Chirk

Here I am Rune

Distance 5.1 miles

Total 654 Locks 22 Tunnels

Running total mileage 963.9miles

Ah the warm glow you get when you’ve done your good deed for the day! Today was just a general ‘potter’ along the Llangollen with the intention of getting to Trevor, unfortunately failed in that particular mission. We got behind a hire boat before Chirk Aqueduct and he seemed to be having some difficulty with the boat. First impression was that he was just having difficulty handling the boat but as we progressed it became apparent that it was more than that. The progress towards Chirk aqueduct was punctuated with the boat in front bumping the sides and bridges making our progress very slow. When we got into Chirk tunnel the slow progress became uncomfortably slow in that I twice had to stop our boat and switch the engine off because we were repeatedly catching the boat in front up. When we eventually emerged from the tunnel, in probably more time that it had taken us to go through the 1 mile plus Braunston tunnel (Chirk tunnel is only 460 yards) it was clear that the hire boat in front had a serious problem. We pulled up alongside them and called to the helm that I thought that he probably had something around his propeller which was causing the boat to be such a pig to steer. He said that he was going to stop shortly and he’d look in the weed hatch. We got bored with pottering behind him and decided to moor for lunch. After we set off again we saw him moored about a mile further on from where we had stopped, and sure enough alongside his boat on the towpath was a small mound of rope that he had clearly removed from his prop-shaft. We were going to go past him to the nearby marina but then found that they didn’t sell diesel on Saturdays so had to moor behind the hire boat where we will remain until tomorrow morning to take on some fuel. Took the chance to speak with the boat hirer and he confirmed that he had remove a whole load of rope from his prop, some of which had got so hot it had melted onto the shaft. At least his boat will now go a bit better for the rest of his holiday!

Visited the town of Trevor to try to get some food for the Saturday evening meal, not really a massive success. After wandering around Trevor on the bike for about 50 minutes tried asking some locals where the town centre was since I still hadn’t found it. They looked at me a bit blankly and asked what I was looking for, I told them I was looking for a Chinese Takeaway to which they immediately replied “..ah this is Chinese Hill, carry on to the top and it is on the left…”. Found the takeaway but still never found the town centre, don’t think it actually exists! The most charitable description I can give for Trevor is that it is a post-industrial Welsh town, it is just that there is nothing there! Even the local newsagent was holding a ‘Closing down sale’, never found a supermarket, bank or other sort of shop. I do hope that Llangollen is better tomorrow or Sunday lunch may comprise of a couple or peanut butter sandwiches!!

Chirk Aqueduct (with the 'slow' boat ahead!)