Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Boating continued.

Wednesday, it rained all day, but it wasn't windy and with good waterproofs who cared? I was about to do my first ever tunnel and OMG what a tunnel it was!!! The guy at the Marina had warned us that it sagged in the middle and sag it did, to the point that I steered the boat on my knees with my other friend squatted down beside me and the ladies at the front shouting LEFT! NO! NO! RIGHT!!! It was really funny, but only after we emerged from it. At one point I thought we had stopped, but you could see the opening either end and it was only 375 yards long. We emerged into the rain unscathed, with painful knees and big sighs of relief.

We cruised through 5 locks at Llangynidr one in a boat hire base, he had all his boats moored up and one was moored on the lock mooring which meant I had to hold the boat outside the lock and then got stuck in the silt!! The marina owner was very nice about it but I was so worried about bashing his boats I was a bit rude to him for mooring his boats at the lock!! He did make it up to me though, by jumping on and poling the boat off of a massive tree we had got wedged against.

We found a lovely mooring spot in Llangynidr amongst the trees. While we were cruising down a frog had jumped from the lock gate into our boat and was sitting quietly hidden in the hose reel, my niece took this picture. Finally I have found my prince!!


We took a look around the villiage. Sadly the villiage shop was almost empty, she was hanging on by the skin of her teeth but admitted she had a cash flow problem so couldn't stock the shop up fully. With the new boating season starting I hope she manages ok.

For our evening meal we went to the Coach and Horses,it would seem that Bollocky Bill had been there before us. As we ordered our dinner the rather distinguished looking landlord came to our table and began to recant this tale!

(Imagine strong Welsh accent with very good story telling skills)

'The tom tom drums were going. There is a boat full of women stuck in the mud! The cry went out!! Send out a rescue party!! 200 volunteers went in search of the women but they couldn't be found for they were here eating dinner'
We all laughed, surely a boat full of women isn't that unusual? The food was great though and so were the locals. He even lent us a torch to go back to the boat with as our boat didn't have one.

3 comments:

Akelamalu said...

It sounds so much fun, even if a little precarious! I've always fancied going on the Norfolk broads for a week but MWM won't do a small boat being a non swimmer - he prefers cruise liners. LOL

Unknown said...

Akelamalu
Go on a canal,apart from locks, if MWM falls in he will probably only go in up to his waist, plus the boat companies do provide life jackets. The broads are tidal in some places and a bit deeper than canals, I love it and have dreamt every night since I have been home that I am on a boat!!!

Akelamalu said...

Thanks for the advice Carol, I'll need my best persuasive techniques (wink).