Llangollen Canal - Day 4

A little rain in the early hours of the morning meant a cold and wet Lucy this morning. And a cold and not so enthusiastic Merrilyn. Keen to get under way, we pulled up pins at ten to nine and headed north east for 2 hours to our half-way point of the trip, Thomason's Bridge.

Immediately before the bridge was a winding pool, or turning place. Being 69 feet long, Lucy struggled to turn and it was all hands on deck. The strong current was against us and we were clean out of ideas about how to get around and head back. Going further along the canal to another point wasn't an option. Luckily, Mum had a brainwave and leaped off the front of the boat with a rope to pull the 15 tons around (yikes!) whilst Martin worked the engine, reversing and then going forward inches at a time. It was pretty stressful I can tell you! Finally we got Lucy's nose pointed in the right direction and we applauded Mum for her herculean effort, although we likened her to a Clydesdale horse, minus the hairy ankles!

[Martin: This particular winding pool was relatively small and shallow. Still learning the ropes - so to speak - we tried to turn her around as you would a car. But basically she was about as long as the diameter of the pool. Hence the difficulty. We were to learn later a much manoeuvre that would have been much more effective...]

All that effort made us hungry so we had lunch before tackling the Grindley Locks and Staircase again. Which, I might add, we did all by ourselves with no assistance from the lock keeper (a new one on duty, unaware of our hysterics the previous day). Having ascended the staircase we filled the boat with water (for domestic use, not inadvertently!) and off we went at about 2.30pm.

We were delighted to see kingfishers darting in and out of the reeds by the side of the canal as we passed. Lynne's stats for the day: 3 layers of clothing plus hat for horrible hair. Merrilyn's stats for the day: 4 layers plus cake. Martin: "You girls are such girls".

Under Bridge 41 we were run into by another boat at speed (although we tooted and had right of way) which saw his bow lift off ours and James get knocked off his seat. I was furious and Martin had words but to no avail. Grrr...some people! [Martin: This particular part of the canal was very narrow. And with moored boats along one side it is best to travel slowly. In this particular case we approached a bridge on a bend that put us in the blind. That's why we blasted our horn a few times as warning to approaching boats. I just think in this instance we had a careless driver going too fast. When we saw him approaching I jammed the throttle in full reverse to slow us down. After the collision, I jumped off the boat onto the tow path with a rope and pulled Lucy aside. He hit us again going past - would you believe! To top it off we found, looking back, that he had a clear line of sight to us all along. Oh well - the boats are strong.]

We tied up after Clapping Gate Bridge where the gorgeous sunset and pink clouds sent both family photographers out into the fields in a flurry. Anyway, today's efforts were 7 locks, 5 lift bridge and way too many bottles of wine.

Photos are here.