Prees Branch, Whixall to Sparks Bridge, No. 35 - Llangollen Canal

Sunday 14^th and Monday 15^th July

Sunday -. We are meeting out friends this morning for breakfast at Whixall marina at 10am, they are always early and usually get there before us so we left in plenty of time to get there and guess what they still beat us to it!! It was lovely to see Sheila, Tony, Jane and Malcolm again, especially nice to see Malcolm as he is usually working but not the morning.  We had a lovely breakfast in the cafe, it’s a really nice place and we had a good catch-up and lots of laughs as always.  We then said our goodbyes but not for long as we will be meeting up again soon and we walked back to the boat,. We then watched the Grand Prix and just chilled out.

Going through the lift bridge

The Prees Branch

Monday – We are moving on this morning a few miles.  The sun was shining and it was very warm as we set off along the canal.

Whixall Marina

Back up to the main canal

We went through a lift bridge and into the marina to turn around.  We stopped there to get diesel and water, it is a really nice marina and very friendly and the diesel was 80p a litre so quite cheap. We then chugged back up the Prees Branch through the two lift bridges and back onto the main Llangollen canal.  It was busy with boats coming in both directions.

Chaos at the lift bridge!

here he comes

There was a lift bridge just along the canal, one boat opened it and when his boat came through, he hop on and left it open with no one working it, so a chap on a boat two in front of us jumped off as they went through to close it after we had all gone through, so that was good for me as I didn’t have to work this one.

another lift bridge

Coming to a bridge

We chugged on but had to stop for a while as we were doing the washing while we were going along and I could hear water running inside the boat when it emptied as well as going outside.  Kev had a look and the joint in the waste pipe had come apart because the skin fitting had rusted away, disaster as although we were able to finish the washing by putting the pipe out through the hole into the canal, we can’t tip water down the sink and have to remember to empty out the window, I wonder which one of us will forget first!!

We then chugged on a bit further and moored up by Sparks Bridge, No. 35. 

We are staying here tonight then moving onto Whitchurch in the morning.