Chirk to Llangollen, 8.5 miles. 23/07/21

Attendees; M.Sadler, P.Bridges, H.Jones, R.Jones, D.McDonnell, K.Maguire, N.Graham.

Our outward journey went to plan and we commenced the walk from Chirk at approx 10:50. The weather was initially surprising cloudy and cool considering the heatwave we were in the middle of. We walked along the Llangollen canal which took us through the unlit 174 Mt long Whitehouse Tunnel and later over the 37 Mt high Pontcysyllte aqueduct crossing high above the River Dee. We made the first of 2 scheduled stops on the other side at Trevor Basin for about 40 mins. This was about 3.5 miles into the walk. The sun had broken through by now and it was starting to warm up nicely. We continued along the canal for a short distance and then onto the disused Ruabon to Barmouth railway path for a bit further before starting to climb out of the valley. The remainder of the walk to the outskirts of Llangollen was a mixture of undulating lanes, fields, and woodland which proved FAR more exciting terrain than following the flat canal the rest of the way. I had actually pruned back a fair amount of wayward foliage on a previous reccy, but had to leave some for 'that countryside experience' which I think everyone appreciated. As anticipated it became very warm, especially with the moderate climbing and so we made a second stop for about 20 mins in a shaded, breezy spot over looking the valley. A little later after saying hello to a friendly Corgi we had one more short climb before descending via a quiet lane into Llangollen where we enjoyed various activities including paddling in the River Dee, taking refreshments and chatting to the friendly folk on the bus back to Ruabon. Mark Sadler