A Fond Farewell

It has been quite a sad few days. My parents came up to pick up the car however as a finale we drove along my favourite three roads all on one day. The road to the waterfall, the road along the Berwyn Mountains followed by a drive back from Llangollen the scenic route. A total of 70 miles. Luckily for me, Scott did the driving so I could savour every moment of the journey. Overall in 6 months we have added an extra 6000 miles to the little car and all during this time, I only recall one traffic jam which was in Shrewsbury.

This picture of course is of Thomas the Tank Engine, I could not resist taking a photo whilst we were in Llangollen.

Today we said a fond farewell to Chirk and headed back along the canal. We had not meant to stay in Wales for so long, however, I am pleased that we did. We made lifelong friends, enjoyed the fantastic countryside, had many a cream tea, enjoyed many lazy days admiring the views together with some very hard and spectacular walks. We had loads of visitors and I loved showing them around. It was very sad to leave and I did get a lump in my throat as we crossed the Chirk Aqueduct wondering when we would see it again.

We travelled along the canal and moored up in Hindford. It was about an 3 hour journey and my word was it cold. The wind swept across the fields and I was shivering, however, the views were lovely and the air was fresh. Despite being sad to leave Chirk, it was nice to be on the move again. Sadly it is a move to the unknown as I have had still no word on my redundancy

Damp and Cold days with trips to Llanymynech and Ellesmere Port

The weather has been miserable it is so damp that even my bones feel cold. We have done a mixture of walks, launderette and chores around the boat mainly consisting of patching clothes. I am now a dab hand at the running stitch!

On Thursday we drove the scenic route to llangollen but it was so foggy you could only see a few feet in front. The trees and bushes on the edge in the road popped up in front of us like an old driving computer game. Sadly the lovely view was not to be seen and today it is no better.

Yesterday we went to Llanymynech. It was a miserable place with a very grubby feel to it. The shining light was the little general store which made their own cakes in the back.The reason for the visit was to see the un-navigable part of the Montgomery Canal and a visit to the Heritage area. The village is home to one of only the three remaining Hoffmann Kilns in the British Isles, and the only one with a chimney. The kiln at Llanymynech was used for lime burning.

Today we took a drive to Ellesmere Port to see the waterways museum. It was one of the best ones that we have been to, having been to the Gloucester and London museums. It had some lovely restored boats and workers cottages.

Now these are what I call pictures of lambs, however a bit of a health warning, after seeing these, I bet it will be harder to eat that lamb curry or lamb chops.

Larry the lamb

The weather has been really odd recently. Take Saturday, woke up with not a cloud in the sky. As it was warm and sunny we decided that a drive into the Berwyn Mountains was in order with a walk somewhere along the way. We took a different route taking the A5 to Cowen before turning off. We wanted to do a walk near a village called Llandrillo and but as soon as we arrived there was dark clouds overhead so in a quick change of plan, we took a short stroll around the village. This village seemed almost perfect, perhaps not that pretty, but it had everything. A local shop, church, school, small river going through it, bridge and little lanes. The houses were all different, not much uniformity to them which made the village more interesting. From little cottages to big bungalows.

After our walk we hopped back into the car and drove on the B4391through the hills and ending up Oswestry.

This morning again it was sunny and I have been meaning for a while to see the lambs in the field near the Marina, so we packed up our camera and our walking boots and headed down to the A5 and found a footpath which took us right into a field of sheep . Sadly the lambs not seem that engaging or wanted their picture taken. In fact we had to wait ages in a muddy wet field to take these ones. Their mothers did seem rather protective of them and there was lots of baa-ing from them when we arrived. We carried on through a number of fields and across some woods which housed a number of rabbits who also did not what their photo taken.

We have just now returned back from an afternoon drive to Ellesmere where we stopped to walk around the town and the lake. We came accross Shropshire's oldest pub (picture). Ellesmere seems to be getting ready for the tourist season, new signs posts, parking clearly displayed and the centre of Ellesmere seems to be a lot cleaner and brighter since we were last there .

It is now raining, damp and miserable again, but I don’t mind, as long as it clears up by March when we set ‘sail’ again. Just looked at my blog stats.. I have had 18 people from Belize look at my blog this week. Now is now isn't that just wierd?

Ruin, Chester, fish nibbling feet and a visitor

On Friday night we went to the pub for a rugby match. Now, I am not one for rugby at all, but I have never seen a match so I thought that as this is a year for new experiences, why not. The pub was just in the border of England, but you would not know it. Welsh flags everywhere, I think we were almost the only ones without a Welsh team t-shirt. The game was won by England, but I am unsure if it was a good game or not as I still am unsure how to play it. Later that evening the winds came and I have never been on a narrow boat when it was so windy. Despite using all three ropes, the boat rocked to and fro. Even Matilda was scared.

Saturday saw another miserable day but was brighten by a visitor. She arrived by train from Watford and was happy to be here again in this beautiful part of the country.

We did not do much on Saturday as her goal was to relax, we had a pub lunch and then a tea on the top of Horseshoe pass. The weather was really bad, wet, cold and windy and the evening was spent watching a film.

Sunday we took a walk up the Ruin above Llangollen. The view was not fantastic as it was cloudy. The wind was so strong, probably the strongest I have ever experienced, remaining standing was tricky especially at the top and whilst trying to negotiated the precarious steps back down. With the cobwebs gone and a good few lungs full of fresh air we treated ourselves to a cream tea.

Monday also was windy so we took a drive to Chester for lunch and found a café underground for a jacket potato. After lunch we decided to give our feet a little treat and found a shop which has tanks of Garra Rufa fish. Basically you put your feet into the tank and they eat all your dead skin cells. It felt very odd, like lots of little bubbles. I am unsure if there is any cruelty aspect of this, however, all I can say is that it worked after only 15 minutes of being nibbled my feet felt better. If I ever went again, I would do it for longer.

Today my friend went home and typically it is a lovely sunny day. We drove her to Shrewsbury as there are no trains from Wrexham to Shrewsbury due to flooding on the line as we did not want her to miss the connecting train by taking the rail replacement bus. It was lovely having her to stay and the boat feels a little empty at the moment. Tomorrow back to the routine as its laundry day yet again.

Eglwyseg Mountain.

Yesterday was such a lovely warm day and we could not resist a drive into the country.

Instead of the Berwyn Mountains we went up over the mountains on the other side of the river Dee. Of course, it is not a real mountain like the Alps, but the map calls it Eglwyseg Mountain.

The drive started over the village of Garth and took as long the panorama road which we have been on before. The road then twisted away from the Dee and through a variety of fields and very sweet farm houses before hitting a small forest. On the other side of the forest we were greeted with a surprise mass of barren landscape not unlike the Berwyn Mountains and the air was just so fresh and invigorating. We drove through this landscape for a while before turning back towards horseshoe pass.

Whilst on our way back we found ourselves at a café dedicated to mountain biking, for a Tuesday morning it was surprisingly busy full of people just coming back from a mountain bike trek all covered in mud. Rather them than me, me thinks.

Pictures: The road above Llangollen with a view of the Ruin and pictures of the Eglwyseg Mountains