We left the hustle and bustle of Platt Lane, with it’s farmer, cow and burned down pub, and continued along the Llangollen Canal towards, well Llagollen actually. The weather remained sunny so no waterproof clothes just yet.

Passing the junction for the short Prees Branch and passed from England into Wales and then back into England again, all without reversing. Then passing through a wooded area next to several meres around Ellesmere. Apparently these were formed during the end of the ice age when the glaciers retreated and the water filled depressions in the ground. At certain points the towpath runs alongside both the canal and the mere. We did get a little confused when we saw a sign saying No Fishing, No Shooting, No Boating. I’m assuming it meant the lake and not the canal! I do think it should also have said No Bombing, No Heavy Petting but you can’t have everything in life.

We stopped for a short while in Ellesmere to stock up on food and wine. The town has a fantastic deli/bakers with all manner of tasty looking treats for sale. We left with cakes for the kids which seemed to disappear as soon as we left the shop.

As we left Ellesmere we had to play ‘avoid the narrowboat’ at the junction as there were a fair few moving, some of them not in the right direction. Actually I’m fairly sure one of them is still there trying to decide which was to go.

We soon passed the junction for the forever-being-restored Montogomery Canal (must go down there one day) and continued on towards Chirk. There are good moorings after bridge 21 and we stopped here for the night. Our plan was to have some food at the Bridge Inn pub but when we got there they told us they don’t serve food on Tuesday. I’m certainly not in London anymore! We decided to walk back to the previous bridge and have dinner in the Poachers Pocket pub. It was standard pub grub, cheap and the service was good. After eating we walked back to the boat in the dark and without the torch and had no problems apart from the obligatory stepping in dog crap. Ah shi….