Although our mooring permit allowed us to stay at Llangollen Basin until 5 pm we did a couple of loads of washing, to make use of our unaccustomed mains electricity hook up, and departed just before 2 pm so we would hopefully find it easy enough to find a mooring. The weather wasn’t great, but mostly just a fine drizzle and we made it through the first one way section without any delay, but at the second, shorter section there must have been about six boats coming the other way. Today was the first time we had encountered this level of traffic (which people had warned us about) maybe it was just the time of the week when all the hire boats reach Llangollen.
We had thought we might just do a couple of hours and moor at Trevor, just before the aqueduct, but on investigating there were no moorings free most of the arm being taken up by The Anglo Welsh hire base’s activities. There was only one free mooring which had a small card tied to a mooring ring saying Llangollen Canal Trust but not specifying if that was reserved for, provided by or whatever, on enquiring at the hire base I was rudely told by one of their employees ‘It’s the disabled boat’s mooring, you can see the sign if you look’.
Needless to say we didn’t stay there to visit the town or the C&RT Visitor Centre which has no provision for waterborne visitors either, but crossed the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct where the views were very different this time, the hills being shrouded in mist, then through the Whitehouse and Chirk Tunnels and back to England across the other side of The Chirk Aqueduct to find the one remaining slot at Chirk Bank just before 5 pm.