Holiday Diary

Broadchurch star Matthew Gravelle was at the centre of the biggest whodunit since ‘who shot JR?’.In 2015, the versatile Welsh actor took his wife and kids on a true-life family adventure aboard an Anglo Welsh narrowboat in Wales.

For a small country, Wales is actually –well, quite big – as we’re discovering on our epic journey form our home in Cardiff to a family weekend on the Llangollen Canal in Trevor, Mid-North Wales. We’ve both travelled around Wales quite a bit for work, and recently Mali has been spending a lot of time on the west coast filming the dark cop drama Hinterland.

But this top corner of Wales remains an enigma to us, and we’re looking forward to getting to know it a bit better.

We’ve got lots of adventures planned for our break aboard Anglo Welsh’s narrowboat as well as heroic amounts of eating and drinking along the way!

We head for Llangollen, a handsome market town that’s thronging with visitors to the Fringe Festival, an offshoot of the famous International Eisteddfod. We’re heading for the Llangollen canal, built as part of the network of waterways to connect the coalfields and limestone quarries of Denbighshire to the Midlands. Its most notable feature is Thomas Telford’s Poncysyllte Aqueduct, the highest and longest in Britain, 984feet in length and soaring 126 feet above the River Dee.

We arrive at the Anglo Welsh Base at Trevor Basin and collect our boat, a traditional looking narrowboat called “Brenig”, resplendent in British Racing Green and Gold (odd since the speed limit is 4 mph!).

Anglo Welsh, Canal boating holidays, Bristol, Bath, Bunbury, Stockton, Oxford

The children scramble on and we get an hour of instruction from the nice man from Anglo Welsh on how to skipper the boat.

By the time we set off from our mooring, I know the theory; I just need to put it into practice!

Crossing the Poncysyllte Aqueduct is easy, Telford thoughtfully built it in an arrow straight line and the cast iron walls are only just wide enough to pass through, so steering isn’t an issue. Instead I can take in the exhilarating views as we float serenely in mid-air.

At the end of our first day, we moor up and feast on Llandegla trout, with broad beans and potatoes from my Dad’s garden. After supper we do old-fashioned stuff – play cards, draw pictures. As night falls, the children settle into their cabin and enjoy the best night’s sleep in ages. Its really cosy and comfortable place to sleep, like a stretched caravan except better insulated with its own solid fuel stove.

A new day dawns and this driving lark seems much easier today. It gives us the opportunity to relax and spot nooks and corners that you don’t see from any road.

See a short film by going to: https://youtu.be/ngK2w4b7R5g

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Celebrity Traveller

"As always with these guys, the staff who showed us over the boat were lovely, the boat itself was really comfy and within minutes we were off and cruising."
Stan Cullimore from 80's band "The Housemartins"

"Everything about the boat and the instruction was fantastic; and yes, women are better at driving narrowboats as well as cars!!! See you next year!"
Judith from Surrey

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