Pontcysyllte Aqueduct & Llangollen

On Friday we woke to a clear bright day and headed towards the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct - Telford's masterpiece. The was plenty of snow around on the towpaths, fields and hills. The last time we went across the aqueduct, in our previous boat, it rained so hard that it was difficult to see the ground below and my SLR camera, which I got ready to record the event, failed. It was therefore wonderful to find that not only would our crossing be dry, not windy, and the sun would be shining, but the scenery would be enhanced by a liberal covering of snow. To misquote Greg Wallace from Masterchef "Boating doesn't get much better than this!"

Poncysyllte Aqueduct 

Blue Pearl on the Aqueduct

Snow on the hills and shadows on the football field 

 

Spectacular shadow of Blue Pearl crossing the aqueduct, courtesy of Caroline Kinnings

The Kinnings enjoying crossing the aqueduct

Albert on the Aqueduct

We took our time crossing and then turned towards the narrow section of canal that leads to the town of Llangollen. The towpath was quite icy and the snow and wind had also caused havoc with trees. Several trees had fallen across the canal and had only recently been cleared.

Fallen trees

Beautiful rural setting of the route to Llangollen

A stranger in these parts! (and icy towpath)

I had been a little worried about the depth of water in the navigable feeder, with Albert's deep draught, but it wasn't bad with only the occasional bump on rocks in the channel bed. The narrow sections did, however, slow us down considerably. 

Arriving at Llangollen Wharf

Horse drawn trip boat William Jessop

We moored up at the basin at the end of the navigation. The sunshine, blue skies and snow on the hills made it a magical place to moor up. 

Llangollen Basin Visitor Moorings