So good to be back on the bikes again! Even just an overnight trip brings with it the buzz and excitement of being self-sufficient and back 'on the road' again, exploring new places under our own stream. This time, we took the bikes to Chirk, where the weather was looking far more clement than in the mountains. Having left the van in a safeish looking layby, our route started by taking us along the canal towpath through deep piles of autumnal leaves.
All was calm and tranquil as we powered our way along the delightfully flat path in the late afternoon sunshine.
Before long, we passed by Chirk marina, which looked like a nice place to stop, but we reluctantly decided that it was too soon into the journey to warrant it.
Then came the 174m long tunnel. We wobbled along in the dark to start with but had to dismount to let some walkers pass us by halfway through. It felt a lot safer pushing anyway.
The engineering marvels continued, with a crossing of the Froncysyllte Aquaduct. Thankfully there was a barrier on our side to prevent a fall to certain death, which is more than could be said for those sitting on the edge of the barges.
We also encountered another barrier, in the form of a very informative, friendly and persuasive member of the canal trust who did his very best to encourage us to part with some cash before reaching the other side. We were almost hyperthermic from the cold wind by the time we were eventually let through the 'unofficial toll booth'. (but we did carry on with some good canal knowledge and a photo of Thomas Telford's house).
We peddled on past Trevor with a renewed pace. The photos look bright and sunny, but it was only about 6 degrees and with a bitter wind chill. (i.e not the kind of weather to be stood for long on a windy aqueduct in a pair of cycling shorts!). Our destination was Llangollen, but we decided to extend the journey by continuing to the Chain Bridge, which marks the start of the canal, where the water is taken from the River Dee.
As luck would have it, there is also a hotel and bar there, which looked particularly warm and inviting. We locked up the bikes and went in to warm up over a half Guinness.
By the time we emerged from the cozy bar, it was dark and raining quite hard! We got togged up, turned our lights on and rode the fifteen minutes or so back to Llangollen, arriving completely soaked at the door of our B&B. We got a warm welcome and were soon shown up to a very nice room. As we had no camping kit with us, we had plenty of room for fresh clothes, so were soon changed, warmed up and ready to explore Llangollen in search of fine hot foods...
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