Into Wales

Tuesday 4^th June; New Marton locks to bridge 26, Whitehouse bridge

We slept in a bit this morning and it was gone 9.30 by the time we left for new Marton locks.  The weather was cool and cloudy, with intermittent light rain.  The bottom lock was held open for us by the boat waiting above, and we met another boat at the second.

New Marton bottom lock

We cruised on, pushing against the flow, reaching Chirk Bank at about 11.  As we moored, the white geese that live there paddled up to see if we had any food.  Jess, whose earlier life was in a town, hadn’t met many animals other than dogs, cats and squirrels before she came to us.  She has met a few horses, been intrigued, and sniffed noses with a couple.  If only I’d had the camera in my hand instead of a rope!  She tried to sniff the nearest beak and only just leapt back in time to avoid getting pecked.

They tried it on with me, but I said boo

I walked up to the town.  It’s about ¾ mile from Chirk Bank, a short downhill to the main road then uphill for the rest of the way.  I’d not visited before but was delighted with what I found – a baker (a good cream cake), butcher, good little veg shop and a decent little supermarket.  Friendly locals, too.  We had lunch when I got back, but it’s not a good mooring this side of the bridge – the rings are poorly positioned for a boat our length, so we need pins at the bow, and passing craft often go too fast and pull them loose.  The canal was busy and it was bound to happen, so we didn’t stay longer than we needed to.  As Dave paused to let a boat come through the bridge Jess jumped off so I ended up walking to the aqueduct with her.  Chirk aqueduct has a wide offside parapet of stone which makes you feel more secure than Pontcysyllte’s narrow iron edge.

But even so, the wind was extremely strong blowing us sideways, and with having to push against the current as well we had a very uncomfortable transit.  There is always the chance of seeing a train cross the viaduct alongside.  We did, it was a local train with 3 or 4 carriages, and I failed to get a decent picture of it.  But the viaduct is an impressive and attractive structure.  I love to see the decorative touches the builders added to their work.

We entered Wales for a brief while the other day, before we got to the meres around Ellesmere, but now we are in Wales proper.  There was no-one coming through the tunnel, so we went straight through.  We forgot to time ourselves, although we did in the Whitehouse tunnel which is less than 2 miles on from Chirk.  That took 5 minutes 9 seconds for just 191 yards, and felt very slow going against the current.  We tied up for the night on the 48 hour mooring between the tunnel and Whitehouse bridge.  The canal remained busy for quite some time, with boats going both ways, but at least there is plenty of room to pass us here, unlike at Chirk where one boat, failing to slow down past a row of moored boats, caused another to hit us.   There is a bit of noise from the road and railway here, but the situation is fairly open and the neighbours were quiet.

There was a fair bit of rain though, as the photo shows.

6 miles, 2 locks, Chirk aqueduct, Chirk and Whitehouse tunnels