Llangollen fathers day paddle very pic heavy

[firebreather]

I have been meaning to write this all week but shifts at work and other commitments have claimed my time until now.

We arranged to meet up and paddle the Llangollen canal last Sunday. The motley crue for the trip would be Lin, Helen, Tom, Stuart (from London way), Regbella (another stuart) and myself. We met up at the motor museum on the outskirts of Llangollen at 11 am. The day was bathed in glorious sunshine, the canal was flowing past bubbling away crystal clear. At the put in point we bumped what looked like a school trip out for a paddle on the canal. It was good to see kids getting out on the water having fun raft building with their old towns.
After sorting out the car shuttles we put in and set off down the canal.

Stunningly beautiful
Then we hit the first of the snarl ups as a canal barge ran aground on a corner. We waited for a while as they floated back and forth across the canal until we got bored and paddle past very quickly.

One of the many lift bridges along the way.

After a while Stu (regbella =RB) wanted to have a play with his new motor and see how many canoes it would pull. So we all roped up and set off.

This caused much amusement to other people on the canal as we chugged past. The motor was quite happy pulling along 4 canoes with 5 people. Granted we would never win any speed contests but being sat at the back of the line munching sweeties was a nice change.
After this we all had a swop around in the boats and we passed this monstrosity in battleship grey. It was made all the worse by the stunning countryside it was sat in.

A few miles down the canal we came across the basin and pulled over for a brew where we saw another kids group out for a paddle complete with pirate flags and a bird puppet. They comprised of a couple of open boats and several kayaks for the kids.

Stu (RB) and Helen don’t believe in roughing it along the way so they got a silver platter for their brew.

After we all had been fed and watered we all got back into the canoes and got paddling again. This was the start of many a long wait at tunnels and aquaducts while we waited for barges to pass by.


This is the best picky we got of Stu (London) all day as he must be in some special force or something as the camera seemed incapable of catching him looking at it all day . Even now he was sitting in the background hiding.

After a long wait and about 6 barges coming across the aquaduct we manage to get a clear spot and went for it.

Looking down onto the river Dee.

The obligatory shot forward

and now back

Yet another wait


In one of the tunnels ( sorry cant remember which)

By all accounts this is a rare event to see Stu (RB) and Helen in a boat together.

It got all a bit whacky races for a while

Tom decided to change his paddling position mid river for some reason….


This was taken just before the major disaster of the day. When Tom dropped his camera into the water while paddling thru the tunnel……gutted and I believe his vocabulary showed everybody in Wales this.
As was already out of the tunnel we just heard
Bang…….splash……..lots of screaming.
At first we thought tom had fallen in…….or was sinking…….then we realised that he was still shouting so could not be going under……so it must be the worlds biggest rat jumping into his boat. At this point he paddled out into view followed by Stu (London) and apologised for his colourful use of the English language . Poor Stu (London) was still trying to regain his hearing. Of course we all offered our condolences …….welllllll in between poking fun .
Over the other viaduct.

We paddled the rest of the way with nothing eventful happening. As we sorted out the boats onto the trailer for the shuttle back to the start, Helen decided she would hide so she didn’t have to do any work…….got her card marked lol


Other than Tom dropping his camera and waiting for what seemed to be hours, it was a great paddle. One thing we would do different would be to go midweek if possible…..or at least avoid fathers day.

Cheers for reading Greg.

[Singeblister]

Looks great Greg sorry i couldnt make it , looks like it might be on the cards for the future though have you seen the thread on bcuk about the meet in llangollen >?

[KeithD]

Good Blogg - shame about the camera.

Looks like a whole tribe on tour.

[TGB]

Nice day out on calm waters.

TGB

[marker]

Nice blog. The viaduct looked interesting.

Richard.

[CanalVoyaguer]

Hi There, nice Blogg and pics to match, seems as though you had a good time, even having to wait for the narrow boaters, the viaduct over the river Dee is on my must do one day, and very soon I hope.Happy paddlingBill

[mentalnurse]

looks a great trip out sorry i had other plans and couldent make it.

[packman]

a brilliantly captured canal blogg on waters that seem to be saying .....paddle me. the viaducts and tunnels look like adding even more fun w

[MagiKelly]

I do like the look of the viaducts. I must make the effort to paddle one of the ones up here sometime.

[firebreather]

Cheers for the comments guys. i just love paddling around and having fun. The days out would not be half as much fun without everybody getting stuck in and plenty of mickey taking all the time.
So a HUGE THANK YOU TO EVERYBODY .

it did turn into an apache owners club meet by accident but nevermind Other boats are welcome

Greg

[tom]

Was a great day, even with the camera disaster, would definetly recommend this trip! Viaducts were amazing!

....i do feel i should apologise to everyone (including the locals) for my language when i lost my camera, my main concern was what my mother was going to say/do/throw at me when i told her as it was her camera!....

...i had a nice nap on the way home too!!... hehehe

[pennpeel]

Whats the procedure regarding tunnels, i see you had lights on, i would like to go that way but their will only be two of us in one boat, i have visins of getting half way through only to find a canal boat bearing down on us, that hasn't seen us or heard us they are long tunnels, is it a good torch or lantern? Also how long soes it take to canoe it?

Nigel