Leaving Llangollen certainly feels like you are beginning a descent. Not only are you making your way out of the hills that surround the town, but you are moving with the flow. It all feels like you are going down hill. Even the locks are all descents from here.

One characteristic of the Llangollen canal is poor or non-existent mobile phone signal. I have previously extolled the virtues of the Three network for boaters on the canals. Even Three struggles in many locations. Tonight is an exception. But we haven’t had good signal for the last two nights. Hence, no blog posts.

In any case, we have been retracing our steps for the last 2 days, so all the landmarks are the same as they were on the way up. Only you do get a different perspective when travelling in the opposite direction.

One of the obvious differences is the people. Most people you meet on the canals are friendly, cheery, happy to chat and pass the time of day, especially at a lock. But we have to report that yesterday, we encountered officially the grumpiest and coldest boating group on a hire boat. Guys, you are supposed to be on holiday, lighten up!

Over the last two days we have again experienced the best sort of British summer weather, blue skies and fluffy white clouds. We’ve had a pretty sunset, yummy barbecue and (one of us) saw a gorgeous sunrise.

All these experiences are documented below in picture form.