Up, Up and Across

-->

Let's do it on foot first

Probably the high point of this narrowboat trip was the passage over the two big aqueducts on the Llangollen Canal. An aqueduct is simply a bridge to carry the canal over a road, river or in the case an entire river valley. The first is the Chirk Aqueduct, which carried an Iron trough upon 10 masonry arches 70 feet high and 710 feet long. It is over 200 years old, opened in 1801. There is now a railway viaduct running beside it. At the north end of the

Crossing the Chirk

aqueduct is a tunnel which runs for 421 meters, so depending on which direction you are coming, you navigate your boat 70 feet above a river valley and then enter a tunnel under a hill. One of our crew was both slightly claustrophobic and not fond of heights, so although I drove over and under the first time, I handed the tiller to him on the way back, thinking if he was concentrating on driving the boat he might not be so concerned.

That is a long way down

Although shorter at only 307 meters, the Pontcysyllte aqueduct is much higher at 127 feet, and much more dramatic because it is simply a metal trough sitting on 18 stone piers, so when you drive across you have to actually lean over the side of the boat to see the edge. It appears there is nothing holding the boat up.

This really is a dramatic experience driving a 70 foot long vessel across a bridge high above a river valley. You have to have confidence that the builder,

Across the Pontiunpronouncable

Thomas Telford built this structure to last over 200 years ago. Fortunately, the trough is barely wider than the boat, so you hardly have to steer, the trough guiding you across, and although it is difficult to cross without slight bounces against the sides, the trough has survived for 200 years and is still holding boats over 100 feet in the air.

I'm not scared . . .

Certainly an experience we will remember for many years to come.

Narrowboat Day Two

Walking the Aqueduct

This was the second day on the Narrowboat, and we went from England into Wales. We spent the night outside of a town called Chirk, and went to Llangollen. This was a particularly challenging section of the canal with two tunnels, two aquaducts, and two sections of single boat width canal. Only one bridge and no locks, but still plenty to keep us busy.

The canal we navigated today starts at Llangollen, and so all the water for the canal comes from here. This means that unlike most of the canals, there is current which complicates things at times. When the canals are narrow, the current will move the boat more than normal.

Underground in a Boat

For the uninitiated, an aqueduct is a bridge that allows the canal to cross a valley. The biggest, the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, was built over 200 years ago with stone arches supporting the 125 ft. iron water channel carrying the canal 127 feet over a river valley. You come around a corner, the canal narrows, and you are suddenly floating in a narrow channel of water over 100 feet in the air. Although you know it is a bridge, and there is a walkway and rail on one side, on the other there is nothing. You actually have to peer over the side of the boat to see that you are on a bridge. I was driving the boat, but the crew was snapping photos and the folk walking across the bridge were snapping holiday snaps of us. I expect to see us on Youtube anytime now . . .

Traffic Jam! Bill got me through . . .

We navigated two tunnels, the longest 191 yards long, under a hill. These tunnels are arched brick lined structures barely wider than the boat. There are no lights but the boat has a headlight. Although I have never piloted tunnels, I have been through a few and knew what to expect as well as the principles necessary to get the boat through. Unfortunately the boat ahead of us did not really know what she was doing and went too slowly and ended up bouncing off the walls all the way. Unfortunately this along with the current flowing through the narrow passage made it difficult. If you maintain a certain speed you can get through more smoothly, but even our slightly claustrophobic crew member made it through, although I think I heard a sign of relief as we exited into the daylight at the other end.

Travel Gnome on the Aqueduct

As well there was about 700 yards of single boat width canal where the canal was cut from a steep rock hillside. Now a narrow canal is not really that hard, but this section twisted and turned making some tight turns that our 70 foot long boat could barely get around. These narrow sections require some planning, because you have to let crew ashore to go ahead and check for oncoming boats, and to stop any boats coming into the section while you are navigating it, because there is no passing room and it is almost impossible to back up.

It was a busy day, and mooring outside the town of Llangollen, I was happy to relax with a nice glass of wine as dinner was prepared from in the galley. 

Note photo four by Shelley Glover