Llangollen

We have been in Llangollen for a few days now on our winter mooring, after a year & a half of cruising continuously it feels odd not to be moving on. I had a bit of a wobble at first as the winter moorings here were described on the British Waterways web site as being in the basin but we found that not to be the case & they are in fact on the towpath, I was a bit put out as we were looking forward to being in the basin, which for those who don't know it, is in a great setting, open with  views all around, whereas the towpath moorings are in the trees ( but much handier for the services!) we also doubted that we'd get a satellite signal for the TV. I was all for demanding our money back & accusing BW of miss selling!  But a chat with Elsie & Eric, nb Bendigedig allayed our fears, so we stopped moaning, settled in & of course it's fine. 


Llangollen is a great little town  in a beautiful setting & we intend to do lots of walking so yesterday we made a start by walking up past Valle Crucis Abbey & then continued up the valley  to Eglwyseg Rocks  an imposing limestone escarpment.

 Looking toward Eglwyseg Rocks

We then followed Offa's Dyke path along the base of the rocks, skirted the bottom of the hilltop fort of  Castell Dinas Bran ( we will climb it another day) & then it was an easy downhill stroll back to Llangollen

Castel Dinas Bran in the distance

The path passes this Lime Kiln  just below the rocks

One of our concerns about being here rather than in the basin was the fairly busy road at the bottom of the embankment & Sid, but he seems to be wary of the traffic noise & stays clear.  Although this morning he managed to get himself in a bit of a predicament....

When he is out & about he usually pops back now & again but this morning he went off at 7am &  didn't come back. At lunch time I went out with the locator & kept getting a weak signal but couldn't pinpoint his location, I thought he must be in the undergrowth on the embankment so just had to leave him to it.

 Mark went out a bit later & before long shouted for me, Sid was sat on the opposite bank meowing loudly, quite plainly distressed & saying "come & get me"! 

He must have gone all the way down to the bridge near the trip boats, crossed over & somehow worked his way  back down to the canal but on the wrong side... Mark was contemplating walking round to get him, although as the bank on the other side is steep & quite overgrown wasn't sure how best to tackle it when I pointed out the obvious, so yes, we untied Poppy & took her over to the other bank to rescue him much to the interest of passers by.

Not the best photo as he is camouflaged in the bracken & it's well cropped 

He seemed relieved to be home, had a cuddle ( & he is not usually cuddly at all) a feed & then crashed on the bed. Hopefully he has learnt a lesson but somehow I doubt it...

Chirk

We left St Martins on Friday morning, it was cold, grey & damp so a good job it was only an hours cruise to Chirk Bank  before mooring outside The Poachers Pocket pub. Mark figured it was probably  one of the few places before Chirk where we could get a TV signal & we knew from being up here last October that we didn't want to moor anywhere nearer Monks Bridge as a) no TV signal & b) some very noisy insomniac geese. 


 I was awaiting some mail due to be delivered to Chirk Post Office so we had a walk into the town before lunch, the mail hadn't arrived  but we also needed some supplies so popped into the fairly well stocked Spar. Chirk isn't a big place but has most of the essentials, apart from the Spar there's a chemist, a bank, butchers, bakers, Indian restaurant, coffee shop & some gift type shops so well worth the walk up from the canal.
 Yesterday we wanted to check out the mooring situation north of Chirk so we walked over the aqueduct, through the tunnel & through the cutting as far as the marina. 

View from the aqueduct across the valley under the railway viaduct,

 the mist is just rising off the trees

 the Chirk Aqueduct is the 'other' aqueduct's poor relation but we like it.

the imposing Chirk Tunnel entrance

the cutting north of the tunnel

There was just a couple of boats moored near the marina & loads of space for us if we decided to move, the problem with being at The Poachers Pocket was it wasn't really Sid friendly as the road is only across the car park so he wasn't allowed out & was a bit fed up. 

After checking the moorings we walked back to Chirk, 1st stop, the Post Office & my mail had arrived so next stop was the chemist to drop off my prescription. It won't be ready until Monday but that's fine then a few bits & bobs from the Spar & back home for lunch.

No evening meal to cook as we decided to try the Poachers Pocket, it's a Marstons  Pub so part of a chain but the food was fine, not Cordon Bleu but we are simple souls so it suited us.

This morning we upped sticks & moved up to the mooring near the marina, Mark has been to fetch the Sunday paper, I've cleaned & tided & Sid has been enjoying being outside.

One odd thing happened earlier, I broke off from the chores to check on Sid, he had got a bit stuck in a tree & I was just watching him when there was a noise from the hedge nearby,  then a hawk struggled out of the hedge with a blackbird in it's claws, it then went back in the hedge. A couple were just walking up with their dog as the hawk flew back out of the hedge, still with the blackbird, which now looked dead, & flew low across the canal disappearing  into the undergrowth on the other side. I didn't have my camera & the other couple, who did have a camera, were like me, too transfixed watching & it all happened so fast. I was surprised that the hawk would go into the hedge to attack the blackbird usually they seem to swoop in the open to get their prey & even after he'd got it he still stayed low, still I'm no ornithologist so what do I know!

A freaky photo of Sid as the flash catches his eyes playing with the latest toy.