Not a canal barge trip with me braving the chilly autumn elements of the British weather.

Alas, since I met my husband Peter over five years ago, he'd constantly pestered me to take a narrowboat holiday.

Having tried to sweeten me with tales of enjoyable, mostly drunken, exploits with his university pals I had declined on more than one occasion.

But worn down by time, I finally gave in and we both climbed aboard Lily, a 58 ft long narrowboat, with Black Prince Holidays at Chirk Marina, just a three hour drive from Birmingham.

The four berth boat, our home for the next three days, was clean and tidy. .

The living area consisted of two chairs, a foot stool, TV and radio, and while the kitchen was small it was ample for a few days away boasting a hob, oven and plenty of crockery and utensils supplied for our use. .

The only down side was the beds p roved a little uncomfortable but there was plenty of wardrobe space. .

And while there was limited storage space for food, I soon realised that eating on the boat all the time is not really the name of the game. .

I discovered that the art of this type of holiday is navigating yourself, safely of course, from one pub to the next to sample its fare and of course, the local brew. .

Despite heavy rainfall and cloudy skies, with just three days at our disposal we were determined to see as much as we possibly could. .

Now we had already learnt from a friend's mistake that it's no good just going off under your own steam assuming you just go forwards or backwards, without a map. .

If you miss a turning point, it could be miles before the next one and you could end up racing back to base stressed rather than relaxed. .

Oh and one of the most essential facilities of all - the pubs! .

But don't be deceived, while your destination might not look too far away on the map, at just 4mph --as a guide you shouldn't create a wake - it takes you a good few hours to get there.

Our only road to follow was the Llangollen Canal.

We started off turning right out of Chirk Marina towards the Vale of Llangollen.

While it poured down to begin with, as the sun began to glisten through the trees that flanked our route, things started to look up, and soon there were blue skies with the beautiful backdrop of lush, green hills.

As Peter had driven a boat before, and I really didn't want to be bothered with having to get to grips with driving, I let him play captain while I played shipmate and just soaked up the view and relaxed.

But later on, after gaining a little confidence, I agreed to briefly took over the controls on a straight stretch, with Peter giving me instruction.

I soon discovered that it's not as easy as it looks.

Maybe it's a girl thing, but I found it quite hard at first to get to grips with turning the handle left if I wanted to turn right and vice versa.

There were a few arguments with the canalside before I mastered this.

Learning how to go backwards is a good move as this slows you down.

But really the basics to remember are always stay on the left, and if you are passing moored boats then slow down -you'II appreciate why if someone ignores this while you're stationary supping a cup of tea. If there's a tunnel up ahead, send the shipmate ahead to check no-one is coming through, if there is pull over, else continue through but make sure you put your lights on so people approaching the other side can see you coming.

But as a failsafe to technical questions, there's a Boater's Handbook on the boat with basic boat handling tips and safety advice.

By the time we reached the Pontcysyllte aqueduct near Trevor, I had begun to relax into the trip.

This aqueduct is a spectacular sight to behold.

It's the most astonishing feat of canal engineering in the world, carrying the canal 120ft high across the waters of the River Dee. It's 1,000ft long so if you don't have a head, or a stomach, for heights then stay inside the boat.

You'll feel that at any moment the boat will fall off the edge, but, of course, that's impossible. Even for a girlie girl like me, who knows nothing about engineering, it was a fascinating experience.

There's also a spectacular railway bridge, which can be seen for miles, which runs alongside it.

Both Plas-yn-Pentre and the Vale of Llangollen boast some beautiful scenery - but watch out for low hanging trees. As we reached Llangollen we turned around and started to head back to base.

But we still had time to see more - and carried on left past the Marina up to Ellesmere. Just past Chirk Marina there's another aqueduct. It's not as spectacular as the other but still fun to go over.

A little further along and you reach the border to England and you can enjoy a pint in the Bridge Inn "the last pub in England" - this seemed an amusing photo opportunity for a group of young lads.

As we headed back home, I had to confess to Peter that I had enjoyed the trip more than I'd expected to - much to his delight. I was completely relaxed and refreshed.

It's a different experience altogether but certainfy an eventful and interesting one - that's also bound to bring some laughs along the way, or so we found!