We arrived at the first lock with six boats ahead of us. This time Linda didn’t go ahead and operate the locks for everyone in front of us. Shelly got bored and decided to test herself by walking down the outside of the boat without hands.
For the first several days of this trip we had walkie talkies to communicate between the front of the boat and the back of the boat or between the skipper and the person running ahead on the towpath. We had even come up with our handle names to use while on the walkie talkies. Linda was Mountain Woman, Shelly was Skipper, Sara was Salty Dog, Kara was Cap’n Crunch, Tom was Admiral and I was Prime Minister. It was fun to come up with the names but we didn’t really use them. Several days into our journey, one of the walkie talkies fell into the canal. A set of hand signals were created after that loss. Today, Shelly came up with a new way of communicating from the back to the front. She just walks across the roof.
After an hour of entertaining ourselves we were finally next in line. Linda trained me on operating the locks.
You have to accomplish several steps in just the right order.
Successfully through the first lock we headed for the second lock to do it all over again. This time we only had three boats ahead of us. While we were waiting a woman, who lives alongside the lock, came over and asked if we wanted ice cream. Some of us opted for ice cream and while she went back to her house to collect our orders we gathered the requisite 6 pounds. Then we headed through lock two without incident.
When we were headed the other direction on the canal Shelly noticed a pub she suggested we stop at on the return trip. It had outdoor seating right on the canal. We found it. It is called the Poacher. We moored the boat and headed offer for an early dinner.
The restaurant was understaffed today and so they were not providing food on their patio. No problem. We ate inside. It is Sunday and so, of course, Sunday roasts were the featured items on the menu. We decided to follow the adage….while you are in Rome…. It was delicious. We have had such good food on this trip. We expected it to be seven days of fried pub food. We are grateful to have been wrong.
We got back on the canal with Sara, our official duck spotter/Doctor Doolittle, making sure that we would not hit any mallards along the way. Within minutes we arrived at the Chirk Aqueduct. Luckily, we missed all the craziness we experienced the first time we crossed. There was only one other boat heading across in front of us….another all women crew and I think they had already broken out the wine.
Sara and Shelly took turns hopping out of the boat and taken photos/videos.
We followed the all-women crew in front of us into Wales and into the Chirk Tunnel.
This time there was no light at the end of the tunnel. It was an incredibly slow journey through a very dark tunnel. Linda got a bit spooked by it and so we started singing, “It’s a Small World.” The women in front of us, who we could not see at all, responded with “Day-O”. Together we sang “The Gambler”. It didn’t make the trip go by quickly but it made us laugh the whole way.
Finally out onto the other side we moored fairly quickly. The location for the night feels a bit like a rain forest.
We did some of the things we need to do before we turn the boat back into tomorrow at 9 a.m. We straightened up the boat, packed, showered, finished up the food in the fridge, etc. Then we sat down for some final games together.
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