Saturday 2nd October
What a fabulous experience we had going over the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. You can’t describe what it’s like and the photos (of which there are many!) don’t really do it justice. We didn’t go far, only 2 miles from Chirk Marina but it took us about one and a half hours, with the shallowness of the canal, dodging the day boats, Fron Lift Bridge, a water stop and the aqueduct. We moored in the basin at Trevor, opposite Anglo Welsh. We were lucky to get in as there was only one space when we arrived.
Ken was a bit grim faced as he drove over the aqueduct and he was leaning well over to the towpath side of the boat but he was ok! When we arrived at Trevor we took George over the canal to the Telford Inn. This entailed negotiating a rather steep set of steps up on to the bridge but he managed dogfully!
Later Ken and I walked into Cefn Mawr (pronounced Kevan Moor) to find the shop and a bank. Obviously we went entirely the wrong way and after traversing almost the whole residential area of the village and asking several people we found a shop (not the one we were looking for) and got more directions to the bank. After going the wrong way again we found the bank. All this took about an hour and we discovered on the way back (the right way) we were only 10 minutes from the canal! It was also nearly all up hill and we’re just not used to it!
Later on I went down to the bottom of the aqueduct to get some more photos. You really need to see it from the bottom as well to get the scale of it. I also walked over it which is quite different to going over it by boat.
Sunday 3rd October
The weather was so appalling for most of the day so we weren’t going anywhere! Torrential rain meant waterproof coats and trousers were the order of the day just to get some more coal in! Ken and I decided to walk into Cefn Mawr again and get a paper from the Coop, which we hadn’t found the day before. Off we went and instead of going the right way, past the bank, to the Coop, we went the opposite way and had to ask someone! Eventually we found the Coop and got a paper.
Lunchtime we had intended to walk George over the aqueduct and go to a pub there but we popped to the Telford Inn again as it was nearer. George was not in the least bit interested in leaving the boat so we went without him.
Fortunately the weather had improved dramatically by the time we came out of the pub so we got George and went for a walk down to the the River Dee. It is amazing looking at the aqueduct from the bottom. You can get really close to the piers and they look brand new, not over 200 years old! We also tried to get George to walk over the aqueduct but he wasn’t having any of it! We think he may be scared of heights!
