Montgomery Canal 11/5/15

We arrived back on Celtic Maid in Chirk Marina, on 28th April after our trip to London for Bob’s eye surgery.After making sure we had the supplies we needed in Ellesmere we ventured down the Montgomery Canal for a bit of a rest and to get some cleaning up done on Celtic Maid.

We had been warned that the Montgomery was beautiful and had been likened to the experience on African Queen!! Well Bogie and Katherine set off and soon realised that both assessments were accurate. The canal has not been restored to the extent of others in the system but the experience is well worth the effort. The canal is narrow and overgrown frequently with no room to pass another boat. Fortunately there was little traffic and this is closely monitored as the Frankton Locks at the entrance to the canal must be booked and are only unlocked for passage between noon and 2.00pm each day!!!!

There are very few moorings available – mostly at Queen’s Head and Maesbury Marsh just before the end of the navigable section. We chose the latter and spent our few days cleaning the boat, painting the hatch doors, giving the cooker the once over and generally starting the very overdue maintenance schedule in preparation for visitors and the summer cruising season.

On the Wednesday afternoon we had a surprise visit from our friends Jim and Chris from NB Sylph who had come in their car looking for us. We met up below the Frankton Locks, which we had booked for the next day, and enjoyed an afternoon of catching up over a bottle of bubbles and a couple of ales!!!!! Such a joy to reunite with old friends!!!!

After leaving the canal we made our way back along the Llangollen to find a mooring in Trevor basin and prepare for our next guests. This entailed a bus trip to nearby Wrexham to secure our train tickets for London on Monday for another eye hospital appointment, and to do a bit of shopping.

And then a day to relax before the next adventure.