Is this a pile of rubbish?

We descended the four Hurleston Locks and thus left the Llangollen Canal after three lovely weeks. We turned right onto the Shropshire Union main line and stopped at Nantwich just past the services.

On the way we passed a boat using an umbrella for its original purpose, i.e. providing a little shade.

There was a boat being rebuilt.

And can you see what this is?

There's a clue bottom left.




No?





It's a boat.

After lunch we talked to neighbours Tony and Pat on Paws for Thought and had some very good cakes Pat had baked. Then we went into the town and restocked in Aldi. It was nice to get into the air-conditioned store; coming out was like stepping into an oven. Today has been hot. The hottest day of the year so far. And tomorrow they say it's going to rain. Is that it for summer, then? Three days? We'll see.

As we sat chatting with Tony and Pat this evening the sun set behind the trees.

Moral support

As we were entering Baddiley No 3 Lock I recognised the steerer of the boat we passed which had just come up. I couldn't place him, but Jan remembered it was the chap who had helped us down the Crow, aka Oldbury Locks on the Titford Canal last year. She even remembered his name, Phil!

As soon as we had descended the lock we tied up and I cycled back to help Phil - single handing - up the other two Baddiley Locks. It was good to be able to repay his kindness in kind, as it were.

A little further on this corvid was perched with its beak open.

We stopped in the heat about half a mile before Hurleston Locks; tomorrow we'll go round the corner to Nantwich. By the way, my 1986 OS map 118 spells Hurlestone Junction thus, i.e. with an "e".

We had a successful barbecue, using a folding BBQ I had on board but which I had forgotten about until I saw it while moving some boxes. As we were sitting outside afterwards a man came striding past heading for the lock carrying, in one hand, a new-looking Sea Searcher magnet on a new-looking blue line and, in the other, a rake. I was intrigued and followed on my bike. It turned out that he had lost his fishing rod in the pound above the bottom lock the previous day and was hoping to recover it. I joined in the search with my own Sea Searcher until, after 20 minutes or so, he found it. Martin was grateful for my support; he came back for a cup of tea and a long chat. His boat is Gypsy which he moors at Swanley Bridge Marina. I was interested in his former life as a train driver; he used to drive freight trains from Shrewsbury. We talked quite a bit about the Boaters' Christian Fellowship too.

I was moving boxes to get at the jerry can of diesel. I had dipped the tank and found it was down to about ten litres so now was my chance to try out the jiggler siphon. It worked a treat, and hardly a drop was spilled (just a tiny splash by the filler - nothing in the canal). The 30 litres now in the tank should get us down to Ellesmere Port and up to Wheaton Aston where I shall refill.

Steaming alongside the Llangollen Canal

It looks like summer. It feels like summer. Hey - it even smells like summer! It's official: Summer has arrived to north Shropshire. I have declared it so. Today I have not worn my fleece; I think this is the first time since possibly one day last year.

We went to St. Alkmund's Church in Whitchurch this morning - a traditional sung communion with a (small) robed choir. As we have now discovered Tesco we bought our (my) favourite pizza, Dr. Oetker's (promo price of £1.50), had lunch and set off towards Wrenbury.

On the way, beyond Grindley Brook where the A49 comes alongside the canal, we were treated to the sight of a steam traction engine pulling two trailers.

We exchanged greetings, first with a wave ...

... then with a steam whistle and a klaxon.

We tied up for the night just below Marbury Lock. We walked across the fields to the quiet village, had a drink in the even quieter pub and returned along the road.

Edit to add: What is the column visible hereabouts? Thanks to Wikipedia I can tell you. It's the Combermere Obelisk, erected in 1890 to commemorate Field Marshal Stapleton Cotton, the first Viscount Combermere.

How to extract your frigate from a mud bank

This was the view from Jubilee this morning; that's the stern of Bendigedig in the centre.

I knocked but there was no reply.

As promised, here is a shot of the broken lift bridge on the Prees Branch with the bridge deck in the foreground.

The woodwork has clearly suffered. Was it hit by a boat?

After turning right out of the Prees Branch back on to the main line I opened the first lift bridge we came to. Another boat was following us so I waved it through and was expecting to catch Jan up on the towpath. But Terry on Ellie insisted on giving me a lift. I think he really wanted company, so I got on and talked with him for an hour or so before "jumping ship" at a bridge hole and getting back on Jubilee. Here he is following us.

Terry had been used to rather larger boats: in a former life as a Marine he steered frigates. He described how he would be shut away in a small room with a wheel and a strip display compass with a vertical line on it. His job was to hold the course as directed by the captain on the bridge via a speaking tube. The steerer's room had no windows! In one of his tales he recounted how the boat grounded on an uncharted mudbank in the Indian Ocean. To free the vessel the engines were put in full astern and the crew ordered to run repeatedly en masse from one side to the other until the boat eventually extricated itself. I think Terry said it took an hour.

We are now in the safer territory of Whitchurch, having moored at the end of the arm as we did on the way up to Llangollen. We had a good Indian meal at the Blue Water restaurant. Slight shame they messed up the bill, charging me for a drink the next table had, deleting it when I pointed it out and then failing to correct the total. All was OK in the end and, as I say, the food was good.

Canal to Waterloo

Another late posting, this, as the signal here is terrible. I did a few boat jobs this morning, including draining water out of the agglomerator- hardly any came out - and checking the gearbox oil. For this latter job I managed to get a spanner from a junk shop/tea room in Ellesmere for 50p. The filler/dipstick nut was just too big for my 17mm spanner and just too small for the 19mm one, and 18mm spanners don't seem to exist. Anyway the old rusty spanner is marked 3/4 (Whitworth?) and fits perfectly.

I also cleaned the engine drip tray again. There was - again - an amount of golden oil and some water. The oil looked new, but the levels in the engine and gearbox hadn't gone down. I don't know where it can possibly be coming from.

We left Ellesmere Basin after lunch and made our way to Whixall Junction where we turned right onto the Prees Branch. This is the first lift bridge, Allman's.

The second lift bridge was broken and partially dismantled - I'll try to get a shot of it on our return. We were soon on a narrow and apparently little used section.

But before long we emerged into Whixall Marina.

We tied up on the piling at the edge of the marina and went for a walk along the remains of the Prees Branch.

It was a surprise to find Bridge 4 with new-looking numbers each side. Here a bund separates the unnavigable but watered canal from a purely wildlife "pond" the other side.

In another surprise (I hadn't looked at the map) we found we'd arrived at Waterloo.

Water boatmen

At the bottom of Frankton Locks we waited for 1200 to come round. And we waited some more. No sign of CRT. At about 1300 the Aussie on the hire boat behind us found he had a signal and phoned CRT to see what was going on. There was some story of a "minor emergency" and a promise of action. At 1335 a lockie turned up and apologised for the late start. I think the person who should have been on duty hadn't been told - or something.

At 1345 we were able, at last, to ascend the locks.

While we were waiting I noticed a large number of water boatmen skating on the surface of the water. There were one or two damsel flies too, but I didn't even attempt a snap.

The lower chamber of the staircase pair is, for some reason, smaller than the upper one. This means that water has to be run down from the pound above to ensure that boats do not ground on the sill when moving from the lower chamber to the upper one.

Here is Jubilee in the lower chamber.

At the top we turned right and tied up in the Ellesmere Arm. We shopped at Tesco and went to the Red Lion for another good meal. Their chips are the best.

Goats in the churchyard

When the morning's rain had died down enough we set off for Frankton Junction, about a mile away. After lunch we were admitted to the locks and quickly descended the staircase pair and the other two, then turned into the Weston Branch to the services. I was surprised that the boats below the locks weren't allowed up before a couple of boats went down. All the locks were empty - with a bottom paddle raised - before today's locking operations started.

The hoop in the wall in the above photo would have prevented tow ropes snagging.

We walked to Hordley to see if we could find any further remains of the Weston Branch. The OS map indicates a footpath along the line of the canal, but it seems to have disappeared. To the west of the road the old canal is discernible in the trees - just - but to the east it's a mere slight unevenness in the farmland.

At Hordley Church we were surprised to see two goats in the churchyard. They don't seem to have done much in the way of lawn mowing.

On our walk I saw these multicoloured flowers. Anyone know what they are?

As David hadn't been on the Montgomery Canal before, and as he is departing in the morning, we pressed on to Queen's Head where we had tea on board and walked to West Felton.

Garden canal art

I wanted to see if I could get a photo of Jubilee crossing the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct from below today. After dropping David and his bike off at Trefor Jan steered across the mighty structure while I ran down to the road to the west. Unfortunately by the time I got to where I could see the aqueduct Jan was just disappearing into the trees the other side. I had to settle for this pic of a day boat crossing. We'll be back another time; the photo I wanted will have to wait.

At Froncysyllte someone has been busy in their garden.

I like the scene of Chirk Aqueduct with the railway viaduct behind.

David drove to near Frankton Junction and cycled back; we picked him up at Chirk Bank. There have been a lot of novice boaters about today. We were behind a hire boat doing the classic zig-zagging across the canal, hitting the bank each side until they let us past. And then there was the Anglo Welsh boat with a large party of young men who steered spectacularly into overhanging trees. People on the boat's roof were taking avoiding action; there was a cry of "Save the cider!". I imagine there will be a few mugs missing when it returns to base.

We are now by the Narrowboat Inn by bridge 6W and have just eaten there. We have booked to go down the Frankton Locks on Monday; tomorrow we'll go by car to the Peace service (with Terry Waite) in LLangollen.

LLangollen Eisteddfod treat

We got to the ticket office at about 0830 and found no queue at all. We paid our £11 each for day tickets which gave us unreserved seating in the rear section of the main pavilion. It sounds worse than it was; as we were among the first in we were able to choose the centre front row (unreserved) which were excellent seats. This you can see from my photos of the stage, all taken without having to stand up.

The choir we were particularly interested in following was Coro San Benildo from the Philippines, whom we had seen and liked very much in a lunchtime concert in the parish church. Here they are, performing on the main stage.

Many choirs wore some sort of national costume. This choir from California - Davis High School, I believe - were in strange Tudor-style clothes. This might be because they call themselves a madrigal choir, I think.

Coro San Benildo gave an excellent performance in the Youth Choirs category and we were pleased that they won. They were ecstatic when the adjudicators gave their verdict!

Their conductor, Lorenzo C. Gealogo, collecting his trophy.

After the various elements of the competition had been completed for the day there was a colourful and noisy parade through the town.

Terry Waite was driven in a 90-year-old Vauxhall and was given an ice cream by a man dressed as an ice cream.

After the parade we had fish and chips by the river, then took the boat up to the basin to wind and returned to our mooring but now facing Trefor. We were really pleased we stayed on for a whole day at the Eisteddfod. We shall have to do it again another year.

Towpath choir rehearsal

We can't stay away from LLangollen. Having moved the boat to Trefor yesterday afternoon we all cycled back along the towpath to the town for the second free lunchtime concert in the church. This was given by another young Californian choir who were very good, especially in the diction department.

We checked out the programme for tomorrow and decided to make it an Eisteddfod day. We'll be up early and get to the booking office by 0830 in order to buy tickets for the day.

As David and I cycled along the towpath to the Chain Bridge we came across a choir doing some last minute rehearsing by Bridge 46. As you do.

By the way, all the bridges from Trefor to LLangollen have been given a "W" suffix reminiscent of the locks on the Huddersfield Narrow Canal. Presumably these "W"s are to signify that this is the western extremity of the LLangollen Canal.

Then we saw the horse drawn trip boat ...

... and the horse nibbling a few leaves as the boat was "turned round" at the furthest point of its trip. It's actually just the rudder which is dragged along the edge of the canal from one end to the other; the tow rope is positioned on a different part of the roof too.

BAck at the boat we decided to move it nearer the Eisteddfod site so we can cycle to the event in the morning. We're now tied up back at the lift bridge, just a few minutes away by bike.

After tea David and I cycled to the spot on the towpath outside the pavilion and listened to the last half hour of Bryn Terfel's concert. Well worth it.

A celebration at Trefor

Jan said she wanted more potatoes, so this morning we cycled back to LLangollen from our mooring. It wasn't far, only about half a mile to the wharf. I then cycled on to the Co-op while Jan walked. Before going to the shop we though we'd have a quick look round St. Collen's Church nearby. We are very glad we did, as there was a choir rehearsing for a performance in half an hour at 1300. Conveniently opposite the church is Keith's Plaice, yes, you guessed it, a fish and chip shop. This one had been recommended to us, so we asked for two small fish and chips and got two ordinary fish and chips. He misheard my order, but charged us for the small ones anyway. The fish was good, and the chips weren't bad either (for chip shop chips).

We gobbled down the food and took our seats in the church with two minutes to go. The first choir was the one we had seen rehearsing. They were very, very good. Coro San Benildo had come over from the Philippines and comprised 23 young singers and an energetic conductor, Lorenzo C. Gealogo. The numbers they performed - all unaccompanied except for a ukelele-type instrument in one song - were faultlessly together and sung with obvious enjoyment.

This is them during rehearsal.

It was a slight pity that they were on first, as the second choir, college students from California, were good too, but had an impossibly brilliant act to follow. (The Americans were all dressed in Tudor-style costumes for no reason we could understand.)

After this unexpected lunchtime concert we returned to the boat and headed for Trefor where we were going to meet up with Jan's friend Jane and her friend Kate, and my brother, David.

While waiting for them to arrive I came across this couple on the footbridge celebrating their son's recent achievement at joining the Royal Marines.

After tea for five on the boat we all went to the Telford pub to watch the second half of the footie: Wales v Portugal.

Most of the crowd in the pub were Kiwis on a boating holiday (three boats between them).

Got to go now as David needs this table for a bed ...

Head to head in the narrows at LLangollen

As forecast, we treated ourselves to a trip on the LLangollen Railway today. It is a splendid piece of preserved line, running alongside the River Dee ten miles from LLangollen to Corwen.

Interestingly, the loco doesn't run around the train at Corwen but pushes it back to the previous station, Carrog, and then runs around. Here it is at Carrog.

The twisty track goes through delightful scenery and offers plenty of opportunities for photos.

Back at the canal ... we were forewarned that Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the busiest as it's half-way through hirers' weeks. Here an ABC hire boat meets a day boat in the narrows east of Bridge 45.

The day boat gave way (correctly, as the current was pushing the hire boat forward). Everyone seems to be enjoying the spectacle.

As our time was up we winded at the entrance to the basin and retraced our steps to just before the open lift bridge, the other side of the next narrows. This isn't far from the end of the paid-for 48 hour moorings. Here is our view: Castell Dinas Bran, the 13th century ruins on top of the hill.

After tea we cycled back to Bridge 45 and walked up the hill. It's only a mile, but it's quite steep. Well worth it for the views - as well as the exercise, of course!

Can you spot the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct framed by the arch?

Here it is, striding across the valley, nicely lit by the evening sun.

Looking in a different direction here's LLangollen town centre, on the left; the white object towards the right is the site of the LLangollen International Eisteddfod.

When we got back down the hill we cycled along the towpath to be right outside the Eisteddfod pavilion and listened to a bit of Carmen as the sun was setting. During the Toreador song the feed to the PA speakers was cut, but you could still hear the performance through the pavilion, but not as clearly.

It's a hire boat hell haven here now. This Canaltime boat is moored on the services point. Another hire boat was barbecuing in a disposable barbecue on top of the slide (at least it wasn't the gas locker).

Fun and games. We didn't really want to leave, but our time was up. And we'd been bashed at least twice - who knows how many other times when we were playing trains? We're still a bit exposed to novice steerers at this mooring, but we'll move on to the safety of Trefor Basin tomorrow.