Solace Day 7. Chirk Tunnel.

Having moored overnight in Llangollen quite an unusual action for us, we are usually as far from houses and roads as we can get, we turned to head down the canal again.  The "single track" sections were passed without a problem, my walking ahead with a radio helped.

Soon after crossing the Pontcysyllte aqueduct we arrived at the Chirk Aqueduct.  Nowhere near as impressive as the Pontcysyllte being only 70 feet (21m) high and 710 feet (220m) long.  The fact it is overshadowed by a higher Viaduct carrying the railway doesn't help.

The next feature of note is the Chirk Tunnel.  It is only a medium size tunnel 460 yds (421 m) long.  Unusually it has a towpath running through, often boats had to be "legged" through tunnels while the horse was lead over the hill.  Legging required the men to lie on planks or the roof boards and walk the boat through the tunnel by putting their feet against the walls and pushing.

The blip shows Solace just emerging from the tunnel and shows how popular the area is for Gongoozlers.  A Gongoozler is the name the old canal men used to use for idle spectators.