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Canal holidays Click on the pictures to see the videos This page has been a long time coming, and since the original 'Chill Out on the Canal' video on the front page was made, we have been on a second narrowboat holiday. |
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The first afternoon we simply cruised to the next village, Shardlow, with the intention of travelling the whole of the next day.
Days 4,5 and 6 we cruised back to Sawley, the canal seeming quite different from the reverse perspective, and did a tour of the Coors Brewery at Burton on Trent.
In 2007 we had a second holiday, this time with our son, and managed to book the very popular Llangollen Canal out of Blackwater Meadow Marina near Ellesmere in Shropshire. This trip to Llangollen includes the two famous aqueducts, Chirk and Pontcysyllte. As my camcorder broke down on the Chirk aqueduct, I had to resort to the movies made by my husbands still camera, but first had to buy a larger memory SD card, so the remainder of the journey to Llangollen is still pictures only, and does not include Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. For that you must wait until our return journey.
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Our first narrowboat holiday was in 2004. We picked up the narrowboat at Sawley Marina, near Nottingham, and after transfering all our supplies into the boat, were given a lesson in how to look after it, and deal with the locks.
By day 3 we had filled up with water, coped with rainy weather, and reached the turning point at Fradley Junction, where we learnt that a 55 foot boat is no easy craft to turn.
On day 7 we took the boat east towards Nottingham, this was more river than canal, and the banks were more informal and full of wildlife.
We spent a day in Llangollen, bought the SD card, walked up the canal beyond the town, and travelled on the steam railway. I also remember buying some very tasty local lamb chops for dinner. We then returned the way we had come, this time getting the essential film of the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, truly an amazing experience. When standing on the boat, if you look out away from the towpath side, you cannot see the side of the water trough at all, it is as if you are floating in mid air. |
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