but it only runs on the weekend. But steam trains are very satisfactory! When we got of the train at Berwyn we had about two hours to walk up to Horseshoe Falls and to visit the nearby Church. But two hours didn’t give us enough time to have a bite to eat at the Chainbridge Hotel. We ate our sandwiches at the Berwyn Rail station. I had a brief conversation with a volunteer who was doing some maintenance. I was impressed that he was wearing period dress for his work!

 

I think that afternoon the guys took naps while two of the wives visited the home of the Ladies of Llangollen. We had dinner at the Corn Mill. It was also very good. We were pretty happy with all the meals we had on the trip. We just had one too many Indian meals!

 

The next morning, we got an early start to minimize encounters between Llangollen and Trevor and on the aqueducts and the tunnels. This scheme worked fine except that we encountered another boat going towards Llangollen just as it had entered the area where concrete lined canal bed makes the canal essentially one-way. We managed to pass with much backing up on the other boats part and bottom scrapping on our part.

 

Crossing the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct was uneventful. At Bridge 28W I tied up and my 70 year old wife scurried forward to lift the bridge. This was a bit of an effort and she paused to catch her breath. The boat following us, operated by the couple who had not previously been in narrowboat kept on coming. Passing under the partially open bridge. He asked why the bridge wasn’t open all the way. My wife snarled her response!

 

The rest of the way to Chirk Marina was uneventful. We were moored in the marina by noon. We had lunch at the pub. After lunch the wives took a taxi to visit Chirk Castle again. The guys loafed. We spent the night on the boats and were out of there in plenty of time in the morning. The fellow in the office barely winced when I described my misadventures with the boat.

We had a great time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by tipton1947
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9 hours ago, Mr Norman said:

Grand account of your holiday and impressive selection of photographs. Thanks very much for the effort, much appreciated!

Excellent; one of the best trip accounts I've seen on this forum, and the photos are particularly good.

 

Howard

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