Llangollen

Sunset last night above New Marton Locks

Today we made our way slowly up to Llangollen, slowly being the operative word.

Now Ray and I like to take our time, but we do like to make forward progress. We do appreciate that those new to boating can be a little apprehensive and that slow is definitely better than fast with a narrowboat on the canals.  As we crossed into Wales on the Chirk Aqueduct it started raining. By the time we had reached Chirk tunnel we were the third in a queue of four boats, all the others were hire boats that had been picked up yesterday afternoon. Our journey to Pontcysyllte Aqueduct took us about an hour longer than I anticipated but that wasn't a problem we had plenty of time. I realised that today was the first time I have been across the aqueduct on Morgana, on our previous visit I was official photographer.

The River Dee viewed from the Pontcysyllte  Aqueduct

Looking back across the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct

From Trevor to Llangollen the canal is very narrow, in places it is too narrow to pass another boat. It was on this stretch that we encountered a boat that was too slow even for us. I may have mentioned before that the Llangollen Canal is fed by a river, not by reservoirs as most canals are. This means that unlike most canals there is actually a flow on it. Now anyone who remembers their physics lessons will remember that when the channel that water is flowing through narrows the speed of the water increases, this is what happens at bridges. The boat in front was going so slowly that when we got to bridges Morgana was actually coming to a halt because the water flow downstream was as great as our attempted progress upstream. Anywhere else we would probably has moored and let them get ahead but there are very few places to moor on the four mile stretch between Trevor and Llangollen.

We eventually reached Llangollen at about four thirty, seven hours for a journey that I expected to take about five! I've paid for 48 hours mooring so we will enjoy a relaxed couple of days here before heading back to Ellesmere.

Today's journey 11.8 miles,  1 lift bridge and 2 tunnels


So far this year we have travelled 528.1 miles, 451 locks, 49 swing bridges, 15 lift bridges and 21 tunnels

In 2011 we travelled 461.4 miles, 444 locks, 3 swing bridges, 34 lift bridges and 15 tunnels

During 2010 we travelled 740.3 miles, 642 locks, 53 swing bridges, 4 lift bridges and 25 tunnels

Since Ray retired we have travelled 1773.9 miles 1537 locks, 105 swing bridges, 53 lift bridges and 61 tunnels