Being woken by a mammoth trying to stick his trunk up your nose isn’t the best way to start the day.
Woolly says – It was a necessary requirement to actually wake her up, why do humans spend soooo much time asleep?! And it was vitally important that we get into the car immediately for an unexpected turn of events. My bestie, Sion the Sheep was nearby and after so many long long months of not having seen each other we had years’ worth of travels and human misdemeanours to discuss. I sat by the front door tapping my paw and trying to contain my excitement as Jo insisted on waking up, messaging Sion to say yes, we could make the unexpected meeting, getting showered and eating breakfast before we could get into the car and actually get to our meeting point. It was a long couple of hours before I could convince her to set off.
Our destination was one that we had been to previously when the women were working in Wrexham (link below) but although already visited I was eager to see if anything had changed at Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. The aqueduct carries the Llangollen Canal across the River Dee in the Vale of Llangollen in north east Wales. With its 18-arched stone and cast-iron structure being completed in 1805 having taken ten years to design and build, it was still a working structure for narrowboats passing through. It is the longest aqueduct in Great Britain and the highest canal aqueduct in the world and from what I can remember the view from it was wonderful.
With the rain lashing against the windscreen and the wipers going at full speed I just hoped the rain would cease for long enough to have a walk around and find my friend. Pulling up in the car park I leapt out of the vehicle and started shouting for Sion, Jo gave me one of the stares and told me that as we were early he wouldn’t have arrived just yet and that we were going to take Alfie the Dog for a look around before meeting Sion and his carers, Jen and Glenn.
With the grey skies and rainfall if was difficult to get any good pictures, we braved the strong winds and attempted to cross the aqueduct keeping an eye on the long drop to my left and the nasty water of the canal to my right. By half way across I started to fear for my life as a huge gust took my paws from underneath me and it was only Jo’s quick grabbing of my scarf that stopped me landing in the cut. Even the dog looked less than impressed with the high winds.
I trotted back to the safety of the basin and took my time admiring the carvings on display, still Sion hadn’t arrived.
With the aim of distracting him and the hope that he would stop asking where Sion was, we headed down the steps to have a look at the underside of the immense piece of architecture.
Woolly says – The gusts of wind followed us and rather than being able to stare upwards and admire Thomas Telford’s great work it seemed far safer to head to the nearby pub and take shelter there.
Within minutes of settling ourselves down my bestie was there and a huge catch up started.
The time passed so quickly as mammoth and sheep compared notes and discussed life and the lack of travel currently, whilst Jen, Glenn and I caught up on our own news and stories of lockdown and plans for the future. After a hearty lunch which neither of the boys seemed inclined to eat in fear of losing precious time to tell their tales we wandered back towards the aqueduct for a couple of snaps to remind the boys of their short time together.
Woolly says – As Sion was led kicking and screaming towards his vehicle I sat in our car feeling that time had let me down and that a couple of hours had really been a mere few minutes and that we never had enough time to fully discuss everything we needed to, hopefully it won’t be quite so long until our next meeting.