Mizzle, Mabel and Magical Wales

Last year, around this same time, B-Rod and I finally made it to the UK. We had our first experience with narrow boating and LOVED it!! So, when it came time for B to request blocks of vacation time for the year, he chose this same time period with the thought of possibly coming back and doing it again.

Last year, we experienced EXCEPTIONAL weather. But this time, as the time for B’s vacation approached, the weather wasn’t looking quite as “vibrant.” Questioning if narrow boating would be the same in drizzly, mizzly, “quieter” weather, we wondered if we should make different plans.

Two days before we decided we’d head out, we reasoned that we’d just go to London for a couple days and if conditions seemed miserable we’d head to sunnier climes.

One day before we were set to go, I surprised us both by turning to B and saying “I think we both have it in our mind of being on the boat. You know we’re doing it, right?”

Decision made, last minute boat booked and off we went.

We had a couple of days before we were scheduled to pick up the boat at Stoke-on-Trent. Since we were going to arrive into London earlier in the day, we thought about making our way out of the city and towards our destination. We knew we didn’t want to stay that long in Stoke, so I looked at cities that would be on the way. An hour before we boarded the plane, Oxford jumped out at me as the place.

What did we know about Oxford? Not much! But as we flew off to the UK, that was where we would now be spending our first few nights.

Oxford

This city was soooooooo cool!!! The energy was amazing and walking among the historic buildings and on streets knowing that people had built these things centuries ago with so, so , so many people, from so, so, so many different time periods had also been walking these same streets gets me every time! I don’t have to even know the specific history and dates to feel a sense of awe in that sort of energy.

It was so easy for me to understand how many people have found inspiration from simply being in this place! And though the main thing we did was wander the streets in awe and amazement, we did also learn a few things.

Things we found fascinating about Oxford . . . .

• Oxford is often described as the ‘city of dreaming spires’
• It escaped bombing attacks during WWII because Hitler wanted to make Oxford the capital when he defeated Britain.
• It’s reported that there are more authors per square mile in Oxford than anywhere else in the world (eg. J.R.R. Tolkien – The Lord of the Rings, Lewis Carroll – Alice in Wonderland, C.S. Lewis – The Chronicles of Narnia, have associations with being inspired and writing their stories in Oxford)
• Places in Oxford served as inspiration for Hogwarts and many scenes for Harry Potter movies were filmed in the city.
• Oxford University is estimated to be about 922 years old which makes it the second oldest in the world (University of Bologna is older by about 8 years)
• Oxford University is made up of 43 colleges

Some highlights of our time in Oxford included . . .

St. Mary’s Tower

The tower of University Church of St Mary the Virgin dates back to 1280 and is the oldest part of the church. The number of people allowed up at a time was limited and we understood why when it was our turn. It was a tight squeeze up the staircase that brought you to very narrow corridors (had to be comfortable getting very close to strangers in order to pass each other) with the most amazing views over the city.

Church Service

So this isn’t necessarily a highlight, but it is a funny story (B-Rod may beg to differ 😆) Each of the different colleges seems to have their own church, and somehow I heard about 45 minute choir performances at different ones on different nights. I thought it would be interesting to listen to music in these historic locations. So, I found one happening at Merton College, one of the oldest colleges of Oxford, while we were there.

It was one of those setups where the seating was on two sides facing the centre, and we ended up seated at benches furthest from the door. To leave would require walking through the centre in front of everyone in the room. It started with singing, so I didn’t realize immediately that I had unintentionally trapped us into a church service. But after 45 minutes, and then an hour, and then an hour and 20 minutes and finally an hour and a half passed and there was not only singing but also a sermon and all the other church service things, I knew I had taken us to the wrong event!

Christ Church College

I was very interested in the Harry Potter aspect of Christ Church College (the dining hall inspired Hogwarts Hall and some scenes from the movie were filmed here), but they also had an audio tour that was very informative, so interesting and gave a sense of student life and working at this particular college.

Finished it off with a visit to a pub that dates back to 1381 and had a bitter that allowed me to continue with the Harry Potter theme.

Oxford was AMAZING and so easy to get to from the airport that we talked about it possibly being our ‘go to’ first night stay when we end up in the UK in the future.

Mabel

For various reasons, we ended up picking up our narrow boat from the same location as we did last year. B-Rod was the one who nerded out on what route we would take, but did have to change it slightly when we arrived as one of the locks we were possibly going to go through right away was closed for repair for the next couple of weeks.

Our boat from last year, Lucy, was perfect for two people at 45 ft. long. Because we had booked last minute, a smaller boat like this wasn’t available, so we were introduced to Mabel who was slightly bigger at 60 ft. long with two additional beds and a slightly different layout.

The handover was quick as the manager remembered us from last year (so didn’t have to do as many of the briefings) and we needed to get through a tunnel right away or we would have less than an hour of cruising time and be stuck at the beginning of the tunnel for the first night (this particular tunnel requires a reservation at certain times to go through and only has certain hours everyday where it can be accessed)

Our journey was action packed right away (or as action packed as a form of transport that moves at walking pace can be) with a deadline and a need to get to destination. Half an hour into the journey it started raining . . . . . maybe going through a tunnel to start wouldn’t be so bad after all!

When we arrived at the Harecastle Tunnel entrance, there was only one boat ahead of us. When we were both informed that the previously mentioned lock was now open, this boat immediately turned around to go the other way through the lock (because of the closed lock their plan had been to get to their destination in a round about way, and the opening of this lock would now essentially save them 5-7 days of cruising time)

So, now not only where we doing this tunnel (which is 2.66 km long, takes 30-45min to get through, and gets narrower and narrower at certain parts) for the first time, we’d also be doing it by ourselves!

Our first week on Mabel ended up drizzly and cold a lot of the time. I pulled out my toque and wore it often. We turned on the heaters for the first time ever and snuggled under the provided wool blankets a lot (were these even on the boat last year?!). B-Rod had to pull over a couple of times when the rain got too heavy to continue. The assumption we made that this was simply “usual” UK weather was busted when we noticed everyone talking about it, and a friend from England informed me that it was the UK’s “wettest summer on record yet.”

Despite all of this . . . . we still LOVED it (being a sun fuelled person, this still surprises me)!!!

Among many things, we especially LOVED . . . .

• being in nature, the lushness of the greenary, waking up to the sound of the birds and hearing their songs throughout the day

• the historical significance of the canals and locks (it was interesting wrapping our heads around the idea that these are older than Canada!)

• that locks were still fun

• that we refined the skills we had picked up last year, started to learn some nuances and tried different things

• the social aspect with fellow boaters and volunteers both at the locks and along the way

• finding cool pubs either along the canal or short walks into various towns, and loving/appreciating the pub culture (it seemed more like a family/friend gathering spot (ALL ages welcome) as opposed to just a place to go to simply drink (like it sometimes feels like in North America))

There was a routine and rhythm we developed, and it was kind of nice to have this consistency while still travelling and being in (slow 😆) motion. Yet there were also uncommon and unexpected occurrences that came up along the way.

Like the time an angry swan chased Mabel, biting at her rudder and we didn’t know what to do.

Turns out you don’t throw bread at it trying to get it away from the boat (only motivates it more!) and instead you stop and pull over and wait for another boat to pass by . . . . angry swan will chase that boat instead!

Or the time we showed up to our first staircase lock before volunteers were on duty. We got started, felt like things were going good until Mabel stopped moving in one of the locks. We took stock, scratched our heads a bit, but eventually worked it out and now have a better understanding of the even bigger staircases we want to tackle in the future

Or how even MORE MAGICAL narrow boating is when the sun comes out after long periods of cruising in drizzly, mizzly weather.

Or entering Wales for the first time and going over a World Heritage Site Aqueduct in the morning with no one else around!

Wales

Though we were hoping to do a circle route this time, we ended up doing an out and back one again. The end of the line would be at a town called Llangollen. We’d cross the border from England to Wales on an aqueduct, go through a smaller tunnel, then cross another longer aqueduct before arriving at the town.

We had met a couple along the way who told us to GO EARLY. They warned us that it gets busy with boats and people later in the day and that they had almost decided not to actually do the aquaducts because of the busy-ness, but were glad they did. So . . . . at 6:30am we set out.

The Chirk Aqueduct is STUNNING! It’s on the border of England and Wales, and we both commented (and noticed) how things seemed to change INSTANTLY when we crossed the ‘imaginary line’ into Wales.

Next came the tunnel.

Then the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct (a Canal World Heritage Site) and the highest navigable aqueduct in the world.

AND . . . besides seeing one person out for a run . . . . we had these sites and the waterway ALL . . . . TO . . . . OURSELVES!!!!

We kept going and moored in a spot that gave us easy access to walking into Llangollen. Because we left early, we got to the town early and got to spend the whole day here. We wandered the town, had Welsh afternoon tea, and had some great conversations and interactions with people from town or visiting from various other places in Wales.

This was also the first day that it was sunny all day which made for a great hike up to the ruins of Dinas Brân Castle with a pretty amazing view of the town and valley below.

The English countryside is beautiful, but this area in the Welsh countryside was ✨MAGICAL✨ and had an almost mystical feel to it.

AND . . . . it was Sunday, so we ended our day at a pub for our first UK Sunday roast. 😋

We both loved it there and briefly considered staying an extra night (and if we had more time, we would have), but as our half way point was approaching, we figured we should make our way back and take advantage of the little bit of extra time to go a bit slower for the journey back and to give space for anything unexpected.

We left in the early afternoon, and the way back across the aqueducts was busy (as we had been warned it would be) and we were so glad that we had gone early the day before.

As we were going across Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, one of the Canal and River Trust volunteers and Brian ended up having a chat. They talked the whole way across (if you know B-Rod, is that really surprising? 😆). . . .B-Rod here. . . to clarify . . . . I was trying to take in the views and the surreal notion of cruising a boat almost 200 ft in the air! He was yakking to me!!!

At one point, they struck a deal (that’s a story to be told in person). But the part I can share is that B’s part of the deal involved making the volunteer a cup of tea. Let’s call the volunteer ‘Colin’! Colin had to finish up some duties, but told us to park close to the side of a lift bridge. Because of miscommunication among B and I, we ended up in a spot that made it a bit awkward for other boats coming upon the bridge. So, B made tea and went off to look for Colin, while I stayed behind to lift and lower the bridge so as not to overly inconvenience oncoming narrow boaters. While B was away, it got so busy and I was cranking the bridge up and down so many times that people walking along the path started to ask me questions about my job (not in a joking way, they were genuinely interested and curious). Also, . . . . did I mention while I love locks, lift bridges are not actually my fav?!

When the rush died down, I went to check on the guys to find that giving a cup of tea had turned into a full on tea party with snacks, chats and laughs! Fortunately, I got to join in for a few minutes before Colin had to get going again.

As we got back onto Mabel and started to cruise back to England, we knew that all of these experiences from the past couple days were simply pointing to the fact that more time and a more in depth exploration of Wales WILL be happening sometime very soon!! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿❤️

After almost a week on and we were both very happy that we still had plenty of more time to spend on the canals.