Five things you must do...
1. Buy home-made pies from the
Boathouse in Ellesmere.
2. Pay a visit to Books at Maxine's
Cafe in Llangollen, where you'll find
.more than 100,000 titles in stock.
3. Tie up on a quiet bit of canal and
enjoy the peace and quiet.
4. Walk through the nature reserve in
Ellesmere, stopping to admire the
view from its highest point.
5. Say hello to everyone who passes
-the canal's a friendly place.
AH, AT last I know how Cleopatra felt, swarming around in that barge of hers. Sure, mine was made of a baser metal than gold. The draperies were, frankly, an orange-coloured man-made fibre rather than caparisons of royal purple silk. But as for my boating companion, well, in that I came up trumps, because I never rated Marc Anthony, but I am genuinely fond of my husband.
The reason for all this historical allusion is our recent holiday on board a narrowboat, a long, skinny motor-powered vessel in which one putters at a sedate two miles per hour (four at full throttle) down the well-maintained canals and waterways of Great Britain.
In our case, it meant a meandering trip along the Llangollen canal that began and ended in north Wales, weaving across the fluid border into the westernmost reaches of Shropshire. And glorious it was, despite my initial fears that confining said husband and myself on a small vessel in a tight channel of water was a sure-fire recipe for disaster. In the event, it proved anything but.
Pandora was our boat and I quailed when I saw her name. Wasn't she the one who unleashed all manner of misfortune upon the world? But once I remembered that knocking around in the bottom of her box was a little thing called hope, I perked right up, adopting it as my motto.
It's not that I fear water. I can swim and I was in the presence of an ex-member of Her Majesty's Royal Navy. But I knew that even the "easy" route brought us face to face with locks and manually operated lift bridges, and that if I wasn't ashore doing the business, I'd be on deck steering our way through them. I burned off a lot of adrenalin those first two days, and my hand grew rigid on the tiller. (It's important to remember that steering a barge is like reverse driving: push the tiller in the opposite direction from the way you want the front of the boat to go.)
Pandora was immaculate. Everything right down to the dishes in the kitchen looked like new. The marina crew gave us an orientation and our orders for the week, consisting of a short list of daily chores: replenish the water supply, grease the gland (something engine-related), empty the bilge pump and lower the refrigerator's temperature each night.
Luckily testosterone proved stronger than adrenalin, and my delightful husband came over all manly, taking up 99% of the steering duties and evincing truly Job-like patience whenever I minced about working the machinery. But after my first nerve-jangling attempt at the locks, when a wonderfully experienced older woman took over and showed me what to do, I found it wasn't beyond even my limited mechanical capabilities. And once I grew accustomed to the blind bends and tunnels, my only real fright was crossing the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, which was terrifically high up, with a sheer drop off one side. |
How to get a boat
For a brochure or to find out about other Black Prince destinations, contact The Wharf, Hanbury Rd, Stoke Prior, Bromsgrove, Worcs(01527575115, www.black-prince.com).
Prices depend on the time of year and size of the boat, For example, renting a Duchess 4 (4-5 berth; 60ft) for one week in April costs about £760. March, April and October are the least expensive months and, since the boats are fully heated, it's a great time for a cruise. Black Prince will soon be operating out of Falkirk as well, offering routes along the Union Canal between Glasgow and Edinburgh.
At the best of times, the canals are not particularly wide so you're as one with your fellow sailors - not to mention passers-by, since anyone walking the towpath can easily keep up their end of a conversation without breaking into a trot. In stark contrast to city life, everyone we encountered that week was outgoing, friendly and quick to smile. So readily did we adapt that for the first 24 hours back on dry land we grinned like idiots, offering cheery hellos to people on the streets, which caused some raised eyebrows.
Although I'm famously ill at ease amid nature, life from a duck's eye view proved really delicious. Ducklings and swans shared the waterways and the cleverest among them adopted us for short stretches. What bird could resist following a madwoman scattering bits of stale Welsh cake?
Every morning and evening songbirds gave us a glorious symphonic performance rich in harmony, melody and a few jazzy solos. Cows came to the water's edge to drink and look us over, and horses commandeered their fields with quiet dignity. The countryside was a profusion of rolling green hills. Sometimes, while hubby steered, I stood on the bow in near silence. The sound of water gently slurping past the prow of a slow-moving vessel is what I want to hear for all eternity.
If you're worried what to pack, don't be. It's very informal and you're best bringing lots of layers (mornings are cold), comfortable, utilitarian gear and sunscreen. You can also bring bicycles and pets. Some nights we moored near a settlement or pub and went ashore for dinner. Other nights we stopped where it was prettiest and let the boat rock us to sleep.
Everyone's trip is different, but for those travelling the Llangollen canal, I heartily recommend the lovely village of Ellesmere, containing the beautiful Shropshire Wildlife Trust Nature Preserve for walking, and the astonishing Boathouse for eating - it may look like a tea shop for little old ladies, but the food is stupendous and unusual.
Would I do it again? Definitely. Apart from meditation, I can't think of a better way to pull the plug and truly unwind. |
