Friday 23rd September
Today we all enjoyed a walk to the Horseshoe Falls and Valle Crucis Abbey. Horseshoe Falls is the name of Thomas Telford’s semi-circular weir across the River Dee, about 2 miles from the mooring basin at Llangollen, which provides the water for the canal. We walked along the towpath beside the unnavigable stretch of the canal. Unnavigable except for the horsedrawn trip boat which must have a very shallow draught as this part of the canal is very shallow.
As is my wont in the mornings (pelvic floor’s gone!) after about 30 minutes walking I needed to go to the loo and spotting what I thought was a suitable place off the path, dashed into the undergrowth, just ahead of Barbara who had the same thought at the same time. I was to live to regret this decision however as I was soon attacked by a swarm of wasps! I didn’t know what was happening at first and thought the sting on my neck was some kind of biting fly. Crouching there, in mid flow, I looked round and saw all these wasps hovering about 6in off the ground. I couldn’t move until I had finished though and got stung twice more, once just behind my right armpit and once in a rather more delicate place, (suffice to say somewhere down the front of my trousers!) before I could get out of there!
I came screaming out on to the path with my jeans undone tearing off my jacket and t shirt because there were wasps in them! While Ken and Barbara were getting the wasps out of my clothes Barry rather tactfully walked off as I was in a state of semi undress! I have been stung by wasps before but these were really painful and I had to take a piriton. I now have 3 rather large red lumps and they still hurt too.
After my disaster in the bushes we carried on and had a look at the Horseshoe Falls which were lovely (see photos) then we decided to go and look at the ruined abbey. We retraced our steps past the Chain Bridge Hotel and up a steep bank, over the road and came upon a picnic area complete with proper (wasp free) toilets, Sod’s Law! We took a rather steep, accidental detour from the footpath to the abbey and ended up quite a long way up this hill. The view was good but the old knees were complaining on the way down.
Eventually we found the abbey and Barbara and I went in and had a look round while our non-tourist husbands sat on a wall chatting. There is quite a bit left of the ruins and we found it very interesting. After looking at the ruins we joined our own ruins and went to the tea room where we had tea and toasted teacakes (for the girls) and fat bastard sausage rolls (for the boys).
Another accidental detour saw us going round in a circle until we found the right route back to the canal and on to the basin. I reckon we must have walked about 6 miles today. When we got back Ken and I went in to town where we went to the butchers and got 9 sausages which weigh nearly 2 lbs, they are huge and a nice piece of brisket. I also bought a very fetching waterproof hat, so now it won’t rain ever again!
This evening ther have been several new arrivals to the basin, one of which moored the other side of B and B. Until that is, Barry lit his fire and the smoke started drifting towards them whereupon they soon moved to the other side of the basin. Then 2 things happened. 1) The wind changed direction so the smoke would have stopped blowing over them had they stayed where they were and 2) The boat next door to them over that side lit their fire and they got it again!
Tomorrow we are having an extra day here and are supposed to be doing useful things!
