Our friends Ruth & Barry arrived as arranged at 10:30 am having left Oxfordshire at some unearthly hour and after attempting to revive them with tea and coffee Barry left to deposit their car in Llangollen and by the time we had reached Fron lift-bridge he had got a taxi back and was waiting for us.
It’s just a short trip from there the the Ponty.. Pont-thingummy.. Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, (apparently "Pont-cuss-ulth-teh" is a fair approximation) and we were crossing the River Dee’s valley in a 210 year old cast iron trough 126 feet up in the air supported on brick pillars.
Despite it having no guard rail on the non towpath side Joy didn’t find it as scary as she anticipated and was taking photos all the way across.
There’s a tight left turn at the end of the aqueduct but then it’s just a couple of hours to get to Llangollen however there are some narrow, one-way sections which require a crew member to walk ahead to check there are no boats approaching. The scenery is stunning as the canal snakes along the hillside. We had a lunch stop halfway and arrived at Llangollen Wharf where we purchased a mooring ticket for 2 nights and proceeded to Llangollen Basin and made ourselves at home on one of the pontoon moorings on which you have your own water and electricity supply included in the price of £6 per night (maximum 2 nights).
We could see the Eisteddfod ground from here and things were gearing up for the big event next week.
After another restorative cuppa we made our way down to the town centre and after having a wander round we had our evening meal at what seemed to be a Welsh/Italian restaurant over looking the River Dee, or we would have overlooked it if only we had had a window seat!
The food was quite good and there was certainly plenty of it.
After we had finished our meal we said our goodbyes and we started the steep climb back to the canal basin while our friends walked back to their car.