It’s another cold morning- 12 degrees, and definitely autumnal. We haven’t brought enough layers by far and really should have brought a rug for drivers knees and a longer sleeved coat. It seemed silly at the time to pack it but I wish I had as it’s a long cold day outside when the sun doesn’t shine.
At 10am We topped up our water and headed back towards Chirk. George took the first hour of driving as everyone is feeling confident enough to handle the boat now and we don’t want anyone being too cold. I made eggy bread for breakfast and we topped it with honey and consumed lashings of tea with it.
11am came and Hanny took the next shift. So far Hanny has done some steering but none of the engine control so has asked for additional lessons. So for the next 2 hours I will be outside for training and then my turn! I’m certainly warmer for having breakfast but also we had the heating on and I’m wearing my long sleeved pyjama top today as well.
We lunched on the boat whilst George took her second turn and just before we reached the locks.
It was quieter going back up and we only had 1 boat in front of us at most. Those coming the other way had a queue of 8, so that was going to be a long wait for them at the back!
We were motoring more quickly it felt today and reached Chirk around 3pm where we had tea and relaxed a while before dinner which we booked at the Bridge Inn at 7. It had good reviews and we were looking forward to another hot meal. We walked down the hill and were greeted with a view of the 2 viaducts across the fields. Magnificent. We headed in and a quietness fell! The pub was a very old fashioned pub and we clearly the outsiders. The menu was very limited but also very cheap. A main costing £5-£6 instead of over £15 which is what we seem used to these days. We also grabbed a little bit of wifi since our mooring has no signal and after dinner went back to the boat for wine and chocolate with a film.
Temperatures- 18-9
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2025-02-11