Today’s walk was long – 14½ miles but fortunately was flat as for the most part it was along the side of the Montgomery Canal. A strange name as the canal did not go to Mongomery nor was it ever intended to do so. It ran from the Llangollen canal to Newtown but was abandoned before WW2.
It has a strong volunteer group who hope to restore it but at the moment the first 5 miles from Newtown is mostly a ditch which is great for newts, frogs and birds but not navigable. Further along there are nice, well tended locks full of water and with seemingly good lock gates but then between them and Welshpool there are bits of the canal which have been built over. I presume when a bridge collapsed in the 50’s and 60’s they just filled in the canal and ran the road straight over. So it will be a long time before these nice locks see a boat.
After about 9 miles I arrived in Berriew, famous for the Andrew Logan Museum of Sculpture which is amazing, you might not like Andrews work but you won’t forget it. Supposedly it is the only museum in Europe dedicated to a living artist. It opens for the summer from next week but did not need to call in (I have been before and we always used to recommend it to our Porch House guests) as I had lunch in the Lion Hotel which Andrew bought a few years ago. From the outside it looks like a normal, timber framed village pub but inside are plenty of his artworks and the décor is flamboyant to say the least.
It is the first time on this walk I have arrived at a pub at lunchtime and it seemed too good an opportunity to miss, lets hope it won’t be the last.
The walk, being flat, was fairly easy but unfortunately for the most part the canal runs alongside the A483 which is a busy trunk road and the traffic noise was quite intrusive although the swan in the picture does not seem to mind, the nest is 10ft from the road, you would think that at night the headlights would put them off.
Closer to Welshpool the noise went up again as I approached Welshpool International Airport. You won’t be flying from there with Easyjet anytime soon but it seemed that every amateur pilot was making use of the fine weather to log some hours.
Five miles further on I arrived in Welshpool which has some nice Georgian houses and a local museum (the Powysland – sounds like a cheap amusement arcade) which is really good.
It belongs to Powysland Club an historical society which was formed in 1867 and is housed above the library next to the canal basin. It is well laid out and has a number of interesting items including a hoard of Roman Coins and some good neolithic objects. It is open six days a week but today, being Sunday, it was closed. Fortunately Gill and I payed a visit a little while ago.
On the bed of my room there was a small bottle, "thats nice, I thought, a small bottle of gin". No such luck it is Lavender & Camomile calming spray which supposedly will help me sleep. I find a 14 mile walk followed by a couple of pints of beer is all I need. There are no instructions with it, do I inhale it, rub it on my chest or what?