You could feel the anticipation in the air. At last the day had arrived when we were to reach our destination. The Pontcysyllte Aquaduct!
You could hardly see it, but just before we crossed the border into Wales, a full rainbow appeared. I reckon that was a lucky omen!
I was particularly excited about crossing the ‘border’ into Wales. After all, my name before Partland was JONES. (As an aside, as I was growing up, it was amazing how many people asked me how to spell Jones! Isn’t it simple? I could never understand that!)
It was a day of aqueducts, but it was also a day of tunnels and excitement!
As a sneak preview into what we were to see and cross today, through the trees, we could see the Chirk train viaduct.
Jaw dropping.
If Pontcysyllte was the opera, then the Chirk Aqueduct was the prelude!
Immediately after the Chirk Aqueduct, we plunged into the first of the Chirk Tunnels. What an adventure!
We were the third barge to go through in a bit of a convoy, and all was going well until about halfway. We came to a halt.
Suffice to say, the female on the middle boat went completely hysterical and was yelling, shouting and pretty much freaking us all out. With three barges stopped in a tunnel in the dark, with engines chugging, the carbon monoxide started to build! Her hysteria wasn’t helping!
John and Jen had the wherewithal to jump over the barrier onto the tow path and walk ahead to see what was happening to that first boat.
For some inexplicable reason, it had stopped, so the Partland rescue crew had to TOW it out by hand! Yep, they had to modern day ‘leggit’! What heroes!
The Whitehouse shorter tunnel was successfully negotiated without any hysteria.
Then the Holy Grail appeared.
John and Grahame took turns driving across, Jen walked alongside on the footpath, and I braved sitting in the cocktail lounge up front, all to get the best variety of pics we could.
Of course, with the proper perspective, it would have looked like this!
For a four year build-up, it was a pretty exciting and lump in the throat 3 minute crossing! This was a bucket list moment for me!
We continued up the Llangollen until we could find a spot (winding hole) to turn around.
Then we did it all over again, this time with some canoeing paddling friends!
Weekend mayhem!
One of them, Henry, hung onto our fender and accompanied us for about 5kms, chatting to the boys at the back the whole time. What a hoot!
Dinner destination at the Bridge Inn proved to be a good choice. It had a pretty impressive outlook!
Inside was just as good.
Now, normally I wouldn’t care about Rugby. But I was swept up in the moment. It must have been that 1/8 part of Welshness in me.
When we arrived at the pub, the Welsh were leading Argentina 17-12 at the 64th minute. The mood in the pub was optimistic, and after 84 minutes, rather happy! However, shortly after, Argentina scored and converted to pull ahead 19- 17. With 15 minutes left, Wales missed a corner opportunity to score. Argentina finished the job with a penalty and another converted try to win the game convincingly 29-17. (Thanks, Grahame, for talking me through that).
The pub emptied pretty quickly, which was good for us because we got a table for dinner!
A special thanks to the waitress India, who took a lovely pic of Jen and I outside.
So, the Holy Grail had been conquered!
It was all and everything we had hoped it would be.
Kanga And Wombats Adventures 