Working, New Year, boating

What a week, so busy that you know that this blog post is going to be an epic one. I’m pretty tired right now, and A is snoozing wrapped up in her blanket on the recliner next to me, but I am so dedicated to writing these posts that I’m keeping myself going and getting on with it. So, without any further froth, here goes.

 

Icy start to the day

This week began with a “back to work” feeling as I was off into the office Monday through Wednesday to keep earning the money to be spent on finishing the work on the Old School. I was up and out bright and early Monday morning and found that it was a really cold morning, with ice everywhere making the paths slippery. This was the weather for all three of my walks into work but I was wrapped up warm so didn’t mind. The first morning in I had to go on a mission to find myself some milk in the office but thankfully the bottle left from the week before wasn’t off. I had the pleasure of coming home for lunch on Monday and Tuesday as I was alone in my office which was great; it was nice to sit with A and eat my lunch.

 

Thomas is now 100,000 miles old

On Wednesday (New Year’s Eve) I did not come home for lunch as we were off to stay on our friends’ boat again over the next couple of days and I worked a slightly shorter day, but over lunch, so we could get away as early as possible. It was quite a big week for Thomas as well as he clicked over the big 100,000 miles on his odometer. Both myself and A got pictures of this exciting occurrence but hers came out far better.

 

Useful sign in a pub

With the clock ticking over to 100,001 and upwards we set off towards North Wales and Ellesmere where they were aiming to meet us. They beat us by about twenty minutes or so and we arranged to meet in Tesco but we couldn’t see them in there so walked and found Valhalla, the boat, but it was locked up. When we headed back to Tesco we bumped into them walking out so went to get our bags and met them onboard. As it was New Year’s Eve we didn’t stay on the boat for that long but headed out into the town to find some beer and food. It was very strange as the first pub we went to was shut and the next was pretty much deserted but we ordered a pint anyway and settled down. My beer was off so I didn’t really touch it but A was most amused by this little sign by the bar.

 

Welcoming in 2015 together

From there we made our way around the centre looking for more pubs and eventually found another which was also pretty much deserted. We had a couple of pints, went round the corner to the chippy to grab some fish and chips, and then walked back to the boat to continue the evening celebration. On the way we found that the first pub, which looked like it served good food, was now open however the fish and chips did not let us down and we didn’t really regret having missed out on that. The rest of the evening passed in a blur of quite a lot of alcohol and a lot of fun as well. It wasn’t planned that we drink a lot; indeed at 10.30 we looked at our watches and almost went to bed but then suddenly we heard fireworks and it was 2015. This picture was taken just after midnight. With the formalities observed we did finally get to our beds and passed out. The fire had been burning really hot all evening and it got so overheated in the cabin that in the night we opened the main door to let some air through.

Amazing colours in the morning

I woke quite early, as I normally do after drinking, but didn’t feel all that bad; I was relieved that the windows and door had been opened in the night, however, as if I’d kept trying to sleep in that heat I reckon I would have woken up feeling terrible. I lay there for a bit then glimpsed some colour in the sky out of the porthole so I got up, went outside, and was rewarded for my efforts with an amazing display as the sky went from purple through to orange. The clouds make sun rises and sun sets even more stunning than with a clear sky, and they were really scooting across the horizon this morning.

Noisy ducks in the morning

A short while after I managed to encourage A to get out of bed and join me watching the sky change and then our friends woke up, or at least Ryan did as his other half was not feeling well at all and actually ended up spending almost the entire day in bed. I gathered together the empty bottles and walked to the recycling point with A, after which she decided to go for a run around the town! Now that is hardcore! When she got back she said she’d found a curry house that looked OK but I was still happy about my fish and chips.

 

The bones of trees, on the horizon

Shortly after A got back from her run Ryan started the engines and we headed off up the canal. Our plans were to get right up to a place called Chirk where they were going to stop for the next couple of weeks, then leg it back to Thomas all together to go to our other friend’s house for a smoked turkey. At first the weather was OK, though it clouded over pretty quickly, but then the wind picked up and it started raining and this pretty much set in for the day. It had been lovely boating weather all week and the day that we get on, it changes and becomes nasty. I think they’ll not invite us again.

 

Driving through the lovely scenery

The weather did not detract from the gorgeous countryside we were going through (well, not before it started hailing anyway) and I stood up with Ryan as he piloted us along the winding waterway. It really was a very bending stretch of canal and I was glad that I didn’t have to steer. After a while I went down and made bacon butties for everyone (other than Cat who hadn’t emerged) and I also kept a steady stream of cups of tea in production. Ryan got a bit lonely through the afternoon as he was stuck up there on his own while I was inside reading with A, so I wrapped myself back up and went and sat with him. I even got to drive for a bit as he made a coffee for himself on his fancy machine that I couldn’t work out at all.

 

Well it certainly LOOKED like a real snake

There were only a couple of locks on the day, which I jumped out and operated, but the high winds made it very tricky for Ryan to control the boat near to shore. It turns out that wind is a big issue for a narrow boat as it forces the nose to swing across the water, if you are going slowly, and when I was driving this, along with the quite high flow of water on this canal, made the whole driving thing quite a stressful experience. Anyway, it wasn’t just the weather that was interesting; there were plenty of sights as we drove along and this is probably the strangest. I don’t know if this is a real snake but I spotted it on the roof of a boat we went past and Ryan reversed us back to get a closer look. He was going to poke it with a stick but I thought it’d be better to just leave it be.

 

Just entering the aqueduct, viaduct to the left

Nasty cold rainy weather

Towards the end of the day we went over the first of two aqueducts, this one quite a short one but still pretty impressive. Both me and A got out of the boat to have a leg stretch as there was a concrete path next to the edge of the canal over the bridge. You can see just how nasty the weather is from this, and the wind was getting up whipping through the valley. At the far end of the aqueduct was a tunnel and this ended up being really quite long and bendy. It was nice, however, to get in out of the elements.

 

Intrepid canoeists

When we got out of the other side of the tunnel we were going through a heavily wooded section which kept the cross breeze down. It was starting to get quite dark now and we were pushing on as hard as we could towards Trevor, our new destination at the head of this stretch of canal. There had been a few boats earlier on in the day but, when we stopped for lunch at a pub and then headed on, I think most of the hire boaters decided to just stop there for the rest of the day and so we had the canal pretty much to ourselves. There were a few other people on the water, however, none so crazy as this pair of canoeists who were heading back up the way we had come, aiming to go over the aqueduct and get to said pub. Fair play, I’d not want to do that.

 

Very dark as we cross the final aqueduct

Around this time Cat joined us and took over some of the driving, which Ryan really appreciated. As the night arrived we finally started crossing the largest aqueduct in the country which was really impressive but it was rather too dark to do much more than just get over, find a mooring, and look forward to the next day when hopefully the weather would improve and we would be able to see a bit more. After some faffing around we managed to moor alongside a hire boat and then made our way to the pub just over the way for dinner. This was pretty unimpressive but we were all so tired that we just ate it and left. It’s a shame when a pub doesn’t make any effort with its food. I was ready for sleeping at 7.30 but we managed to hold on til about 9 before Ryan fell asleep sitting up and so we all hit the sack.

 

Where we stopped for the night

Even though we were so tired neither I nor A slept all that well and we woke before the sun came up to the sight of stars out the port hole. It had been quite a calm night but the wind was still a bit gusty which made the boat shake and knock against the one next door. After a bit of lazing we got up and I went outside to have a look around. This area of the canal was very congested as the hire company had moored their boats really badly. Valhalla is the dark boat on the right in the distance in this picture.

 

Information plaque about the aqueduct

It is a LONG way down!

When A finally got up and out I took my camera up towards the aqueduct while she went for a run in the other direction. It was a really lovely morning, with the sun not quite up still, and the wind had once again dropped. I walked along towards the aqueduct which was really close, no more than a minute away, and then walked out onto the span. It is a really impressive thing, rising as high as it does above the river, and when I was hanging over the edge with my camera to get a shot looking down I did feel a little funny.

 

Reproducing the picture in the pub

One thing which the crap pub the night before had had which was nice was a couple of pictures on the wall, taken from the top of the aqueduct, looking up the Dee towards the road bridge and a house down near the water. This was one I wanted to reproduce for myself and so I worked out roughly where it had been taken from and here it is. Of course the colours are a bit pale as the sun was still not up by this point but you can still see just how lovely this view is.

 

Where the canal stops

After this I turned back and walked past the boat and along the path which A had gone jogging up however I couldn’t see her and returned to the boat pretty quickly. We had attempted to drive up under the bridge and round into the short section of the canal past it but had grounded the night before and, in the clear light of day, you could really see how shallow it was. A hundred yards or so further up the water stopped completely and it turned into a muddy swamp before a wall across the canal that carried a road.

 

Lit by the morning sun

Super fast current

Looking back from a distance

The viewpoint, with concrete step for short people

Today was Ryan’s turn to lie in and Cat had been up early and gone for a walk down below the aqueduct. When he woke up and joined us the four of us went to see where she had gone, walking down a steep path next to the aqueduct and then along the banks of the Dee before climbing up and making a circuit of the excursion. The sun was up by this time and it was quite warm out of the breeze. I got a number of pictures, some bridge-porn for my dad of course.

 

Child at heart

As we were climbing up out of the valley towards the view point A spotted a rope bridge dangling from a tree just off the path. Quick as a flash she ran off to jump on and, having said it didn’t feel very safe, proceeded to swing herself around like a child for a few minutes. She had a huge grin on her face so she must have been enjoying herself; I can see that we’ll maybe have to rig one of these up from the oak tree in the front garden.

 

Motorised canoes making their way across the aqueduct

After a lovely relaxing start to the day Ryan started the engines and we reversed carefully out between the parked boats then did an almost perfect twenty point turn so we were facing back the way we had come the day before and approached the aqueduct. We were stymied in our first approach as there were two motorised canoes coming over so we held back to let them clear the water, and then it was time for our pass.

 

Sheer drop to the right

Wind blown spray

I went down to the front of the boat with A to get some good pictures, and hold on to her as she was standing on the side with no railing and a 100’ drop if she slipped. The wind had really got up by this point, particularly as we were on the highest point, and as I was snapping pictures the canvas cover at the front suddenly started flapping really badly, a tin blew over the side onto the walkway (A heroically chased this down and rescued it) and then we spent the rest of the time trying to secure the tarpaulin and stop it blowing away. We managed to get over without losing any more items but it was a bit hairy for a little while.

 

A getting some (more) exercise

Just after the aqueduct we went past the swing bridge (which Ryan had lifted the night before) and A was ready to grab the windlass and go and lift it for us. There was a boat coming towards us but she got to it first and was proud to lift it fully so we could go under. The other boat came through before us, but we left them to drop the bridge.

 

Guess which country we were in (apparently she's called Blodwyn)

We went back through the tunnel, over the other aqueduct and then just round the corner Ryan spotted a sign for a pub so we moored up, A and I packed our bags, and we headed to find some food and get a cab back to Thomas. Our plans for the afternoon had been cancelled so there would be no smoked turkey in our future but this wasn’t a terrible thing as the rush to get back and over to where that was supposed to be happening would have overshadowed the lovely relaxing start to the day. Our first attempt at finding the pub was thwarted by going the wrong way and then, when we did find it, we found it shut. The village centre was only half a mile away so we ended up walking up the other side of the valley and found a hotel with a bar which served food. This food also was not great, though it was by no means as bad as the night before, and once we’d eaten I booked a cab and we were off to find if Thomas had been clamped in Tesco carpark. He hadn’t been which was a relief and A drove us back home.

I was planning on doing all of last week in one blog but this has gotten so long I’m going to make you wait for tomorrow for the rest of the exciting adventures Last Week. Cheers.