Llangollen Roundup

We spent 2 weeks on the Llangollen Canal, taking 3 1/2 days to get up & then coming back at a more leisurely pace. We're now heading for home, having left the Llangollen Canal yesterday (Wed, October 10), and are now moored in Audlem sitting out the latest spell of bad weather.  We`ll head up the Audlum flight (15 locks) before the weekend, we hope.

We can now see why everyone raves about the Llangollen Canal & why it's the most visited on the system. Undoubtedly the highlight was the Pontcysylite Aqueduct, which we have already blogged, but it was so good it's worth another mention! We were really lucky with the weather on the way up, as the shadow of us crossing projected onto the football field below was amazing. The rest of the canal was impressive as well, with lovely scenery & lots of very well maintained mooring spots. The only downside was the fact that despite being 'out of season', it was still very busy with hire boats, especially at the top end. Most were fine, but we've never seen as many cases of bank assisted cornering & braking before. We had one very close shave whilst moored, when a hire boat careered into the armco barrier a few feet ahead of us whilst the couple on the back were consulting their Nicholson Guide rather than looking where they were going. Luckily they only got us on the rebound, but it was all a bit too close for comfort and a hell of a jolt. I'd hate to be up there in the Summer.

What did the canal have to offer....?

Open countryside

Whixall Moss NNR

HIlly bits

Craggy bits (of countryside)...

Narrow bits

high bits.....the Chirk Aqueduct is almost as impressive as the Pontcysylite, running beside the railway viaduct

At least the Chirk Aqueduct  had an edge!

A staircase lock... but with a lock-keeper not as approachable as most!

At Llangollen we climbed up to Dinas Bran Castle, visited the source of the canal, and had visitors for tea.

Climbing up to the castle...

... was well worth the effort

The Horseshoe Falls where water is channeled from the R Dee into the canal

The  start of the Llangollen Canal 

Lou (Simon's sister) practises her hairdressing skills.... It`s not funny.

Fell (Lou`s family hound) was quite at home -we tried unsuccessfully to dognap him

We also saw a couple of interesting boats

A boat with a 'shunt' ie a butty that's pushed rather than pulled

A 'caraboat' - a boat that can be towed by a car

And visited a few nice places including Elesmere & Whitchurch.

Whitchurch....they must have known we were coming!

So, all in all, we had a very pleasant time up the LLangollen. We purposefully didn't go up the Montgomery Canal, we decided to leave that for next time...