Day Out

Hi All

We have arrived at Llangollen the journey here was as the kids say Awesome we had to go over two viaducts and two tunnels the viaducts are fantastic especially the Pontcyslite Viaduct it is as spectacular as the pictures say it is really like flying, on one side there is only a pieces steal holding you, your boat and thousands of gallons of water from tumbling 200 feet into the river Dee below on the other side is a three foot wide foot path with a steel railing I wondered just how many cameras there would be at the bottom of the river Dee. as I said spectacular one of the wonders of British nineteen century engineering.

Today Noreen and I have had a day away from the canal. We are moored in the basin at Llangollen this is as far as you get the only boats that go the last two miles are the horse drawn sight seeing boats. Noreen and I decided to take the train not an ordinary train no the steam train from Llangollen to Carrog its only about 12 miles but it runs along the river Dee the scenery is spectacular and with the steam and the sound from the train it made it wonderful. on the return we got off the train at Berwyn and walked to the head of the Langollen canal, now hears the interesting thing; the Llangollen canal needs a lot of water because of its height and the number of locks, Telford decided to feed the canal from the river Dee, he built a weir in the shape of a horseshoe across the Dee and fed water through a pumping house into the canal creating the horseshoe falls. We then had lunch at the Chainbridge hotel from here we walked the two miles back to Llangollen ending a really nice day.

Tomorrow we start the journey back along the Llangollen this should take about four days at our pace. the canal is very narrow in places Noreen has to go ahead and stop boats coming though there is only enough room for one boat its not all like that but it is very narrow, very shallow and fast I have never known a canal run as fast as this one.

Check out the One Show they were filming in this marina this morning if we appear it will be in the first 30 seconds. Most people get 15 mins of fame we get 30 seconds.

Speak soon

Love to all

Buggerlugs

HORSE DRAWN BOAT (horse is the one without the hat)

Pontcyslite Aqueduct Llangollen Basin, Buggerlugs centre left corner