Doors of the United Kingdom

I always take pictures of doors wherever I travel, and this trip was not different.

These pictures were taken all through Wales, England and Scotland over the past month. 

Up, Up and Across

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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

Bridgework

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Cows on a bridge

This is our third Narrowboat trip, My sister and her husband have done five, and our new friends have gone twice. As you pilot the Narrowboat through the UK’s canal system, bridges are a constant. There is a bridge every mile or so. Sometimes you have to actually pilot the boat across a bridge over a valley, but normally we are navigating the boat under the bridges. Now these bridges are very useful in navigating, because they are all numbered and you can track your progress and locate your position in the guide book by knowing which bridge you just went under. There are railway bridges, and motorway bridges, but the majority of the bridges crossing the canal are just bridges. They go nowhere; there is nothing on either end. Perhaps 100 years ago there was a cart road, but now there is just a field on either end of the bridge. We saw more cows on bridges than vehicles. And most of these bridges are old; crumbling brick structures arching across the canal no where near a road.

Now the boats are called “Narrowboats”, because the canals are narrow so the boats are only seven feet wide to allow two boats to pass in opposite direction on the canals. These bridges are even narrower, allowing only one boat to go under at a time. The canal under the bridges narrows to about nine feet, allowing only a foot at the most on either side. To compensate for being “narrow”, the boats are long, and with six people this year our boat is almost 70 feet long. For some reason, the bridges always seem to be positioned on a corner, so you are cruising along and you come around a corner to find a bridge in the middle of the corner. It is not easy to get a 70 foot long boat lined up to slip under a bridge that is only slightly wider than the boat. All the bridges sport scars from boats not being perfectly aligned and to see some of the scars, you have to wonder what the boats that made them look like. Sometimes you carefully get you boat all lined up to slip through and OOPS, there is another boat coming down who has the right-of-way and you have so quickly change course to let him through.

Two bridges in a row

But on our first day, we managed to successfully navigate three lift bridges, and under 45 regular bridges. We did run aground while trying to avoid a traffic jam at one bridge and we scared one of our crew who suddenly looked up to see the boat headed right into the side of a bridge (It was one that required a bit of a “tack” on a very sharp turn, and we actually made it through perfectly). Tomorrow we have two tunnels and two aqueducts to navigate, so there is always something to keep you entertained.

Four Countries in 24 Hours

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No toll to walk . . .

Well, we are off on our latest adventure, this one another Narrowboat trip. It is actually two trips, each a seven day excursion. We pick up the boat in a little town called Whitchurch, and we take seven days to go into Wales and back, including crossing one of the longest and highest aqueducts. Next we are going back to Chester England, a quaint little town we visited following our last Narrowboat trip. Two years ago, we spent a week in Chester and

A "Local" we met on a Walk

really liked it. While there, I noticed the canal system runs right into Chester, so I thought it would be nice to go back to Chester on the Narrowboat.

To start this trip we fly out of Halifax Canada direct to Glasgow Scotland, on an overnight flight, getting into Glasgow with the rising sun the next day. We then picked up rental cars and drove on the "wrong" side of the road with no sleep, down through Scotland and Western England and into Wales. So, in less than 24 hours, we were in four countries, Canada, Scotland, England and Wales.

The Whole Gang on the Pier

We pick up the boat on Saturday, so we are spending two days here in Wales, visiting a town called Llandudno (Don’t ask me to pronounce that . . . ) Here are a few pictures from the town.

Lifeboat Garage - Bill & John were excited!