Monday 30 August 2010

Chik Marina day 7

The place where we are now I would go as far as to say is magical - (Despite the distant road noise I hear in the background). I am unsure why it is so magical, perhaps its the countryside views, the sunny weather today with not a cloud in the sky, the herd of deer in the woods, the fact that we all (including Matilta) sleep soundly until 9am, the fresh alp like air or the ability to sit in my favourite spot at the marina watching a few boats along the canal, ducks swimming and birds flying over head in the evening sun without a care in the world, perhaps only now have I finally learnt to relax just under 3 months of leaving home.

Today, we walked to Llangollen. Not intentionally. We decided to explore a little lane near the marina and as we walked further up the hill the views got better and better. Before we knew it we were looking high over the fields below and across the horizon. Unfortunately my camera battery died, but a few photos were taken with the iphone. The walk took over 3 hours and when we finally got to Llagollen, we were tired and achey feet so we treated ourselves to lunch.

We decided to take the 5A bus back, somehow the 4.30 bus did not arrive so we had to wait an hour for the next one. The driver of the bus was unsure what had happened to the 4.30 bus however, it seems time is not a factor for us here, I did not mind at all sitting and waiting for the next bus, it was such as lovely day. I know we have another month here, but I am going to find it very hard to leave when October comes, to continue our inland watnerways adventure. Oh, I have just found something to worry about..

Saturday 28 August 2010

Chirk day 6 - walk to Chirk Village

We took a walk to the village today, in fact, only half a walk as someone from the Marina saw us and offered a lift into the village. We wondered around and looked at the church before finding a hotel to have a coffee. I realised as I was sipping my coffee, slowly to make it last, that I was very scruffy in jogging bottoms and t-shirt whilst next to us was a wedding party all dressed up.

Whilst we were in the church a lady doing the flowers (yes very "Jam and Jerusalem") suggested a walk just a bit further along the canal from the Marina. We followed her instructions and came to hill with cows. I really wanted to walk across the field. I was not scared of the cows, but it was the one with horns which stopped us in our quest to see what was over the hill.

In the afternoon, we sat with our Times newspaper and watched the hire boaters pick up their boats for their weekly holiday. My word, I have have never seen so many MPV's all with new registration numbers in the same place at the same time. All very middle class. I was surprised at the about of stuff they had, from ikea bags full of food, to boxes of donuts, from deck chairs to scarf's. I think most of them had more packed for a week than we had for a year!

Friday 27 August 2010

Chirk day 5 - Walk to Chirk Castle

Today we went for a long walk to Chirk Castle. The sun was shining and the air was very fresh, it reminded me of the air in the alps. The Castle was up a hill so once we reached the top we were rewarded with a fantastic view across the countryside.

This evening Scott was 'playing' with his radio control car whilst I was enjoying the evening sun. This marina even though is very basic is in a fantastic spot, I found a bench and watched Scott's car go back and forth surrounded by trees and fields. I was fascinated how he was so engrossed with his hobby and whilst I am a tad jealous that I do not have a hobby, sitting in the evening sun with no stress or worries of work reminded me how lucky I am.


Thursday 26 August 2010

Chirk Marina day 4 - trip to the launderette

I woke up this morning very disappointed as I heard background noise of cars, something that I wanted to escape from, it was like being back at Packet Boat Marina. I had not noticed it before, however I think that the noise was because the roads were wetter than normal.

We decided to take the bus to Llangollen to the launderette. I got the bus times wrong and it seems that the service on Sunday is better than a week day, so we had to wait another 20 minutes which was very lucky as normally the buses are every 2 hours. I was getting very despondent whilst waiting for the bus as at home the local 222 despite sometimes being unreliable at times is about every 10-15 minutes, unlike every 2 hours here. But when the bus went through the countryside I remembered why we are here.

The launderette was good cheaper than normal and we found a café which was away from the tourist area which made a good cup of tea.

The weather today has also been miserable, not raining but it the air was damp and it was very misty.

Wednesday 25 August 2010

Chirk Marina day 2 and 3


Yesterday we walked into Chirk and the ‘local’ shop. Took us 50 minutes to get there, down country lanes and a shortcut through 2 fields. After walking back we decided to visit the golf club bar which is next to the marina. It has a lovely terrace overlooking the golf course and the fields beyond. You can also see the Cadbury’s factory with its smoke, (its not all fields and cows in the country) however you can sit with your back to is so it does not spoil the view (photo 2)

In the afternoon we invited a neighbour from the marina for a cup of tea. Our first visitor into the since our friends came to visit in Brauston about 2 months ago! We were a bit in a mess with clutter everywhere, so today was tidy up day. It is amazing, even though with so much time on our hands, I really don’t have the urge to tidy.

Monday 23 August 2010

Chirk Marina

We have arrived in Chirk Marina early, our home for a month. The Marina is basic, but everyone is very friendly. The man in the boat next to us took us shopping for food which was good as we could purchase heavy stuff.

The time here will be spent exploring the area (with visitors) before we decide what to do for the winter months.

Saturday 21 August 2010

Llagollen and Wrexham


Yesterday we moved the boat away from the nightmare of the basin to a mile down the canal. After the boat was moved we took a walk and saw a bus to LLagollen,. It was a nice journey through countryside and up little lanes. Llagollen is worth a visit. A smallish town with a few shops, the canal for boat trips and a steam train.

Today we went to Wrexham, again on the bus but the journey was not as good. We are currently in the library where we can get internet access for the laptop. Quite happy that I bought a light little netbook as I have been carrying it around all day.

This morning there were many day boat hirers going along the canal. I saw someone wearing ‘Captain Sparrow’ wig because they are of course the ‘captain’ of their hire boat all was missing was an eye patch and a stuffed bird

And now the photos…

1) Chirk Aqueduct which has a train running alongside.
2) The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct before we travelled along it,
3 & 4) Two picutresof the side of the boat where you can see how high we are
5) and finally the view from the Aqueduct looking towards another Aqueduck

I have realised I do not have any picures of the pontcysyllte Aqueduct from afar, I will try and get one to upload.

Thursday 19 August 2010

Trevor

Roughly 290 miles, 174 locks and 154 hours of cruising time we have made it to Trevor and the famous aqueducts. 

 The main one is 127 feet high and 1007 feet in length it has 19 arches and 18 pillars.  It was built over 200 years ago by 500 men who use wooden scaffolding, primitive cranes and muscle power.  It is clearly a marvellous feet of engineering and highlight of our trip so far. The view is breathtaking and a tad scary being so high. 

This is as far as we're going on this canal so we have done our first 180° turn in 290 miles.  We have decided not to go to Llangollen as we have heard it shallow in places so will probably let someone else drive and find a boat trip so they can scrape the bottom of their boat.

The basin here is a nightmare. Boats turning,  trying to moor, using poles to help them but pushing against the sides  (and paint work) of other boats and children walking along the gunnels of our boat!  At 4 PM today the day hire boats came back causing all sorts of chaos and the boat trips have stopped for the day.  One  boat trip (driven by a professional?!) bumped into us quite dramatically I put my head out to see what was what had happened and no word of apology and when I looked at the damage I heard the two men on the boat complaining that I was checking my paintwork.  I understand that boats bump into each other, however they did not have to be so rude. Imagine the nightmare when the weekly hire boats all return together at the weekend.

We have arrived here earlier than expected so will have some time to explore the area before visitors arrive in September.  I have  purchased my map so if weather permitting will be doing some walks and bus trips, however it always does seem to rain. 

No internet signal here so I've used iPhone and Dragon software.  I will post some pictures as soon as possible

Tuesday 17 August 2010

St Martins


We left Hindford late morning in sunshine. In the distance over the hills I could see black clouds and by the time we were going through the 2 locks it was pouring. We hit our first real queue for the lock. 4 boats in front of us and by the time we left there were at least 10 behind. I helped out a grandfather and grandson as they were trying to pull their boat into the bank, they got themselves in a muddle and kept shouting at each other and getting nowhere. I do hope that they relax for the rest of their holiday.

As it was raining we stopped the boat 10 minutes walk away from St Martins. An overgrown housing estate in the middle of beautiful countryside. The church at the centre of the ‘village’ was pretty and a few houses surrounding, but the rest was non descript. We did encounter a nice shop called Stans. It’s the UK’s largest single site independent retailer. Selling food, garden stuff and household goods. It was like going to a supermarket in a foreign country as unlike Tescos, Sainsburys and Morrisons which look pretty much the same wherever you go this has an individual feel and a different vibe about it.

In St Martins we saw a street with the worst pot holes that I have ever seen. A picture just had to be taken for the blog


Monday 16 August 2010

Hindford

Not much to write about today, so I will upload some photos instead. Spent the last couple of days washing, food shopping and walking to the lake in Ellesmere which seemed to the only place where a phone signal could be guaranteed.

Today, we travelled further along the canal which twisted and turned through the countryside. We were surrounded by fields of grass, cows, sheep and corn and for as far as the eye could see was countryside. The weather made this journey even more pretty as the sun shone throughout the morning.

We took walk into the hamlet of Hindford, just a few houses, a daily bus and a empty phone box which was there I guess for decoration.

Still listening to Radio 4, learning loads, currently listening to a programme about pork scratchings, an

interesting choice for a vegetarian!

Friday 13 August 2010

Still in Ellesmere

And it rained and it rained. Surely we are not in August the height of the summer?? After a very lazy morning, still in pyjamas at lunch we went for a walk to the lake, which seems to be the only place where we get a phone signal. As it was raining we had a cup of tea in the tea room. Once the weather cleared up, we carried our on journey to purchase a newspaper and it started to rain again, so we took shelter in a another tea room and had a mug of hot chocolate. We then made our way back to the boat dogging the rain by running from tree to tree and bridge to bridge.

Yesterday we took another bus trip to Oswestry which is a town 20 or so minutes from here. I had already had a picture in my mind of another Market Drayton but I was surprised how nice it was, not over pretty, but very functional with not many high street stores but enough to spend sometime to window shop.

Last night after “book at bedtime” the news mentioned that there was a display of shooting stars which could be seen if the sky was clear. I got up from the cocoon of the bed covers to have a look outside. I waited for a few minutes before a saw a star flowing across the sky, sadly I only saw the one but I was pretty impressed.

We are now in the boat and it has stopped raining, the sound of the rain tip tapping on the boat has been replaced with cows mooing.

Wednesday 11 August 2010

Bus trip to Shrewsbury


Today we went for a bus trip to Shrewsbury. The bus took 50 minutes. We sat at the back therefore we were slightly raised so that we could see over the hedges to the countryside beyond. It was lovely, what a lovely commute. The fields were a mixture of corn, cows, sheep and grass. The bus journey was bizarre to say the least. We were joined on the bus by a group of walkers and when they got off the bus, the driver over the speaker system commented that it was like driving a group of school kids. The bus both to and from Shrewsbury sped down the country lanes, never been on a bus so fast, I did of course work out that the buses at home are unable to speed due to the traffic and the 30mph speed limit. The final oddity was on the return journey the bus went down a residential road just outside Shrewsbury for about ¼ of a mile, then did a three point turn to go back!. Strangely enough it did not do that on the journey to the town.

Shrewbury was a nice place, a mixture of shops, M&S, a QVC outlet shop (never seen that before) and the usual Jessops, Maplins etc. There seemed to be a couple of shopping centres, however, one in particular had so many vacant units. It appears that the recession has hit here as well.


Matilda is clearly enjoying herself, perhaps a bit too much. She really has learnt to hunt. It is very hard to believe that she is the same timid cat which hardly went outside. I do however; miss the old Matilda, who did not need to be watched to see what creature was in her mouth.


(Picture is Ellesmere Lake)

Tuesday 10 August 2010

Ellesmere

On Sunday we arrived in Ellesmere a small town which again has seen better days, apart from Tesco’s and a very nice pub / restaurant which looked very European it consisted of small shops which did not really sell much.

Yesterday we did some washing in the local launderette. Was not the most nicest ones we had been into but it sufficed. Today we took a walk around the lake. I did have visions of Swiss style lakes with café’s where you can drink ice coffee on their balconies watching the sailing boats with mountains in the background, however, this was more like a Black Park Lake, slightly larger but surrounded by trees much the same. There was a nice Tourist Information section and a restaurant.

The signal is not good here both for our phones and the 3G card, currently I am sitting on top of the boat writing this with some very curious people wondering what I am doing. The boat is swaying slightly in the wind, making me a little dizzy being high off the ground.

Sorry, no photos today, the internet cannot cope with the upload.

Saturday 7 August 2010

Somewhere in the middle of nowhere

Yesterday we spent it in Whitchurch. They had a farmers market which sold a mixture of fruit and veg, fish and meat. There was one stall selling chicken and wood pigeon on a table and the meat was not refrigerated. I thought that meat had to be kept cool??

This morning it was a bit chilly and really I did not expect to be wearing jumpers in August. We travelled for a couple of hours then the heavens opened and we got soaked. We stopped in the middle of nowhere which I would like to say was very peaceful, however, there are small aeroplanes flying overhead which causing a constant hum. The sun has come out now and it is quite warm, I wish the weather would make up its mind.

We saw in our canal guide that a local marina down an arm of the canal had laundry facilities so we packed up our trolley and walked for over a mile to get there. Alas it was only for berth holders so we had to turn round and walk back. – Looks like I will be wearing the same jeans for more than 4 days. Our poor trolley was probably looking forward to being purchased by an old lady in Leighton Buzzard who would only use it once a week to go to the local Tescos; who would have thought that it would have been bought to be dragged through rough terrain for a few miles with dirty laundry.


So it is Saturday night and no going out for us. Will be spending the evening undertaking a crossword puzzle from a puzzle book I bought; have a feeling though that they are for older people due to the advert on the back for chairs which raise and lower to aid its use. I have been amazed how quickly we are spending money. At first we ate out quite a bit, the odd lunch here and dinner there. Like you do when you are on holiday, but we have really had to curb the spending so we are cooking more. Oh joy, pasta again!

Thursday 5 August 2010

Whitchurch

Currently we are just by Witchchurch a small town which sadly has seen better days. I think the recession has taken its hold with so many shops which are To Let. However it had a nice church and a few shops to peruse.

This morning we tackled our first staircase locks. Being very wise, we decided to moor just before them and went to see how they
worked so that we would be prepared. This is the Llagollen Canal in August we were warned about. There were boats everywhere and the Lock Keeper had a job in controlling the holiday makers. To avoid the rush, we decided to start the lock at 7am, so up bright and early, however, not quite understanding how the locks worked (despite watching the day before and reading the guide) , I filled the middle lock a bit too high causing a little overflow and got myself into a pickle. However, it all worked out in the end and I drove the boat perfectly through the staircase locks. Whilst I am self praising, I did a fantastic manoeuvre into the smallest mooring space; I was quite proud of myself.

Yesterday was far from relaxing and more like ‘Crystal Maze’. First I had to work a manual lift bridge, then our very useful mooring guide fell into the water which I had to fish our with the pole, I stopped traffic with an electronic lift bridge which clearly you needed a degree to operate, and finally had to reach for the umbrella which fell into the canal. All this and the usual locks. I have to say, the hot chocolate that we had at Grindley Brook was very well deserved.

On one of our evening walks we took a footpath through fields. It is so peaceful and all the background noise that you can hear is the cows and bird singing. As we walked through a field of cows we noticed that they were walking towards us and in a couple of minutes we were surrounded. I am guessing cows are friendly however, it was the most oddest experience to be scared of a herd of cows.

There has been some other oddities which I have never seen in London. The job advert for a herdsman, the chickens roaming freely in a petrol station and strangers being friendly.

Monday 2 August 2010

Bridge 6 Llangollen Canal


Woke up with the hope of a sunny day however they were soon dashed as I saw the clouds come over (photo below). It did not rain, but it was very dull. We left Nantwich(photo) and have arrived on the Llangollen canal and have done the one thing that we were advised against which is travelling along this canal during the peak season as we were warned of queues at locks. To enter the canal there are 4 locks very close together. We went straight into the first one and the subsequent ones, however the boat in front of us had to wait and there was a queue building up behind us. We were lucky.

Holiday makers do seem to be in a rush and even with Scott at the tiller and me doing the lock gates, we do not seem to be fast enough for some of the boaters. I have noticed that if they have a crew they are able to manage the locks a lot quicker – 1 person on each side. The other day a young lad from the boat behind us was sent to help me as I guess we were just a bit too slow and today, a group of ladies sent me ahead to set the next lock before I had even finished opening the paddles of the one of which the boat was in!.

We also seem to be going a bit too slow along the canal for some boaters and despite us sticking to the 4mph speed limit on a couple of occasions we had boats overtake us. Some boats do go stupidly fast.

We are moored next to cows again, at first I did not notice due to the hedge between us and them. I could not work out what the odd munching noise was and it took me a few minutes for the penny to drop to work that the cow was having its lunch.

So a leisurely month along this canal to Chrik where we have booked ourselves in a marina for September. I have to admit, I am feeling a little bit lost at the moment with a lack of things to keep me occupied, especially when we are moored up for the evening after our stroll

Matilda caught another animal.. we think it was a Shrew!