Grindley Brook Locks

This post covers a number of days because we are now in our canal boat on the Llangollen canal and don’t have access to wifi. Hopefully someone will have missed the daily posts.

Saturday:

We spent the morning looking around the very picturesque town of Llangollen (after visiting the laundrette). We headed to the Horseshoe falls, where the Llangollen Canal starts. 12 million gallons of water per day flow down the canal. Thomas Telford designed the canal with a weir across the River Dee, diverting some water into the canal.

We (Rick) were distracted by the Llangollen Motor Museum on the way and turned off the road to look at it. Often people can go through their lives saying I wish I had seen or done that. Well at least we now know that the museum wasn’t really worth stopping for. There was a good selection of motor bikes, some we hadn’t heard of, but the cars were so close together that it wasn’t possible to walk between them to look inside, or look at the backs and they were very dusty.

After the Horseshoe Falls, we went on to Abaty Glyn y Groes which, I’m sure you all know, is Welsh for Valle Crucis Abbey. It was a Cistercian Abbey, built in 1201.

We then went on to see the Pontcysyllte aqueduct, one of Telford’s fantastic, spectacular engineering successes. We walked part way across and this reinforced how high it is. 100 feet high doesn’t sound much, but when you’re there looking over, it is very high.

  

Accepting the road signs that advised of road closed, we managed to find our way via a very circuitous route back to the closed road. We could have taken 5 minutes instead of 30 minutes to get to where we couldn’t go past. A cyclist told us that the road wasn’t really closed, that the sign was intended to reduce the amount of traffic going through. There was a stunning view  of the aqueduct from the bridge along the “closed” section of road.

We got to the boat hire office an hour early and we were lucky that the boat was ready for us. We unloaded the car, had our instruction and headed off, about 4:45 pm, along the canal the wrong way. We did this on purpose because we had to go up the canal to turn in a winding hole so we could go to Tesco in Ellesmere, about 1 1/2 hours away, for food and wine for a few days on the boat. Back there in a few days to restock. We were very lucky that there was a berth waiting for us at the end of the Ellesmere branch, right outside Tesco. About £180 later we left. Once £90 is taken out for wine, the remaining cost for food for 4 nights, breakfasts and lunches is not too bad for the 4 of us. With such a convenient berth, we spent the night there.

Sunday:

We had a lazy breakfast and headed off down the canal, after executing a pretty good turn in the basin at Ellesmere. Turning a 70 foot long boat needs a lot of manoeuvring room and with a combination of rudder, engine and rope we managed well. We passed through the Ellesmere tunnel and some beautiful, peaceful sections of canal, under a number of lift bridges and berthed in the Whitchurch arm and walked into town for a look. On returning to the boat G&R  proved how tough they are by continuing on in the rain. There was about 1 hour of rain, but not cold then sun again. Gary managed a very impressive turn in the winding hole and managed to reverse the boat to the berth.

We left Whitchurch, heading for the Grindley Brook locks. Can’t turn sharp right, so we had to head back towards Ellesmere for 200 metres to take advantage of the winding hole. Somehow, Rick managed a 3 point turn. Not quite sure how, but pity there was no one else there to see it. On then to Grindley Brook for the night, ready to fill up with water in the morning and then tackle a staircase of 3 locks and 3 more locks. There will be another few locks before we can turn around and head back towards Llangollen and the fantastic Pontcysyllte aqueduct.

It’s now about 9pm, very still, no human generated noises and still very light.

Monday:

Not so slack this morning, we took off around 9am. We filled up with water and attacked the locks. We haven’t been down a staircase lock before, so it was good that there was a lock keeper to help everyone. As it turned out, it was just the same as using a normal 2 gate lock except the bottom gate of one lock is the top gate for the next. So down the 3 lock staircase, through 3 more locks close by, through another 4 spaced between 1/2 mile and 1 1/2 miles apart. On to a winding hole to turn around (5 point turn this time because there was a boat waiting, obstructing the approach), and then retraced our route back through the locks. Just went down and up through the locks because we could. Raining lightly for most of the day, but it wasn’t cold or unpleasant.

We made better time than expected. We planned, conservatively, for 3 lock miles per hour but managed 4. To calculate lock miles, add the number of miles and the number of locks together. so 8 miles and 4 locks at 4 lock miles per hour would take 3 hours. We’re about 2 hours ahead of where we expected to be, so we’ll have more time for congestion further up the canal or more time to play around at the Pontcysyllte aquaduct. Last time R&G went over the aqueduct, it was spectacular and very exciting, and we expect the same this time. I’m sure you’ll be pleased to know that we’re spending the night near bridge 37.

Into Ellesmere again tomorrow afternoon to restock at Tesco, on to the poo pump-out station and water refill, then on towards Llangollen.

Here is another aquaduck.