7 May 2014 Trevor Basin to Ellesmere

No blog from Betty today.

L was up early and off to investigate the Pontcysylite Aqueduct more closely - I can't tell you the number of photos of nuts, bolts and seams I looked at. 

Having taken the path down to the River Dee. At this point the top of the metal trough stands 127 feet above the river.

The 17C Bont Bridge, also known as Cysylltau Bridge just upstream of the aqueduct. A one lane bridge, at it's narrowest point it is only 6 feet (2.0m) wide and is frequently damaged by cars. Unlike the Bega Valley Shire Council re the Cuttagee Bridge their council doesn't want to pull it down and replace it with an ugly and soulless two lane concrete bridge!

People on the aqueduct high above.

 The path down to the river which L has just puffed his way up

Some of the many thousands of nuts and bolts that hold the metal tank together - many of them still the original ones from when it was built.

Looking toward the bridge through which we are moored, and the boats we have to squeeze between.

Still not finished, L walked across the aqueduct taking more pics as he went.

Zoomed in on the lovely former mill building (now a residence) upstream of the Bont Bridge.

Downstream side of the aqueduct. Photo's give no sense of the immensity of the drop.

Once L returned to the boat he roused the sleepy heads and got us underway about 8.30am.

Coming under the bridge from what had turned out to be a very peaceful mooring,

Back over the aqueduct

B being brave and sitting outside - albeit on two path side, whilst I cowered inside.

B said in her previous post the boat traffic had quietened down; which it had - relatively.

This pic which I stumbled upon on a now (2025) defunct blog shows, in bottle necks at least there were still plenty of boats on the move.

The caption read: "Aaagh! It's chaos here as we approach the Pontcysylite Aqueduct, hire boats everywhere!"

And that's us, on the left, in our hire boat and from B's reaction it's a close shave if not a bump. I do  remember B and I sitting in the bow and saying  "sorry, sorry" a lot - especially as the canals got busier  😳😳.

Back across the Chirk Aqueduct - it had taken us 2 1/2 hours to get this far!

No more pics for the rest of the day - either because it was uneventful or so stress inducing we forgot to take pics!

Whatever, all up it was 14 odd miles back to Ellesmere. We must have got in quite late but were lucky and found a mooring in the basin close to the supermarket, pub and shops.