Frankton

Today's Canal : Llangollen

Still grey weather - the forecast was that rain would hold off until lunch time, which it did. We had moored only about 300m before the entrance to Whitehouse Tunnel.

This is relatively short tunnel and we could see that it was empty and we could proceed straight in. With the water flow in our favour, we came through in 4 minutes instead of the 6 going up.

We continued, passing Chirk Marina where quite a number of hire boats are turned around. 

At Chirk Tunnel we could see that there was a boat coming our way - it was not long in emerging. Before it did we thought that there was another boat following by then we realised it was the lights of two cyclists who also arrived at much the same time as the boat. We quickly entered, giving no time for any other boat to set off towards us. There is no control system here and at busier times, it can take a while to get a break in oncoming traffic. 

At the end of the tunnel we emerged inti the basin before the aqueduct which also serves as a winding hole for boats not wanting to go any further (which was what we did two years ago.

Alas there were no trains running over the viaduct alongside which we could include in our photo - the line only has one or two an hour each way so the chances of catching one are not great.

View through the picture frame of a viaduct arch.

As we came to the end of the aqueduct we also were informed that we were no back in England! (No mention of the football . . .) We will make a brief incursion back into the Principality in a few days, after we have been down the Montgomery.

After a mainly rural section we arrived at the two New Marton locks. These can often be a bottleneck especially at the 'wrong' time in relation to hire boat departures. We knew that there was a boat a few minutes ahead of us but we felt quite fortunate that it was the only one in the queue for the lock. The next upcoming boat did complain that there was a long queue below the bottom lock!

Leaving Mike with help from boats waiting below, Christine was able to take the long walk down to the necy lock. Here she found a boat with an American crew who were experiencing locks for the first time - so she helped to explain the operation to them.

There was indeed a queue below - we counted seven boats waiting, nearly all from one or other of the nearest ABC bases.

Bridge 6W, just before the hire base at Whittington is a splendid example of a turnover bridge. Only a few, mainly on the Macclesfield, have this circular arrangement which speeds up traffic as the horse could continue without having to be unfastened from the towline, and without long approach ramps.

Incidentally, we have now discovered that the W was added to all the bridge numbers from Frankton to Llangollen following a H&S review back in the British Waterways era and was intended to avoid confusion when calling out emergency service, otherwise there would be two very different places with the same number. The numbering itself dates back to when the separate sections were built be independent startup companies.

Shortly after this we paused on a Visitor Mooring to have lunch, leaving about 40 minutes run to Frankton Junction.

As we finished our meal the promised rain arrived but, despite a heavy shower at first, this quickly abated to a light drizzle and we completed today's target of the VM just before the junction, without getting badly soaked. As there was still room here we declined the chance of going through the bridge to see if we could moor in the waiting area above the Montgomery Canal and the Frankton Locks.

We booked online last night (after we had already published yesterday's blog) to go down on Tuesday and back on Friday. We were surprised that at that stage there were only two other bookings (out of a maximum of 12) but perhaps more will have joined by closing time today. It is not possible to book on the day of transit.

9.5 Miles - 2 Locks