rental boat on the Llangollen

[thewomble]

I have asked quite a few questions on this forum over the last 6 months culminating finally in our Aussie family having the most splendid week on the Llangollen, so I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who chimed in with advice.

 

We hired our boat from Black Prince on the last Friday in August and we headed first towards Trevor so as to have the experience of crossing the aqueduct. As we arrived there was quite a throng of tourists, largely Japanese madly snapping photos of us (2 rather cute super blond kids certainly help in that direction). It was not as disturbing as I had expected, and i managed to stay out on deck, which was unexpected. We moored up in the basin and had dinner, then returned over the aqueduct in the peace and quiet of the evening which was awesome.

 

We were off early the next morning and had a super day's cruising. There was a queue for water and the New Marton Locks, so we were about an hour and a half there, but with non stop cruising we got to Blake Mere for the night which was simply stunning. The sun was shining on the lake the next morning, and it was simply amazing to be on the canal and looking across to the lake.

 

Day 3 and we made great time again and got through the Grindley locks and continued on to Willey Moor.

 

We had such good weather, but weren't sure it would hold out for the week, and also were wary of running out of time on the return journey, so day 4 we went as far as Wrenbury Mill and decided we should turn around. It was only 11am Monday and in hindsight we could easily have continued on a good bit further.

Turned around and cruised easily back to Whitchurch and moored just beyond the arm for the night.

The next day we stopped again at Blake mere and had the most amazing peaceful evening after a walk to the Tesco to stock up.

The following day we got all the way back to Chirk with a day to spare which was great because we could now go up to Llangollen.

 

We started off at 7am and by some miracle the sun was shining so as we crossed the aqueduct, the shadows of the arches were simply amazing and you could see the shadow of the boat moving along the top which was a real highlight.

We continued on to Llangollen this time and followed the advice on here by sending someone up ahead to check through the narrows, so made it unscathed. The lack of phone coverage was a bit of an issue, but we managed with a bit of tag team.

 

Llangollen was well worth the trip and I am glad we made it there We walked up to horseshoe falls and had a particularly nice lamb baguette in the Dee Side Cafe. Left about 3pm and cruised happily back to some moorings just before the Whitehouse tunnel, so it was only a 15 minute trip back to the marina next morning.

 

All in all, the trip was every bit as good as I hoped it would be. There were just about enough locks and bridges to keep the kids content, though I will be aiming for a few more should we be lucky enough to do another trip one day.

 

 

 

[nicknorman]

Glad you had a good holiday and many thanks for coming back to us with an update. So what is the plan for next year?!

[ditchcrawler]

Did you photograph the shadow of your boat as you crossed the aqueduct, always a good one for the album.