Set out with much anticipation, the climatic conditions were, shall we say indeed testing, at least for Kim driving. The drive to the English / North Wales boarder region in heavy rain saw us arrive in good time around 1.00 pm. First stop was in the country side in fact very close to our narrow boat departure point. John had researched his family history and turns out his family lived in a stone cottage in Welsh Frankton and then came out to Australia - we arrive at the top farm house only to find that it is in the middle of a renovation with the original stone walls being rendered and surrounded by scaffolding. A disappointment in some respects but at least now able to say now been and viewed the family home in the mother country.

Now onto the marina to pick up our 55 foot narrow boat . Load up, think I saw Deb put in the kitchen sink! After the standard what to do and more importantly what not to do we set out on our 4 day adventure on the Llangollen Canel from England crossing into North Wales. Well if this isn't an amazing thing to do that I don't know what is. Kim has taken on a mentoring role as he has past experience as a narrow boat skipper.

One needs to concentrate when it is your turn to be the "tiller" as it does not take much at all to run the narrow boat into the sides, add in boats coming in the opposite direction, bends, narrow bridges to get through plus we started out in not the greatest of weather. We encountered our two locks after only a few hours, Kim did the first one and I did the second. Something that is well worth the tense moments plus I had an audience of onlookers. Cruised for the rest of the afternoon stopping off at a few pubs on the way. Arrived at the Poachers Pocket ale house around 7.00 pm and tied up for the night. We were wanting a older style venue with plenty of character so were a little disappointed to find a new style full of people. Anyway a few drinks and some games of cards played before we set Back to the boat for dinner that Deb had cooked and brought with us. Bed reasonably early, let me tell you the beds are very very compact in size. Looking forward to our full day of boating tomorrow.