From our stay in Stretton we drove over the border into Wales to explore the world heritage listed, Pontcysyllte Aqueduct.
We were going to walk across the aqueduct but we were graced by bright sunshine and I didn’t feel safe walking into the sun on a narrow walking path that dropped into a cold canal. The aqueduct is the tallest navigable aqueduct in the world. It stands proudly in the forest at a height of 39 metres high, which is said to be as tall 9 double decker buses stacked on top of each other.
We decided to walk to the aqueduct viewing point where we got a great view of the aqueduct.
But we were here to cross the aqueduct, if not on foot we were going to float across it on a tranquil canal boat.
First we admired all the floating canal boats dock in the lock due to the winter weather. This was great for us as we knew our canal cruise wouldn’t be busy or like a dodgem car show ground ride as the 18 kilometre canal would be free to glide also.
Our canal cruise cost us about 15 pounds each. We thought this was great value.
Once aboard we floated along the canal sipping complementary mulled wine and snacking on fruit tarts whilst enjoying the idyllic relaxing scenery for two and a half hours.
It was so tranquil we nearly fell asleep aboard our comfy canal cruiser. Maybe it was all the mulled wine.
Just after 4pm as the sun disappeared and temperatures once again plummeted to around 4 degrees we disembarked our canal cruise in The village of Llangollen.
Llangollen is set on the River Dee. We found a great hotel to celebrate our first day discovering Wales. It was called, The Corn Mill. It was once a thriving mill. The huge water mill wheel was part of the outdoor features of the hotel. Even though the weather was brisk we couldn’t help sitting out on the deck next to the river with all its rushing rapids.
The only negative was Rob had an hours drive back home on narrow winding roads in the dark!!!
