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Published: July 26th 2017
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With the summer season upon us things are starting to get busy for some! Woolly says – It’s business as usual for me I don’t know why the females are moaning so much about their aching feet mine are fine! In an effort to prize them from the settee I suggested a trip to Technaquest situated in the university grounds…who knew that Wrexham had a uni! Having driven through most of the campus following the large purple signs we parked and set out to investigate all things science. Woolly says – Five zones to cover and lots of interactive things to do and I was in my element. Watching bubbles rise, balls spin and locks that couldn’t be opened magically come apart was wonderful. As each small exhibit explained what to do in both Welsh and English I was having a ball, by the fourth zone one of the curators had joined us and was delighted to hear all about my travels, although I found it tricky to tell him everything having made the minor mistake of climbing onto a revolving disc that proved rather tricky to get off again. I span round and round until I could feel my fur start to turn green and having called for help and been ignored, my new friend proved helpful in stopping the machine so I could alight.
The curator seemed delighted with his conversation with the mammoth although it was difficult to know who talked the most as both of their mouths seemed to be moving at the same time as they tried to out do each other on places visited in the world! Woolly says – having passed over my business card and ensured the lovely man of a response to any messages I trotted through the dark room that featured prisms and colour matching activities and towards the front door. The gloomy clouds had departed and with the efforts it had taken to get the women out in the first place I decided to make the most of the situation by suggesting a walk along the aqueduct in Trevor. The Pontcysyllte is a navigable aqueduct that carries the Llangollen Canal across the River Dee in north east Wales. The 18-arched stone and cast iron structure, which took ten years to design and build, was completed in 1805. It is now the oldest and longest navigable aqueduct in Great Britain and the highest in the world. The aqueduct was to be a key part of the central section of the proposed Ellesmere Canal, an industrial waterway that would create a commercial link between the River Severn at Shrewsbury and the Port of Liverpool on the River Mersey. However, only parts of the canal route were completed because the expected revenues required to complete the entire project were never generated. Built by Thomas Telford I was most impressed as we pulled onto the car park to see so many barges waiting to go across.
It’s been a few years since we’ve been near one of the canal networks in the UK and the aqueduct in particular bought back happy memories of boating holidays with my family and crossing the narrow waterway as a teen. Woolly says – It seems that Jo has been pretty much everywhere in Wales at some point in her life! I waved happily at the bargees as I trotted towards the start of the huge structure. It barely seemed possible to get a large barge on there and with the footpath only a couple of paw lengths wide I kept firmly to the railings in fear of either falling into the cut itself of sailing over the side and into the ravine below. With so many people walking along each passing meant squeezing even closer to the rails and hoping that I wouldn’t slip through. The view from the middle was wonderful and the 128 feet drop didn’t faze me much.
If it wasn’t fazing him much why was he clinging onto my leg, I wondered! Woolly says – As two more barges passed us by with a toot I hopped happily onto the canal bank and considered following the girls down the steep incline to view the structure from the bottom, my contemplation and the thought of having to climb back up again made the decision easy and as another barge hove into view I decided to hitch a ride back over once more. The sheer scale from the bottom was incredible and very much reinforced how narrow the whole set up was with several tonnes of water directly above our heads we set off to find the mammoth.
Woolly says – Having thanked the family for my ride and left them to their onward journey I was delighted to bump into another of the colourful Wrexham sheep and was just settling down to chat to him when the females found me. Reluctant to leave and with the sun shining brightly I suggested a quick snack from the onsite barge that was selling rather scrumptious cakes, I sat happily on a bench licking cream from my paws I wondered if Jo had ever considered living on the cut and spending her days floating from one adventure to another….. oh look there’s a boat for sale!
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