Apologies for our silence, but we have had more than a few network problems in the Welsh valleys - and those were not our only problems! to start with we started to attract things to MR that you wouldn't really expect. We have noticed that there have been about three drakes to each poor lady duck which has resulted in some not nice to watch scenes of sexual voracity; one duck in particular had had more than enough & decided to come through the boat window to escape her admirers. Then there were 6 nuns who,later, reappeared as pirates (no we had not been on the juice) then I wanted an early night so fetched cats in early; when I came out of the shower Graham said, "I thought the cats were in, but one has gone down the waterside gunnel" we were totally in the middle of no-where and it was a beautiful Burmese with collar, goodness knows how far it had come to visit. Then Daisy came home with a rabbit, much to the amusement of passing boaters & dog walkers; but best of all, we approached the start of the Pontcysylite Aqueduct and a man on the right was doing funny bouncing things, as we drew level he jumped on the back & off the other side - mentioning in passing that he was from New Zealand (as if that explained anything) and he had been warming up to jump the cut (each to his own). All these tales were surpassed by another boater-I retrieved Daisy from their boat with effusive apologies (she had remembered her manners & taken a mouse present), they were very good about it and said, "at least she didn't poo on the carpet". They then explained that they had previously had a goat jump on their boat which pooed all over their carpet.
Well, enough of all that, The LLangollen from Trevor up is like nothing else, narrow, winding, hire boats in all directions-most assuming that nothing will ever be coming the other way, panicing & pushing the tiller the wrong way when there is & forcing you to run aground-but, most of all, incredibly beautiful & well worth it. Don't even THINK about doing it in the peak season, but DO IT. Moored up in the new basin and walked into the gorgeous town & saw an advert for a Male voice choir in the 15thC church of St Collen's, we (well I) decided we'd like to go butn were vtold the tickets sold out 2 weeks before. Went into Jones the butcher to re-supply & Mrs Jones came in (stay with me here) to buy concert tickets to be told they were sold out, but Mr Jones said Mrs Jones had had to cancel & there were 4 tickets spare so Mrs Jones had 2 and Mr Jones sold us the other 2! The choir pulled the hairs on the back of my neck & the boy soprano moved me to tears &, at the end we all sang the Welsh National Anthem with gusto (but not a lot of finesse) and Jones the butcher & some of the choir invited us for a drink-not all the Welsh hate the English! Decided this morning to stay another night & walked the dogs up to Horseshoe Falls in the rain & hit the steamtrain in the afternoon & have dinner out this pm-hosed off dogs who were plastered in mud & then Muttley (for no apparent reason) decided to jump in the basin & couldn't climb out. 2 lasses, who were closer to him than me, got soaked oiking him out - you won't read this but thank you anyway! Mooring warden came past & I asked for another night's mooring to be told that it was strictly 48 hrs & we had toleave by 4pm. I said we would move onto the vacant lockside moorings but, no. Llangollen is 48 hrs. That's your lot cock! What a shame when there are empty moorings and the area has much to offer. Set off, disappointedly at 2pm with a long miserable journey in low cloud, rain & miniscule visibility back over the aquaduct to find new moorings for the night 4 hrs later (aaaahhhh - woe is me).
Can't download any pics at moment but will follow - look out for long eared owl!
I remember that another blogger (can't remeber which one) was also disappointed at not being able to stay at Llangollen for longer. They were told that the 48 hour limit is one of the planning conditions, and there's a local who opposed the basin all along, and checks each day to make sure no-one overstays. When anyone does overstay, he takes great delight in reporting BW to the local authority as being in breach of their planning regulations. Some people clearly have far too much time on their hands, and not enough interest in their own lives!
ReplyDelete