We’ll depart Nantwich after a couple of days to prepare the boat for new guests around bridge 91… Guests may wish to walk the nature trail between 91 and 92 which celebrates the restoration of the Nantwich embankment or chug along the canal.   Having passed over the aqueduct we’re heading for Hurleston Junction where we’ll turn left – leaving the Shroppie and onto the Llangollen Canal.  First however, we’ll pass though 4 locks and we’ll notice the canal narrowing.  This stretch will be quite remote and pretty but can also be very busy.  Swanley will be our next settlement, where we’ll pass through another 2 locks and then 3 more in Baddiley.

Baddiley Hall may be of interest and perhaps warrant a brief stop.  We’ll aim to  moor  in Wrenbury for the evening -  once we’ve tackled a couple of lift bridges that is.

Next morning, we continue along remote countryside, penning through the occasional lock until we arrive at Grindleybrook – where we’ll encounter 6 locks… the first 3 being single and the last 3 being in a stair case.  Our suggested mooring for the evening is Whitchurch – with around a half mile walk into town, we may be able to visit a couple of the numerous pubs… just to be sociable of course.

Leaving whitchurch, we travel onwards as the canal becomes ever more rural and away from populated areas – passing through the occasional lift bridge.  Our journey continues on a scenic route, un interrupted by locks for quite some time before we approach several attractive meres/lakes.  We’ll aim to  pass through Ellesmere Tunnel (87 yards) – hopefully mooring in Ellesmere .

We should be able to spend a couple of nights in Ellesmere, before casting off and re-joining the countryside once more.  On route today will be Frankton Junction (Montgomery canal) and New Marton Locks and one more which will be the last lock we encounter before reaching our destination of Chirk for tonight’s mooring but not until we’ve transversed Chirk Aqueduct (with the railway bridge alongside)  and Chirk Tunnel (459 yards) .  We’ll moor in this area andl  spend a couple of nights so as to give a walking/photographic opportunity down into the Dee Valley . 

Continuing, we pass through Whitehouse Tunnel (191 yards)  and a small aqueduct in our approach to the world famous, Pontcysyllte Aqueduct (neither of us can pronounce it).  Once over the aqueduct and the stunning views over the edge of the channel we’ll turn left at the basin and carry on to Llangollen and moor for our final evening so as our guests can take a walk up to Horseshoe falls.  We expect our guests to depart after breakfast the following morning.

This trip consists of 47 miles of canal and 21 locks . There are 10 moveable bridges 4 small aqueducts or underbridges and 3 tunnels (Whitehouses Tunnel (191 yards long), Chirk Tunnel (459 yards long) and Ellesmere Tunnel (87 yards long)) – and 2 major aqueducts (Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Chirk Aqueduct).