Our trip up until this point had been mostly driven by seeing family, with some sightseeing bits along the way. Now things changed bit, the next week was an adventure just for us. We were going to travel the Llangollen canal in our own rented narrowboat.
Our first job was to get from Manchester Airport to Chirk, Wales. I chose to go via Transport for Wales (TfW) which connected in Chester. This is a trip across the industrial north of England, and the train station at Chester on a drizzly morning definitely kept to the industrial vibe.
Chester is a mid-sized city, but Chirk is a small town near the Welsh border, with a couple of small grocery stores, a few pubs and an old canal. It is also home to a factory that makes Cadbury hot chocolate mix. The marina where we were going to pick up our narrowboat was a mile and a half north of town, but our first job was to walk into town center from the train station, get some lunch and buy some supplies for the boat. We wound up eating at the Teddy Bear Cafe sandwich shop.
I don't know if it is ubiquitous across the UK but Teddy Bear introduced us to "Coronation Chicken", a lightly curried chicken salad that was to be on most pub menus for the coming week.
The helpful people at the Black Prince marina had told us that the boat's fridge was small, so we only bought a few things at the local Spar. Again, not sure for the whole of the UK but I can report that Wales is replete with meat pies. Lamb, beef, the occasional veg, they have them all. I picked up a pork pie from the local butcher across the street from Teddy Bear.
Now we just needed to get ourselves, luggage, groceries and pork pie to the marina. The marina had earlier emailed me a list of local taxi companies and strongly suggested pre-booking. Three weeks before the trip I dutifully called a couple of them up. One didn't pick up, the next did but then she just said "Love, call back closer to the date (click)". Hmph.
So while in Switzerland last week I called back and tried to arrange a ride. Accents were thick and Welsh taxi dispatchers seem very impatient, at least with Americans, but I thought I got the job done.
But now here we were on the corner of Teddy Bear and Spar in Chirk and no taxi was showing up. Nervousness set in, we needed to be at the marina no later than 3:00 pm. It was already 2:30. The Coronation Chicken felt heavy in my stomach. I finally called they guy I thought I had booked for 2:00 pm, and he said in a miffed tone that he had been there on time at 12:00 pm and I wasn't (click). In theory we both speak English, but in practice...
So I tried the next entry on the list and our luck turned. The dispatcher and I seemed to understand each other, and she said that normally they don't have taxis near Chirk but one of theirs had just dropped off a fare near us, and hold on a few minutes. Sure enough, a helpful and cheerful driver drove up a few minutes later. On the way to the marina he gave us some great advice on booking the return trip from the marina, use the app. Music to my ears.
There are marinas every ten or twenty miles along the canal, with a particular operator using a given marina as a base. Chirk marina was Black Prince's base for the Llangollen Canal, and when we arrived there was a raft of maybe a dozen boats lined up at the dock. The front office told us to walk across the raft with our bags until we got to Celeste, motor running. We unpacked and checked out the boat, and then Kevin met us and gave a thorough tour. There was the diesel engine below the rear deck, the grease gun for the propeller shaft, the battery charger, the water tank, the fuel tank, the propane tank, the toilet, the stove, etc. And most importantly his phone number to call in a week when we returned, or before if we had any problems.
That all was about as expected. Kevin asked me about my boating experience, and I let him know that I was comfortable with a sailboat but didn't have much experience with a 52 foot long six foot wide pencil shaped narrowboat. I assumed there would now be a little lesson on driving this thing.
Kevin got us out of the marina, handed me the tiller and told me to aim for a spot on the canal bank. I thought "ok, we're going to learn mooring", but when we got to the bank he hopped off, cheerfully waved to us and wished us a great week. And so in a bit of a state of shock the two of us were off!
Kevin advised us first timers to head east, towards England, and then tackle the narrow bits on the Welsh Llangollen end later in the week, when we had a better feel for the boat. Here's a quick tour of our yurt-in-a-tube. It's very similar to RV living, most things run on twelve volt DC.
Right away Chirk tunnel came up, and we had our first confusion over who was doing what. There's only width for one boat in the tunnel, and a boat emerging told us that the boat we see way at the end is just moored there.
Nope, it was in fact a boat coming the other way. We had gone more than half way through, so they backed up.
Right after the tunnel is Chirk aqueduct, which is the border between England and Wales.
When the neighboring train bridge was built next to the aqueduct there was a lot of worry that it would detract from the beauty of the aqueduct, but in fact they look great together.
Once in England we started looking for a place to park for the night. First we went by a pub that seemed a little noisy, then under a highway, and finally a quiet spot. We tied up and heated up that pork pie for dinner.
