Whitehouse

Today's Canal : Llangollen

It was a bright sunny morning when we awoke - sadly this gave way to the usual greyess well before it was time for us to walk down into town to go to the 11:00 service at the main church in the centre.

In the churchyard is a gravestone marking the burial of the two Ladies of Llangollen as well as their servant Mary.

There is also a memorial tablet inside the church. Since we know that there is little historical evidence of how they actually looked, it seems likely that this imagery is more than a little fanciful - not least because by the time they died they were very much older and, in one case, almost completely blind.

The service was traditional high Anglican in style, with the occasional bit of plainchant, but overall was well done and true to its roots. The sermon was carefully constructed - largely the re-telling of the gospel reading about the execution of John the Baptist, but in the closing remarks turned very much to the point, highlighting how the 'Me' society (evident on all sides in the recent election campaign) has detracted from the principles of the early church.

We walked back up the steep hill to the canal, and then the basin, for the last time on this trip.

We changed quickly and then set off - but only as far as the toilet bock at the end of the towpath visitor moorings. By now we were onto our third and final cassette and were struggling to find Plan B should this disposal unit be out of action. Luckily all was OK.

As the basin had gained a lot of free space during the morning, we were quite surprised just how many boats followed us, or passing us on the service mooring

Most of the canal as far as Trevor and the aqueduct is narrow and bendy, even the parts not marked as one way create fun when boats arrive sudde nly in the opposite direction. especially one that drove straight into the bridge arch nd then, just as we through we were able to pass it, suddenly stopped just in a bridge narrow!

However, the route is very scenic and we were able to attempt to keep track of the bus route we took yesterday.

Eventually we emerged under the bridge into Trevor basin and then onto the aqueduct.

We had already noticed the benefit of going with the flow and this was even more apparent when crossing Pontcysyllte Aqueduct.

As we reached Fron lift bridge we could see that another boat was just passing under but as we held back to let it pass a moored boat close to the landing, a trip boat rushed across the aqueduct and insisted on turning equally urgently in the adjacent winding hole. Eventually we were able to let the boat through the bridge and we followed, closing up afterwards.

We continued for half an our, mooring just after Whitehouse Bridge and in sight of the tunnel.

6.2 Miles - 0 Locks