Olympic Torch at Pontcysyllte Aqueduct & Trevor Basin

The Olympic Torch, and the entourage swept into Trevor basin just after 9am this morning.  There were thousands of people waving and cheering, though there was more cheering than waving, as everyone's hands were occupied taking photos!  Got this cracking shot with the new camera, as one flame passed to another onboard Saturn, but I'll let the photos tell the story (some better than others), without apologies of the number of pics I took!

It was a bit hazy this morning, but here's Saturn on the Aqueduct

Saturn's bow just visible on the Aqueduct, above the heads of the masses

The Information Centre, with hundreds of school kids, and Fron Choir belting out the Welsh Classics

Something's happening - police arrive first

Followed by numerous yellow busses

Then this lot...

This is Joanne Gregory, the second torch bearer in Trevor Basin, on her way to take her place on Saturn ready for the hand over from Libby Anderson.

Here it is! 

There it goes....

Past Dock House ....

Past the Information Centre ...

and onto the aqueduct...

Torch bearer change over, Libby Anderson to Joanne Gregory (on Saturn)

Olympic Torch now on Saturn, just as well they removed the cloths - what a headline that would be.... Historic narrowboat destroyed by Olympic flame!

Saturn in Trevor Basin

There goes the torch, back over the swingbridge and into a waiting van to be whisked off to Oswestry, the next stop.

and with a shout, the mad scramble to get away began

the back end of the last bus

View from BR29 with the crowds dispersing

All over - Saturn has left the building!

Olympic Torch is here tomorrow!

The Olympic Torch will be in Trevor Basin tomorrow morning at 9.00am, before moving onto the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and to the Shroppie Fly Boat Saturn, which will be positioned quarter of the way accross and then hand pulled back to Trevor Basin, carrying the torch.  It will then be loaded in a van and transported onwards to Oswestry.  Bit of a disappointment really, I was under the illusion that the torch was "run" all the way round, I know, thinking about it, it is unrealistic, but it's not even crossing the Aqueduct fully, just a quick run onto it, have a load of photos taken, then back to Trevor Basin.  Dave went over this evening, and took some photos of the bunting on the Aqueduct, from one side to the other, but instead of sending them to the computer, he pressed the delete button instead. Ah well, never mind, I'll just post this one of an advance party who visited this weekend...

The yellow plastic canoe says "Team GB" with the olympic logo, and the yellow thing sticking up at the front of the canoe, is a plastic olympic torch!  Unfortunately, the torch coming around this area is a once in a lifetime event, the effort that has gone into preparing the whole area is phenomenal.  There has been an army of Wrexham Council bods cutting grass all the way from Wrexham to Trevor, plants planted, scruffy paintwork painted, new signs erected all around Trevor Basin.  It's a lovely place to be.  Tidy, as they say round these parts. 

So it's an early start for me tomorrow morning, to get to the other side of the Aqueduct before they close the canal and towpath at 8am.  All boat traffic will also stop till around 9.30am, which will mean complete chaos once boats do start moving, as Wednesday morning is one of the busiest times of the week.  Glad I'm not working for BW trying to sort that lot out!  Oh - and we've bought a new camera (at last), so hopefully the pics here will be of a better quality than from my mobile phone!
Unfortunately, as I write this, there are a few Welsh flags floating down the canal - part of the bunting which had been put up accross the Aqueduct.  I do hope it will still be there in the morning, and some little oik hasn't torn down the whole lot....

It's been too hot to blog!

We've been making the most of this wonderful weather, and as such, I haven't wanted to sit inside this hot house, I'm sure the computer would have melted!  So there's a few random photos taken over the last couple of weeks....
I should have posted this one at the time .... NB Hadar came this way a couple of weeks ago.  It was lovely to finally meet Jo & Kieth and have a good chat. 

A couple more boaty pics..

The (ex) Rev Reed's hotel boats Oak and Ash came past (aka the two planks), surprisingly slowly, and I didn't hear him shout at anyone.

The Shropshire Union Fly Boat Saturn has been in Llangollen for few days. It was towed by Tony Lewry's boat The Greenman to Trevor Basin, then horse drawn up to Llangollen by one of the Llangollen Wharf horses, for an educational visit.  It will then be brought back to Trevor Basin, ready to accommodate the Olympic Torch on it's journey accross the aqueduct (more of that in my next blog).

You do see some strange objects on the roof of boats, but I haven't seen this before ...

A tuba?  and here is said large brass instrument in action, at the side of Llangollen Station, in an impromptu shindig.  These Dutch guys had hired a Black Prince boat from Chirk for the week, and were having a lovely time thank you very much.

On to more random pics......

In the workshop in Chirk Marina, a robin has made himself at home, and is very tame.  The lads feed it, and it will eat out of your hand.  He's not put off at all by the noise of the power tools.

Nemo cat is not impressed by this heat and prefers to stay on the bed at the back....

If he does come out in the daylight, he stays very close.

We've got a new Morrison's shop in Wrexham, so I thought i'd investigate.  I've never seen such a variety of vegetables, some I've never heard of before, & some I'd only ever seen on Masterchef, so I had to try them out.  Unfortunately I had no idea what to do with them - thank goodness for t'internet!

Here we have yellow corgette, globe artichoke, salsify, king oyster mushroom, golden enoki mushrooms and purple potatoes.  We'd already eaten the samfire.

So ends this random blog.  I will try and make the next one a bit more coherent!

Craning in boats at the Limekilns

There have been a couple of boats on the hard standing here at the Limekilns, whilst repairs have been carried out to them.  Both boats were craned back into the water the other day.....

Once they'd practiced on the small(ish) boat - it was time to move on to the big beast.....

This is the 1935 GUCC small woolwich "Bootes", belonging to Steve Furniss, of Llangollen Wharf.  Unfortunately, en route to their new mooring up in Llangollen wharf, they found that Bootes was to wide to go through Hurleston Locks, so they put it on the back of a lorry, transported it up here by road, and commenced pulling in the sides to make it narrower.  Hope that it's worked!

Safely in the water, after two moves by the crane,

and an evening cruise up the Llangollen to their new mooring.