The Narrow Boat Inn

The day dawns bright and clear. 

I decide to take advantage of the good weather to paint the chimney I'd prepared yesterday and touch up the paintwork on the boat’s top rails

While I'm doing this I hear Emrys’s cheery voice bidding me good morning. We had arranged for him to call in for breakfast, but this still manages to catch us by surprise. Luckily a friend of Em passes at the exact right moment and they have a long chat, enabling Vera to get herself out of bed and presentable to the world 

Vera and Emrys chat in the spring sunshine 

Vera makes her signature scrambled eggs for breakfast, also eaten outside in the front of the boat

When my maintenance jobs for the day are done, it is time to bid farewell to Emrys, untie our mooring ropes, and continue our journey 

All goes very smoothly at first. Many ducklings have hatched over the past couple of days, we will see quite a few today. The moorhen chicks are not on show today, however 

Just in case you think the whole voyage consists of a constant procession of rural scenes and pretty towns, here is a bit of heavy industry to balance things out 

We pass through the first short tunnel without problem. It's so much easier going with the flow of the water than against it. There is a queue at the longer second tunnel, and we have to wait behind this boat to allow a boat coming the other way to come through. We are following Chris and Dave, who we will encounter more of later 

After the Chirk Tunnel comes the Chirk Aqueduct, another narrow section where we have to wait for two boats travelling in the opposite direction. And this is the low season, things will get much busier in the summer 

We cross the aqueduct, and shortly after moor up for lunch. Dave and Chris, who had graciously let us go first overtake us here

We stop an hour or so for lunch, managing to finish Saturday’s crossword. Then it's onwards to the two locks of the day 

We pass an assortment of interesting gardens and creatures

We catch up with Dave and Chris at the first lock. It is Chris's first time on the canal, and the first time for Dave for over 40 years. They are not entirely sure what they are doing, but are managing to muddle through

But it is a problem lock. The top gate won't shut properly. After much pushing, shoving, and me jumping up and down on the end of the gate arm, we more or less get it nearly closed. But water cascades through the side of the gate, which is not supposed to happen. They clear the lock, and stay to make sure we can get through. Strangely, the gate closes properly for us and after that it's plain sailing 

Two miles further on we reach our target destination for the day, the Narrow Boat Inn. We pull in at their private mooring, I do my engine and weed-hatch checks and it's in for some beer

We knew from our earlier visit that the pub wasn't doing food tonight but luckily Philippa had left us with a jar of her home made wild garlic pesto, and now was its moment. And very good it was too, just add pasta

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