Relaxing at Little Onn

Moored Little Onn, Shroppie

Just relaxing today at a place I love.. walking has been good with the ever changing landscape, and while out walking this morning I watched a pair of buzzards and a pair of another type of hawk.. possibly marsh harriers scrapping with each other in mid air.  I don’t know if they were marsh harriers, I got some photos, but they were not in focus enough for me to tell, but they certainly had no white about them, very dark coloured and slightly smaller than the buzzards..

I am going back in the morning to try get some better pics to be able to identify them.  Here is a nice pic of Lucy, ha she is concentrating or thinking about going across the canal where she can see a rabbit feeding on the canal bank…

I told her one splash and it would be gone “Not worth getting wet for Lucy!”

This afternoon I set about filling the biscuit barrel, and did a load of baking.. ginger biscuits as well as some plain and currant ones.. it was hard to get them cool enough to hide away in the biscuit barrel while trying to fend Vic off from getting to them!

Oh yes…. nearly forgot, the Ecofan arrived from the USA, I won it on ebay paying £58 for it including postage..

It’s very quiet here tonight, almost spooky.EEK! I just remembered why!

Colours of the cut and Meg learns to swim at Little Onn

Gnosall to Little Onn, Shroppie, 3 miles 0 locks

All mad rush this morning thanks to Mr Tesco.  We pulled the pins to go get some water from the services just 50 yards ahead of us.  We had arranged for a Tesco Home delivery at the bridge at the far end of Gnosall between 10am and noon, but just as I stepped off No Problem to moor her for water, a phone call “Hello Tony here from Tesco”.. Oh No It’s only 9.20!! So the water stop was abandoned and we cruised the 200 yards to meet Tony who was busily unloading our order from his van.

No worry, but now we have not filled with water, so we need to take care of the supply we have until we reach the next services at Wheaton Aston.  We could have gone there today, but I simply love this mooring where we have put the pins in this evening at Little Onn, we shall stay here for a day or so.

Gnosall was quiet this morning with boats, here we are moored by The Boat Inn..

The colours of the cut are gorgeous at the moment, and going through Cowley cutting was amazing as was most of our trip today, the sunlight through the trees made the colours vibrant..

This was a bit different today..

In most chandlers and gift shops you can buy tiny wooden narrowboats, I have one on my shelf like most people do who live on a boat I guess, but this one has a motor!  “I want that” I called across..

This guy lives on the boat in the pic, and he built this superb model motor boat, as you can see he cruises it remotely.. but he had no intention to let me have his toy!

Meg the pup learned to swim today, making a right mess of getting on the boat at a bridge.. basically she miss timed the step on.  I was going really slowly too, but she decided to jump too early and No Problem was not quite at the bridge hole!

No harm done though, I knocked the prop out of gear while Vic stepped off the boat and hauled her onto the towpath.. she jumped on the boat and got a good rub down with a towel, she was off again at the next bridge hole with no worries or stress.. I think she accepted that as all part of living aboard!

Aqualate Mere in the winter light, Stafford in the dark..

Weekend Norbury Junction to Gnosall, Shropshire Union Canal, 2 miles 0 locks

Finding somewhere to moor on the Shroppie is a pain if you want to moor other than visitor moorings.  With embankments and cuttings wonderful that they are, they do not lend themselves to mooring.  There is an under water ledge stretching some 12 inches or more out from the canal side to protect the bank.  That is fine, and I can understand that, but trying to moor against it.. not on!  The only way to be able to do that is to carry a couple of mini car wheels along, so when moored they can be floated alongside, keeping the boat away from the bank far enough not to keep banging the underwater ledge!

Don’t have any of those, although I did have an opportunity to get a couple, Vic refused to have them on the roof “We really would look like water gypsies with those on the roof”.. Well not such a bad thing I say.. and I will never forget overhearing this from a young family.. “New age travelers I think” said one.. “More like old age travelers to me!” said the other in reply!  I loved that.. Yep Old age travelers will do me fine!

Anyway.. I managed to find a very nice mooring between Norbury and Gnosall for the weekend.  It was rural, and I wanted to go visit the large expanse of water known as Aqualate Mere.  There was a bit of a ledge under the water, but not very wide, so our large fenders kept us out far enough…

Here we are just entering this nature reserve, so delightful walking in the woodlands at this time of year, but also so annoying that parts of this wonderful place are only open to “permit holders”. Money, money, money!   

To get to some of the most beautiful parts of this country you have to pay!  Never will I do that, we enjoyed what we were allowed to see for free, and Lucy and pup Meg just loved it, charging around in all the fallen leaves. Meg crashed later!..

Here she has pinched borrowed Lucy’s bed for a snooze! But only borrowed part of it..

I caught the bus from Gnosall to Stafford at lunchtime today after pulling the pins this morning on our mooring only about a mile further north.  I was just about to go to the dentist’s chair when a power cut disabled the centre of Stafford with alarms going off everywhere and city centre banks in a panic.. doors being slammed shut and customers ushered out of shop premises.  Gawd, did this mean that my appointment would be cancelled too?.. Nope!.. Just the funniest though, cos when I went into the room the dentist’s ‘chair’ was a bed!  Of course no electrics to bring it back up to a sitting position after the last appointment!

It was all a bit dark and dingy, but my dentist did what he could, and I will return in a couple of weeks time!  I was lucky that I had already purchased a new dog bed for Meg before hand, and it actually came with a ‘bone shaped’ fluffy pillow too.. here Meg is trying it out..

I wonder how long it will look like this.. already she is chucking that pillow around the boat attacking it with her teeth.. I shall compare this photo with one I will take in a month’s time.. that is if that bed is still in one piece!

Oh and Vic has been hard at work this weekend..

Now this is a very handy area on the back of No Problem where a work bench can be set up.. very productive I must say!

Work all finished this evening at Norbury..

Moored Norbury Junction, Shropshire Union Canal

Paperwork day today.. and I attack the filing cabinet.. an unbelievable number of pieces of paper went into the shredder.  I do this about once a year, or when I can get no more in the file box.

But it wasn’t all sort-sort.  I took the dogs out this morning for an hour or so, and did the same again this evening in a different direction.  It is all very quiet here here on the canal.

This a very different scene to a couple of months ago when it was all hustle and bustle.

So the proof of the pudding…. The new hospital silencer has been fitted in like a glove, perfect, and the electrician has had a look at our battery bank. That was OK.. although one of the batteries seems to be leaking, but it is reading as working, so we will leave well alone and if it should fail later we will disconnect it from the bank and replace it.

We are out of here tomorrow probably to settle for the weekend somewhere close to Gnosall.. gotta go to the dentist in Stafford again on Monday, and there is a bus directly from Gnosall…

We cruise the Newport Branch of the Shroppie

Knighton to Norbury, Shropshire Union Canal, 5 miles 0 locks

I was up a bit later this morning, I seemed tired, not in a hurry to leave my warm bed.  I was feeling cold when I got up as well, and now I have started sneezing, so that is probably why.. *sniff*..

Anyway, I hadn’t been up long when the boatyard phoned “Are you moored nearby?  We want to start work on the boat”.. Damn, so no time to consider staying at our mooring then.. “Be with you lunch time OK?” And with that I knew that my wish to stay where we were would not come true!

So we set off with just 5 miles to do.. mind you there are lines and lines of moored boats between where we were and Norbury Junction, so it would probably take us almost 3 hours to get there.

I left Vic to grab the tiller while I walked the dogs along the towpath, trying to warm up with some exercise, but I had only gone about 100 yards when I spotted a load of wood.. the perfect size, but needing the chainsaw treatment.  So that took us an hour to cut it and load it on to the roof of No Problem.  Quite a feat too, we could not get into the side fully and with a gap of about 6ft, had to use our long gangplank on to the gunnels to get it all aboard.

Shebdon aqueduct is being given some treatment at the moment, they are piling one side, and we had to wait about 2 minutes that’s all before we were waved through..

You can see how far they are banging in these pieces of steel.

And so to Norbury Junction, and a difficult manoeuvre to turn No Problem and reverse down the arm to the dry dock at the bottom.  The start of the now abandoned Newport Branch of the Shropshire Union.  Now it is not THAT many boats that can boast they have cruised this particular arm.  Easing gently backwards down the arm passing Starcross on my right waiting for her new engine to be fitted.. Fellow blogger Jim is having the same engine put in Starcross as No Problem has.

Mooring at the bottom, work was started on installing a hospital silencer for No Problem to make our engine sound a lot quieter.  We had one on NP1 and it did make a big difference.  The name hospital silencer came from the old days, I believe, when diesel engines close to hospitals were fitted with a ‘silent’ silencer.. it only just fits in though.. The guy at Wigrams Marina Boatyard said that we would not be able to have one… Norbury Boatyard thinks differently.. proof in the pudding ho hum!

Through Market Drayton and Tyrley to Knighton

Mon and Tues – Adderley to Knighton, Shropshire Union Canal, 10 miles 10 locks

Two glorious October days when the sun shines, the days are warm and autumn is put on hold.  The trees stopped turning brown for a while and my flowers on the roof refuse to give up even though they have had two frosts to tell them their time is over. 

I have seen some fabulous birds this last couple of days too, the birds are scurrying around like the squirrels, getting the last of the food from the trees while they can.. A yellowhammer, green woodpecker and a buzzard as we went through one of the big Shropshire Union cuttings, Woodseaves today.  I thought I would have the most perfect pic to show you today, but just as I picked up the camera for a close up of the buzzard, the batteries ran out!!

Anyway I got a quickie which I will put in the album later, but by then we had gone by him and he was facing the other way.

The Woodseaves cutting is notorious for these buzzards…

The cutting is awesome.  Cut out of pure rock by men without any machines.. the stone and earth taken from this made up the huge embankments on this canal.

Well anyway.. Meg had her jabs yesterday along with her microchip.  I was pleased that the vet checked that she didn’t already have one first.. at least they are checking dogs to make sure they have not been stolen, too much of that going on at the moment.  He gave her a once over as well and pronounced her fit and well. 

She is enjoying canal life very much, there is so much to learn.. she learned about top lock gates yesterday, and is now proficient at getting from one side of a lock to another, and today she learned about chain saws and gangplanks.. she was more scared of the gangplank.. but after a couple of goes very slowly and carefully up and down she was soon running the plank!

Today too was her first day on the towpath without me.. Just a couple of bridges.. tentative at first looking at me on No Problem wondering why I wasn’t around, then away, like she had been doing it all her life.. soon be time for her to earn her red spotted neckerchief!

For sure Lucy has a soft spot for her, and Meg copies everything Lucy does.. she is enjoying life very much.

We managed to get some more wood today from the offside of the canal.  We have found this fire excellent, and it is not using as much coal as we thought beings it is a larger fire than in our other boat.  Sometimes it is too warm!

The market in Market Drayton is fantastic.. I visited this morning and got some fresh vegetables before we set off.. probably one of the best markets I have ever been to.. I was surprised though to see one market trader selling golliwogs!  I was very tempted! I used to love those when I was small.

Talking about tempted.. I am very tempted to stay here for a couple of days it is so very, very quiet, and the walks are superb .. but we are due at Norbury Junction Boat Yard on Friday for some work to be done and Gnosall at the weekend so I can visit the dentist in Stafford directly from there by bus .. I just might put that boatyard off, then all I have to do is to find some transport to the dentist at Stafford on Monday from here… Ho Hum wishful thinking.

Phew, Audlem surprises us with a Pet Shop..

Weekend – Coole Pilate to Audlem, Shropshire Union Canal, 2 and a bit miles, 4 locks
Today – Audlem to Adderley, 2 miles 10 locks

We had a great time at Coole Pilate, the weather was really kind, and the mooring blissful.  But we had a meeting in Audlem planned for Sunday.. a new dog for us.  But it was a surprise, because I was expecting to do some logistics to go fetch this newbie from Newtown in Powys.  Not that I mind travelling you see, just that I was trying to plan on making it as less stressful for newbie as I could.

“We will bring her to you on Sunday”.. WOW really unexpected “Where will you be, we will make a day of it”.. But I didn’t have a lead or collar!.. No food, or a bowl to serve any in if I had some!

I hadn’t planned on this.. and me the ultimate planner.  Have you not heard of my ‘cunning plans’?

I wandered into Audlem on Saturday afternoon hoping that the co-op might have a lead and some puppy dog food to make do.. and low and behold I couldn’t believe my eyes, a Pet Shop!.. Hey hang on this is only a village!

So, much to the owners delight, I purchased 15kg of good quality puppy dog food, a lead and collar, one of those expanding lead thingies, some worming tablets and a cuddly toy.. perfect! She can sleep on a rug and one of my old jumpers.. hey she has never been in doors yet and she has been sleeping on sawdust.  Anyway the Pet Shop was selling their beds for over £25, I refuse to pay that!

Yes my favourite pub, The Shroppie Fly, and yes it was Saturday night.. so out early for dinner, then back to boat (moored not here, but above the next lock) to watch the rugby.. back to the Shroppie Fly to listen to some live music and have a couple of pints to congratulate our rugby team on a magnificent performance, never mind they didn’t win, they did us proud.

The next day I packed away the St George’s cross flags and waited for the arrival of the family from Wales.. We had already had some banter on the phone about England and rugby, and we laughed when I suggested they were supporting the other team or else the Welsh would not hear the end of it if England won! 

Meg arrived with tail between legs.. never been on a lead before, and there she was being ‘dragged’ along the towpath.. never been off the farm before, never been in a car before, never seen water before.. poor Meg.. oh and never seen a narrowboat before!

So today we did the 10 locks on the Audlem flight.. Meg took it in her stride.. her attitude was.. “OK I will go with it, got no choice anyway” while Lucy decided to go on hunger strike!

By the end of the day Lucy decided that this pup was “OK actually”, and perhaps respected her more when she (Lucy) tried to sneakily scoff a bit of Meg's food.. Meg didn’t like that and snarled at her elder.. Lucy came off the hunger strike and tucked into her own bowl which Meg had respectfully left!

Market Drayton for jabs and tags for Meg tomorrow!

We welcome crew member Meg aboard at Audlem

Born in June, Meg comes with not much crewing experience, but Lucy is already teaching her to lookout to check if the lock is ready to exit…

Back chat this morning from Meg, as she complains that she can’t reach the tiller to take No Problem out of the lock when it is full!

A sensible Welsh Border Collie, 4 months old and from a working family on Welsh farm in Newtown, Powys which is at the end of the Montgomery Canal.. just a pity I couldn’t have gone by Narrowboat to collect her.. one day maybe the Montgomery will be restored to Newtown.

Coole Pilate and the bbqs are out again

Moored Coole Pilate, Shropshire Union Canal

Well there have been bbqs here this evening and all the boaters are enjoying this glorious October weather at perhaps one of the best moorings on the Shropshire Union.  I have had a boring day really, well far too boring to bother to write a blog even, but I will find something to say!  Lots of paperwork got sorted today and Lucy had to be patient ‘till later this evening when I gave myself some time to relax..

You can see by the long shadow how late this was, and also by Lucy’s face that it is “walkies time surely?”.. some great walks around here too there are.

And where we are you can now see again.. blog reader and great friend John Sinclair who moors his narrowboat at Wigrams Marina has found a way to be able to show where we are on the Waterscape maps again. Here we go then, this is where we are – right here! 

It is all to do with the parameters x and y which was the grid reference that Waterscape used to use to show exact locations.  I don’t want to go into that more technically, but Waterscape are now not using those parameters on their site anymore.  However, for those that also use this on their blogs or in fact, use for their own convenience this is how you get the maps to use the x and y.  John says…

“Type this into the browser to get Wigrams Marina http://www.waterscape.com/iframe_map?x=446812&y=262489

If you click the above link you will get the Wigrams marina.
All it needs is the addition of iframe_map before the ?x part and after the
.com/ part.”

Great stuff John, and well done you for the research this one!

Just looking at that pic above, I guess this would be a great place for ‘tent city’ eh family of mine?!

Well this weekend I guess I will be doing much the same as all of you.. organising around rugby union and F1, so tomorrow we will take a run down to Audlem and find a good spot early to get the dot in the sky (satellite), then Sunday hopefully welcome our new crew member before settling late afternoon maybe at the top of Audlem to see whether Lewis can cheer us all.. must get the flags out first thing tomorrow and drape them over No Problem to bring the boys luck!

We turn South.. Chester and Ellesmere are a bridge too far

Nantwich to Coole Pilate, Shropshire Union Canal, 4 miles 2 locks

A day off yesterday before pulling the pins this morning to reverse back to the British Waterways Services some 200 metres behind us.  With no wind blowing, No Problem did as I asked and went back like a dream steering easily backwards using the tiller.  Then onwards to meet Mr Tesco at Hack Green Locks.  I had only done a Tesco order the evening before and was surprised to get a next day delivery slot!

And with that statement you can see that we have put our cruise to Chester and Ellesmere Port on hold for this year.  We felt as if it was just too much to do at this time of year.  We have Wendie, Danny and the grandchildren coming at the beginning of November and I want to get south a bit.  Wendie doesn’t mind how far she has to travel to visit, but it is winter and there is nothing worse that driving for miles and miles in the pouring rain.

Mr Tesco just dumped the groceries off, he did want to fetch them down the slope to No Problem, but typical, on this very quiet country lane at Borrows Bridge, a car came, and he was blocking the road!.. No Problem for us though, and we took it to the bridge and I went back along the towpath to get No Problem.. loaded at the bridge hole.. huh that parapet was broken when we passed on the way to Llangollen, I note nothing has been done..

We put the pins in for lunch a little further on at a place called Coole Pilate.. an oddly named place, but the Shropshire Union Canal Society have made the towpath beautiful around here with designated moorings with picnic tables and bbq stands all the way along.. It was a wonderful day today weather wise, and Vic and Lucy were enjoying..

They looked so relaxed I decided to put the pins in a bit firmer and stay for the night.  Now it looks as if we might stay here tomorrow as well.  We are just doing a bit of finishing off of the re-fit started at the beginning of the year, and after getting all the main re-fit done we had a rest and now are just getting back to doing the odd bits and pieces left to do, such as some varnishing, turning doors up the other way.. (don’t ask!!) holes in the bunk bed base so that I can get to the storage without swearing when my fingers get caught, etc etc

Oh we might have a new crew member next week… watch this space.. and NO I am not pregnant!!

 

Nantwich...

Moored Nantwich, Shropshire Union Canal

Well did nothing today.. I say nothing, but my day was actually packed with doing things!  Spent nearly all day on the computer looking at this and that and catching up with the Canal Forum and locating Richard Fairhurst to send him a message to ask who best to talk to about the Waterscape mapping.  Richard used to work for Waterscape, in fact I believe he wrote the mapping program for them before moving on to be the editor of Waterways World.

I got a reply from Waterscape now, the guy that Richard told me to write to emailed me within an hour!

I had a very positive reply too, so I am hoping that the mapping will be better than what it is at the moment.  It takes me 8 clicks to zoom in far enough to see street names.. I need those for Tesco deliveries and the like.  I also need them to find bus stops, in fact I use the Waterscape mapping all the time!

I had a really nice entry in the Guest Book tonight.  It’s not often I mention the Guest Book, but I do have one, the link is on the left <————– over there!

What a lovely blog! We are so glad you enjoyed the Monty (our local canal) and share your disappointment that you cannot walk along the Weston Arm (we live at the other end of it).

We are moored at Swanley and it is so nice to see such a sympathetic chronicle of your travels along this beautiful stretch of water. So many people think of the Llangollen as too busy and full of hire boaters. Not true all of the time as your blog and pictures show.

Thanks for sharing this with us, hope to see you on the cut sometime!

That was from Sarah & Martin Richards, nb Hector's House, hey thanks you two  .. And I thought my account of the Llangollen was a bit boring.  I did moan a bit along the way and I thought I came across as not liking it.. Actually I did in the end, just maybe I was expecting something more special than I saw.

I won a ecofan on ebay tonight.. I am annoyed at the prices in this country, anything from £70 to £90, so I bid on one from USA and got it for $79 plus delivery of $40, still made it cheaper than anywhere in this country.  Mind you I am not sure that we need one, No Problem is very warm right the way through with the Morso Squirrel 1410 that I chose as our wood/coal burning source!

I am still undecided as to whether to go to Chester or not.. We are having a couple of days here at Nantwich.. well, been on the move for quite a number of days, time to stop for a while…

Back to the Shroppie, and Tony leaves from Nantwich

Willeymoor Lock to Nantwich, Llangollen and Shropshire Union Canals, 12.5 miles 11 locks

A lovely weekend cruising with son Tony, the meal at the Willeymoor Lock Tavern was very nice, and not too expensive either.

We pulled the pins on Saturday morning planning to get to Wrenbury fairly early so that we could find a mooring where the satellite dish could find the dot in the sky.  Well England would be playing Estonia in the afternoon and France that evening!

Once we has arrived I went off to find a couple of geocaches while Tony pulled up one of the chairs and watched the England/Estonia football game

Took Tony out again to the Cotton Arms at Wrenbury close to the Wrenbury Lift Bridge, and my goodness what a super duper meal that was too.. yes I know, we are spoiling him, but we are spoiling ourselves too!

What a great result for England’s teams, more especially the rugby team.  No Problem sure was rocking after the final whistle on Saturday night.  We went out early and came back just before the kick off for that.

So after bacon and eggs on Sunday we set off through Wrenbury Swing Bridge..

Once again, I could not get No Problem to turn right without touching some of the hire fleet of the Alvechurch Narrowboats, who’s 70ft boats were sticking out from the left.. I apologised before I got any were near them, it was obvious I wasn’t going to get away with it.. “Oh don’t worry about it, just watch your own paintwork”.. was the reply from one guy working on the boats

We passed a lot of Challenger Narrowboats during the morning, but by lunch time there was a definite lack of boats around.  Passing the huge Swanley Marina, well nearly passed when cheerily running over came Kay and David from Narrowboat Adagio.  We had met Kay and David a few weeks ago on our way to Llangollen, and again on the way back, now this was the third time!

David is threatening to start a blog having had a look at this one.. well David, just go to this website Blogger.com (Click on that) and sign up, it is really easy to start blogging.. Hopefully I will be able to add a link the new blog on this site!

So it wasn’t long ‘till we left the Llangollen for this year. 

I certainly enjoyed it much more on the way back from Llangollen.  I think that was mainly due to the fact that the return journey was made ‘out of season’, not so many boats about.  But at the Llangollen end it was most beautiful, and well worth the visit.. oh and so was the Mongomery, although I do feel English Nature has taken far too much control over canals that are meant to be for boats!

I walked with Tony to the station at Nantwich this morning before doing a bit of shopping in the town, great weekend Tone!

Tony visits at Whitchurch and a meeting at Grindley Brook

Old Man’s Bridge (38) to Willeymoor Lock via Whitchurch Arm, Llangollen Canal, 5 miles 7 locks

We pulled the pins early this morning to cruise down to Whitchurch to wait for son Tony to arrive from Portsmouth.  I thought we better get down the Whitchurch arm early as the last time we passed it was absolutely chocker block full of boats “If we get there about 9.30, some of the boats will have left” says I to Vic.. so the right turn before the swing bridge then..

Not one boat in the arm!!.. I couldn’t believe it.. so we went to the end..

We seem to be going to a lot of ends of canals lately!

Wasn’t long ‘till Tony arrived and we reversed back to the winding hole (turning point) a little further back and faced No Problem in the other direction.  Going out of the arm, there was no way that we could turn right, too tight a turn to go through the swing bridge, but there is a handy winding hole just west a bit, so round we came again.. and on through the lift bridge..

So quiet today, in fact as we approached Grindley Brook staircase locks the lock keeper saw us coming and opened the locks ready..

Tony and Vic were discussing this and that while the lock keeper was shouting up to them to let the water out of the top lock! .. Hey you two, concentrate!!

Dropped down the staircase and round the corner to the next lock.. and who was approaching but the two E’s with Bendigedig.  Elsie saw us and opened the gate as the lock was full and in our favour.  We dropped down through the lock then moored up in front of the waiting boat and sat on the bench chatting a while over a cup of coffee.  Not one boat in sight, unbelievable.. there would have been no way that we could have done that a couple of weeks ago, it was jammed with boats on this stretch then.

After exchanging news and hugs we parted company to go our opposite ways..

Elsie and Eric are wintering on the Llangollen this year.. not a bad choice me thinks.. bye you two for now, was great to see you today, we will catch up with you next year when we will get to drink that bottle of wine!  

Onward to Willeymoor Lock where we are taking Tony out for a meal.. I enjoyed a walk with him this afternoon after putting the pins in.. once again the Shropshire countryside is beautiful, although some of the paths are very overgrown.. We got quite a surprise as we went round one corner..

Right then, gotta go, time for munchies in the pub..

I spy the Two Es with Bendigedig at Grindley Brook

Here they are Eric, Elsie and Ben with their lovely boat Bendigedig.

Waterscape's Interactive Mapping

I am disappointed to see Waterscape’s Interactive Mapping pages missing from their website. 

This is a location on the Ashby Canal, or should be.  But all there is a blank page almost 

 I note that they are revamping the site, it all looks a bit empty at the moment.  I do hope they are going to keep running the mapping it is so very useful.  It used to show our position each day, and visitors to No Problem found that really handy, if they zoomed in on the map on the ‘Where we are now’ link then it would actually show you the exact gps position that we were.

I have written an email to them to ask the question, but I am not holding my breath about getting a reply.  I have emailed them on many occasions about permissions to use their mapping, and never ever get a reply sadly.

I also use their mapping for finding locations for our tesco deliveries.  I don’t know if you were aware, but if you click on the mapping it zooms in, and keeps zooming in each time you click until the actually street names are shown.. very handy.

I will let you know if I get a reply.. in the mean time I suggest all boaters write or email waterscape.com asking when the interactive mapping will be back on line.  We really do need this.

Edit,

Actually since I first wrote this, I just went and had a good look at the new Waterscape site and it says that it has kept the mapping..

“But we’ve also kept elements of the old site which we received positive feedback for, so the interactive map, our Boaters’ Guides, our database of waterside businesses and attractions and our comprehensive events calendar have all been carried over.”

Well I can’t find it, don’t know if anyone else can?

A perfect day on the Llangollen Canal

End Prees Branch to Old Man’s Bridge (38), Llangollen Canal. 5 miles 0 locks

It was one of those days today, perfect.

Pulling the pins early we filled with diesel and loaded coal for the first part of the winter.  Diesel was a fair 51p a litre and 25kg of coal was £5.70, fair again.  We had been told that Whixall Marina had good prices for coal and diesel.  British Waterways Marinas Ltd have taken over the running of this one.. last May in fact.  They are going to be pulling out all the pontoons and replacing them with modern ones as well as providing water and electricity to each of them.  Some refurbish program that is .. Here the tranquility of this marina early this morning..

Back down the arm we cruised, and here is the remains of the broken lift bridge..

Look at the top left, you can see where it has just ‘snapped’ off..

This is a very quiet arm although the big Marina is at the bottom.. there are a lot of buzzards to be seen, and look at this little fella sitting in the hedge..

We stopped for lunch at the lovely named ‘Old Man’s Bridge’, and decided to chop up some of the wood we have on the roof before going on to Whitchurch tomorrow.. I often wonder how these bridges get the names they are given, this one is a mystery because there doesn’t seem to be any buildings nearby where an old man might have lived!

It is such a delightful spot here that we decided to stay for the afternoon and overnight, so we stuck the pins in a bit firmer.. then it was out for a walk with Lucy.. I took my PDA with me which has Memory-map on it, that is an ordnance survey map of this area.  As I walk so a little circle shows me where I am using gps navigation.. very handy indeed, and it sure was today.  I had planned a walk to the east of the canal, but when I walked back to go under the disused railway bridge I noticed a path up to it.. 

What followed was one of the most splendid walks I have ever done.. I just looked at the mapping on the PDA and wandered across the countryside to the west including some of the Whixall Peat Nature Reserve.. the walks were along beautiful rides like this…

Vic did the tea tonight which meant I could stay out a bit longer, and when I got back I realised I had done over 5 miles!

Picking son Tony up tomorrow from Whitchurch Station.. he is staying for a few days, so we will flex his muscles to clear the Llangollen Canal to Nantwich for Monday.. might treat him to a dinner out.. looking forward to seeing him, he hasn’t seen the new No Problem yet, hope he likes it ..

Prees Branch and disaster for the lift bridge

Ellesmere to Whixall Marina (end Prees Branch), Llangollen Canal and Prees Branch, 8 miles 0 locks

It seemed a long day today somehow, but we didn’t do anything extra.. Pulled the pins this morning and pushed No Problem across the canal to the waterpoint.  Glad we did that when we did because a load of boats arrived wanting water.  There are three places to moor for water though so it wasn’t too long a wait for those not hooked up with their hose pipe!

But with three taps going at once, inevitably the flow was slow, we sure did need some water this morning, in fact I wondered if being on the end tap made our fill even slower because some arrived after us, but in the end we were the last to leave!  But I took the opportunity to make some soup for lunch while we waited.  Full at last..Then we were away..

Spied some British Waterways men on the offside of the canal with waders.. Bit of veg cutting going on..

I am amazed as to the number of visitor moorings available around this town.. there was another half mile of moorings just round the corner.. I guess all in all there is some one mile of visitor moorings for this town.. Tunnel next, all 87yds of it..

All the tunnels on the Llangollen Canal have a towpath running through them, although some of the handrails I would not trust.. in fact in this tunnel some parts had no handrail at all.. it was corroded away.

The colours are changing in the countryside from green to bronze and the squirrels are busily collecting nuts.. squirrels entertained us a lot today as we passed through the wooded areas, ha, on one particular bridge as I approached they were running along the top of the parapet wall from one side of the canal to the other..

We stopped for lunch.. delicious homemade soup yum, before turning right to the Prees Branch..

The first lift bridge had broken, and the canal had been shut for a while just a week or so ago, so we were lucky to be able to cruise this arm, but dismay at the damage of the first lift bridge…

The bridge is really broken, a grade II listed building this is, has been restored already, and here it is, snapped off at the top on the left, the remains of it are lying in the grass on the right, and a temporary footbridge has been erected as you can see.  But there is a house on the right as we passed, and his car is in the driveway, so goodness knows how he gets his car out of there.. the only road to the house is was across the bridge.. I guess he must have to drive across the fields to a neighbouring farm to get onto a road for a while.  I do hope it is not going to take too long to get this fixed.. but permissions are going to have to be got before work can start.

Coal and diesel are a good price at Whixall Marina at the end of the navigable part of the Prees Branch, so we winded (turned) and moored close to the end of the canal, we will wait ‘till the morning to load up.

Hooray, the towpath walk was there along the abandoned part of this canal, I really enjoyed the walk after having missed out on something I thought would be similar on the Weston Arm.. This was much better.

Even bridge 4 is still in place, although someone has taken the bridge number plate..

The Prees Branch was actually abandoned before it got to Prees through lack of funding, so this is one canal I feel sure will never be restored any further than it already is.  Hopefully the line of the canal will be kept as it is..but the towpath as such stops at the next bridge (Bridge 5) where there is an old wharf building (Waterloo Wharf)..

The line of the canal is dry from here and the towpath is not passable.. let’s hope it is not lost to the countryside in general and remains recognised as a right of way.

Oh, I nearly forgot, here is a nice one of the old man Vic..

This is the second lift bridge on the branch, so he did have some work to do today!

Back up Frankton Locks and the lucrative Parking Meter Mooring

Frankton to Ellesmere, Montgomery and Llangollen Canals, 3.75 miles 4 locks

Once again a very pleasant day, the clouds that brought the rain which fell overnight had gone by this morning.  I ventured out with Lucy this morning with the intention of exploring the now disused arm of the Weston Branch which is very close to Frankton Locks.. walking to the end of the watered bit, around 80 yards I came to a complete halt as there was nowhere to go, no footpath, just a ditch across the old course.. I was really disappointed not to have been able to walk along the old course.

I decided to have a wander in the other direction and found a nice walk setting off across the fields from the Graham Palmer Lock, and when I got back to No Problem there were 4 boats waiting to go back up the Frankton Locks.  Everyone waiting for the noon chimes when the locks would be officially open for use!..

Here we go then up the first of the four.. you can just see the top lock in the distance, this is a staircase of two.  The areas surrounding the locks were beautifully kept by lock keeper Colin who managed traffic up and down today making sure that no water was wasted.  We told him of the problems in the car park with the druggies the night before just so he was aware.  He said he would like to make that a no go area, as he had spent much of yesterday morning clearing up after a rave party the night before!

I was hoping to be able to moor by the wall so that I could take a ‘classic’ pic.. I have the same scene hanging on the wall here on No Problem, an Alan Firth print of NB Welshpool moored just by that black bollard.  But I was waved straight into the locks by the lock keeper and as others were waiting at the top to come down, I didn’t think it a good idea to stop and moor!

Onward then to Ellesmere with a quick grab of the camera to snap this very lucrative mooring for the owner of the house.. you would need loose change though for this one!

But at least there are no wheels to clamp on a narrowboat if it stays overtime!

The freezer is full again from the butchers, and I picked up some nice veg too.  Actually it is quite busy here with plenty of boats moored in the arm to leads to the town.  I decided to moor outside the arm this time, glad I did too!

Prees Branch tomorrow then.. they have fixed bridge No 1 so I hear.. it has been broken for a week or so. Lets hope that I am able to walk the disused part of THIS branch, a ‘nature reserve’ it says in the book..

Weekend on Montgomery Canal is bliss

Weekend and today – Maestermyn House Bridge (4), Llangollen to Frankton and back, Montgomery Canal, 16 miles 12 locks

It was the glorious weather that changed our minds on Saturday morning.. seemed like just the perfect day to venture down the Mongomery Canal, and not for sitting beside the Llangollen Canal, so I quickly phoned the lock keeper to see if he would put us on his list for the day and he came back and said yes… “Be here by 12 noon though”.

So we pulled the pins and cruised the short distance from our Friday evening mooring to the junction at Frankton.  We were soon caught up by a hire boat on the way and I felt under pressure to go faster…

Notice more damage to this bridge not repaired.. too many boats going too fast me thinks.. I let this crew pass me as soon as I could, before turning right to join a Q.Q. waiting to go down the staircase locks at Frankton.

Once through the locks we slowly cruised this lovely canal enjoying every moment in the warm sunshine.. Here is an unusual sight, a black pheasant

Not seen a black one before!  Saturday night saw us moor just above the last of the Aston Locks.  There are not that many places to moor that are not designated moorings because of the sensitive nature of the area.  I can understand that, they have obviously worked very hard with the environment as well as keeping this waterway as a boating channel.

We had to smile arriving at this lock at Aston.. can you see why?

But it wasn’t long ‘till the owner of the car arrived to move it so that we could open the lock to let No Problem in!

Vic pulled this pins on Sunday morning while I worked the lock for a change.  We had planned to go to the end of the navigable section before turning back..

We were going to have Sunday Lunch at the Navigation Inn at Maesbury, but it was more than we wanted to pay, so we put a roast in the oven instead, and it gave me a chance to have a look at the onward restoration of this canal.. before looking though, we passed the Post Office at bridge 80 I think it was..

Stopped for milk and bread, and chatted to the lady who owns this place.  She is hoping that the Post Office will allow her to keep running the Post Office when the next phase of cuts is announced.  I hope she does, this little ‘shop’ has wifi, a tea shop, accommodation, groceries, and if you want a paper ordered for the next day you just need to order it “My husband will collect the papers from the town in the morning, so you can just pop in and collect the one your ordered”.. very handy place.. what a delight and a surprise as you come under the bridge.. so onward to the last lift bridge..

We moored here a while and I walked on to look at the restoration.  The towpath was shut, but I managed to squeeze through to take a look.  I knew this was to open today (8^th October), I also knew that my pictures of what was going to be open would be a bit special.. I wasn’t wrong..

And a peek from under the bridge..

The approaching land rover had spied me, and I stood my ground hoping that he didn’t have a shot gun.. He got out and stared at me with one of those stares that you just know you are in trouble.. I smiled “How did you get here?” “Err I squeezed through the barrier.. I am just going back”  I hoped he wouldn’t confiscate my camera.. it’s amazing what goes through one’s mind when one has been a bit naughty!.. His stern look turned into a beaming smile.. I guess he saw how terrified I was.. I think he was teasing me.  Anyway he was telling me that the towpath itself is not open for another week or so, no boats for a while either until the vegetation has taken hold at least.. anyway there is no turning point at Redwith, some half mile further on.

But this shows how the restoration is taking shape on this canal.. and here the water was being gently let in yesterday ready for the grand opening today..

Great stuff!

We spent the night on the designated moorings at Maesbury, about a mile from the end.. well there were no boats moored there, and it was getting late after I decided to walk the countryside with Lucy during the late afternoon

I couldn’t believe the weather again when we pulled the pins this morning.. so warm, and it wasn’t long before we were cruising gently through this lovely countryside..

We had a date with Mr Tesco just below Frankton Locks on the beginning of the now disused Weston Branch.  The first little bit is taken up with visitor moorings and a services block.

Here he is in the handy car park.  He was a brilliant driver this time, putting all the stuff on a trolly and wheeling it for us from the van to the door!  Thanks Mr Tesco!

We were a bit unsettled after this because a couple of cars came to the car park.  It was the way they parked next to each other in the corner of the car park that worried me.  After doing some revving up and generally looking under the bonnets the youths all got into one car and stayed there for over an hour.  Then they took off spinning their wheels in the loose gravel as they left.

I took Lucy out for a walk, but I wasn’t happy to leave Vic, so I came back and took a look at where the cars had parked to see if it gave any clues as to what they were doing there, and sure enough there was a huge amount of evidence that this was a ‘doing drugs area’

I got back to No Problem, reported my findings and we decided to move away from this area, not wanting to be at risk.  Just as we pulled the pins sure enough, one of the cars came back again and backed into the same little corner as before.. so we moved as the light was fading.. we are safe where we are now, well we probably would have been safe where we were, but we felt intimidated by what was going on, and we were the only boat on the visitor moorings this evening.

Tomorrow we will be leaving this canal, but not before I have taken a walk along the now disused and unnavigable Weston Branch.  It is a nature reserve now.  Seems a lot of disused or unnavigable canals have been turned into Nature Reserves.. Not sure that I am happy with that, but at least they are not being built on .. I’ll enjoy the walk though.

The roof is full as we cruise back to Chirk and England

Chirk Marina to Maestermyn House Bridge (4), Llangollen Canal, 7 miles 2 locks

A sunny morning greeted us, and we pulled the pins to travel just a mile or so along the canal to where we knew there was wood a plenty.  Actually it took all morning to cut and sort the wood, some we cut into rounds and other smaller bits we left in lengths.. It was quite a handy place, must have been an old wharf I think, what for I have no idea, but it was a brick wall, and I could load the wood straight onto the roof with a bit of care!..

By late lunchtime we were on the way again, and were lucky at Chirk tunnel to arrive just as two boats were about to go through, so no waiting for us, and it was the same at the other end as we followed the hireboats over the aqueduct and back into England once more..

Look at that sky!!

This is what I mean about the Llangollen being not well maintained..

These are the visitor moorings at the northern end of Chirk Tunnel.  This is an important mooring as it is the nearest for a visit to Chirk Castle.. I wanted to go there by the way, but it is only open on Saturday and Sundays during October.  It is damp and dark in the cutting at Chirk, not a place I would want to stay at overnight, so we moved on.. but we have moved on to a mooring where the towpath has been shut.. the bit we have found is nice to moor at, not that you can walk anywhere of course, but we didn’t arrive till fairly late, and we will move off tomorrow, very peaceful here, but are BW going to fix this?

A notice on Waterscape shows that this towpath has been shut since May 2006 because of erosion.. once again not been fixed.  Come on BW please make sure this canal is maintained properly, and not just mowing the visitor moorings either!

A super days cruising today in glorious weather.  Even the hireboats were going slowly, so much so that even I caught up with one or two.. now that IS unusual!

Oh, I have updated all the albums, so that is the last few days of August, the whole of September and so far in October, so you can see all the pics of the Llangollen so far.. there are a lot too!  The links are on the left of the blog.

A very quiet weekend in store for us I think.. the weather will be good apparently, so walking will be on the cards.. least there are no mountains to climb around here.. Actually I did enjoy our few days in Wales!

Oh... Mike Stevens has died..

How sad.. I suppose everyone on the waterways knows of Mike Stevens.  I just been having a look round my usual haunts on the internet and read about this..

I never actually met Mike, but I did see his narrowboat once at Cowley, I think it was, near Uxbridge on the Grand Union Canal.

His wife Wendy had gone to the chemist to get some medicine for him, returning back to find him passed away.. oh dear

I could write loads about Mike, a main player in the Save our Waterways Campaign but if you take a look on Narrowboat World you will be able to read much of what I would have said..

Great guy..

Return through Trevor and a farewell today too

Llangollen to Chirk Marina, Llangollen Canal, 6.5 miles 0 locks

We pulled the pins a bit earlier than normal this morning.. and what a beautiful morning it was too.  But before we left I was out with the camera to take some final pics of the newly built basin at Llangollen where 40 boats can be moored.. I counted all the little bays! 

We were lucky to be able to moor along a hard bit rather than on a pontoon.  The pontoons are quite short, maybe 40ft or so that’s all, but here on the edge of the basin we felt more comfortable.. Here is a pic from over the other side..

Pretty innit? You can see what I mean now about the shortness of the pontoons.  There will be a lot of pics in my blog this evening by the way.. In all today I took 50 pics of which, after sorting the best of them, I kept 20, so I want to put a few on.  I will update the album as soon as possible, probably tomorrow evening so you can see them all from Wales.

OK, so pulling the pins, we left with Vic being skipper for the morning while Lucy and me trod the towpath getting those last snaps of a very pretty part of this canal… see I did like this canal after all!   Here we go then leaving Llangollen which is over to the left down the side of the mountain!..

Much of the canal for the next mile or so is cut out of pure rock, and there is only room for one narrowboat to pass through.  I had to go ahead some 500 metres to check that nothing was coming before radioing (do you spell it like that?) back to Vic to proceed…

Back out into the open countryside again…

This goes by the wonderful name of LLanddyn No 2 Lift Bridge.. always kept open it is.  It was a much easier trip back going with the flow, as people have commented that it would be.. yep correct!

Then onward to an open bit with views across the valley..

Still as you see, in a very narrow channel.  It wasn’t busy today, in fact the British Waterways Warden at Llangollen was telling me that every year on 1^st October narrowboats seem to disappear into thin air.. “Last weekend there was not one space to be had in the basin, but this weekend it is virtually empty”.. Well we passed many boats today on moorings along this canal where people were ‘putting boats to bed’ for the winter.. back and forth they were going with stuff to the car until next year..

I hopped aboard not long after this, well I had walked for a good couple or three miles I guess.. took the tiller while Vic made a cuppa.  I was thinking of exiting out at Trevor and having to turn before hitting the far bank.. I had been warned by Trevor who commented earlier about the turn at Trevor.. teehee that sounds odd!.. Anyway..

“When we came to the end I was practicaly on tickover but still got shot across the junction and emptied all the shelves, felt a right twit.
I later found out that even Helmsmen, and Women, who have been on the cut for some years, and know this section, have been know to hit the bank…..  Don't forget about the right turn at Trevor, Or keep everything on the floor.”

But I was going to have to turn left because we needed a drop of diesel, a pump out and a bag of coal or two..

Ah, but no problem for No Problem.. a little jink to the left then once I cleared the stern from the bridge I put the gears into reverse, and she gently did as was asked and turned left without hitting anything!

We cruised to the end of the very short arm and winded (turned) and moored at the boatyard facing the right way to get a pump out and diesel at the Anglo Welsh Boatyard

Diesel today was 57p a litre, a better price than Chirk Marina who wanted 65p.. sheeeeesh!  But I was astounded at the price of a bag of 20kg of coal at an extortionate £9.95.. checking our book, the price I paid at Victoria Wharf at Market Drayton a month or so ago was £6.25.  I had to begrudgingly pay for one bag to make do for now, I will find a coal merchant tomorrow on the internet to deliver me some bags, plus I will do an email to the MD of Anglo Welsh narrowboats to ask why that price.  I mean, after all when the summer is over and the hireboats are moored up for the winter, they rely on us boaters to just keep the tills ticking over.. but at those prices they are doing us no favours for helping them through the winter months with our purchases are they?

Onward…

I left him to it!…

Aww he does look lonely up there!  Teehee!   I notice he is not looking at the camera.. “Hey Vic look this way!!!”  Fell on deaf ears me thinks!.. Wonder why..   Maybe this is why..

That is all the edge there is on that side of the aqueduct.. but the views are fantastic, this is what the towpath side view has to offer with the railway VIADUCT (got it right this time Ron!) in the distance..

A great day’s cruising today, I really did enjoy, but then the weather helped.  Not long after this we said a fond farewell to our cruising companions of almost 2 years Chas and Ann on Moore2Life until next spring, they need to get back to Napton for their Xmas mooring, winter stoppages are making them hurry.. is it really two years you two?.. I am trying to think about that.. A final wave from Annie before they disappeared round the corner..

We have done a bit together in that time, we will miss you both and of course Molly the mutt too..   

We put the pins in opposite Chirk Marina, tis a nice spot here with a grassy bank.  Have spied some potential wood for the roof tomorrow, so the chain saw is getting sharpened!

Cruisers turn Tourists at Llangollen

Moored Llangollen

For sure, something a bit different today as me and Vic turned tourist for the day!.. Firstly a walk down to the ‘end’ of the Llangollen Canal along the towpath.  No boats are allowed down the last 2 miles, although there is a tourist trip boat pulled by a horse.  There is nowhere to turn down there you see, and it is fairly shallow.  The trip boat goes to the end, then the horse is unhitched and taken to the other end of the boat to pull her back.. so a bow and stern at each end!

A lovely name for the end of the canal.. Horseshoe Falls.. but it is no waterfall as such, this is the fall in the shape of errrrrrrrrr.. well you know!

From here there is a small feeder to the Llangollen Canal, and the flow is controlled from a building.. and that building is all there is at the ‘end’ of the canal with the feeder coming from underneath it.

A dipper.. never seen one before..

After strolling on the banks of the Dee for a while we made our way to the train station nearby, Berwyn.  We were a bit early so we sat on the station and polished off our lunch, well it was almost one o’clock and there wasn’t anything else to do!

We took the train to Carrog via Glyndyfrdwy.. blimey all these names.. here we are passing through Glyndyfrdwy!

Notice the milk churns on the trolly.  On each of the stations there were relics of a time gone by, it really was lovely, the views along the way were great this one from inside the train…

And once we had got to Carrog we had time to get off the train and look around before the return trip, this time all the way back to Llangollen..

Look, there is Lucy on the station having enjoyed the trip back.. well I say enjoyed, no doubt she would rather have walked back!  Anyway from there it was into the town for some more tourist stuff.. first of all ‘THE’ photo looking across the Dee from the bridge in Llangollen, with the Corn Mill on the far bank and the train station on the left bank as you look

You can’t knock a view like that even if the weather had closed in somewhat.. but hey we are in Wales, that’s what happens in Wales.. at least it wasn’t misty.  You know, if you have seen the mist you have missed the scene.. Teehee!

Visiting the ironmongers, bakers, post office and deli before having a bite to eat in the Bull pub, with a handy outside covered area for smokers and those with dogs.. we are now, of course, the latter!

So apart from getting the stick of rock, we arrived back aboard No Problem after a very enjoyable day out as a tourist.. now that doesn’t very often happen!.. Tomorrow we are out of here, the weather should be good, and by the look of some of the comments left on the blog, our exit from Llangollen will be somewhat faster!

Two aquaducts see us to Llangollen

Maestermyn Bridge (Br 4) to Llangollen, Llangollen Canal, 13 miles 0 locks

Well we are here.. got to the end of this canal, Llangollen.  Over the pair of aqueducts, both are very different.. here is Chirk..

With the railway aqueduct in the background.. then the big one.. Pontcysylite Aqueduct

It sure is a big drop!

I never really thought I would see my own boat going over this, but here it is.  Mind you the big boat did struggle to get to the end, the canal is in a trough for much of the way between this aqueduct and the end..

And the going was desperately slow.  The water struggles, you see, to get from the bow of the boat to the stern where the prop is.  With a shorter boat it is easier, but a couple of times No Problem almost stopped, and I must admit I was a bit worried about being able to reach the end.  But of course, a good percentage of the hire boats are about the same length, and they seem to do it OK.. maybe I not giving my boat a hard time to go faster!

Anyway before all that, we decided to stay opposite the marina at Chirk for the weekend.. we left our Friday night mooring and cruised on Saturday, knowing that most of the hire boats would be back in their bases as it is traditionally the ‘change over day’.. and we were right, very few boats indeed were cruising the waterway.. before we left and looking out of the window at breakfast, a reminder that winter is close…

This little fella was singing like mad outside in the hedgerow, and I managed to snap him from inside the boat.. bit of snow, and would be the perfect pic for the Christmas cards this year!!

To say that I have really enjoyed this canal would not be true.. but then again maybe my expectation was higher than it should have been.. whatever, to me this canal is in need of some tlc.. badly.  It looks and feels tired, it looks worn out in places, tis a shame.  The reasons I guess is the number of narrowboats now using it, far too many hire boats are registered on this canal as far as I can see.  No maintenance is being done, and what is broken is staying broken, whether it be bridges, visitor moorings, banks..

I spoke with a BW guy today, a lone person making a difference.. A tree on the non towpath side has slid literally into the canal and obviously fallen across the canal at some time and damaged the fencing on the other side.. he was fixing it.. I asked “When did that tree come down then?”.. “Oh last year sometime”.. well to be honest he was the one and only person working on this canal that I have seen.

‘Tis nice.. OK, maybe you think I am being unfair..

Well maybe I am when I can take a pic like that.. the views were stunning as we cruised nearer Llangollen.

We are moored in the lovely basin right at the end.  There are plenty of moorings here.  Tomorrow I want to explore on foot and take a trip on the railway.. looking forward to that.