Travel facts • Christina travelled with Countrywide Cruisers, part of the award-winning Drifters consortium of holiday boat companies. • Prices for short breaks range from £70 per person. For more information, go to www.drifters.co.uk or call
08457 626252. • You can also visit the waterways museums. Visit www.thewaterwaystrust.org.uk to find out more. Find great ideas for enjoying the waterways on www.waterscape.com. | Christina Ongley has a narrow escape on midland canals AS AN Australian, I had always been fascinated by the sight of narrowboats sliding down canals and rivers. To me there was always something idiosyncraticaily British about them - grand yet awkward - and the idea of cruising slowly along a quiet stretch of water held a lot of appeal for me. So my boyfriend Craig and I decided to take the plunge, so to speak, and take one of the vessels out for a long weekend from Brewood, on the Shropshire Union Canal in the Midlands. Neither of us had been narrowboating before but we'd both done a bit of sailing, figuring that would stand us in reasonably good stead. However, our first reaction on turning up to Countrywide Cruisers and seeing our boat, the very elaborately named Sir Galleron, was: "Hmm, that's a very long boat". The thought of all 58ft of her moving in sometimes very tight spaces, had me spooked, so, the wimp that I am, I decided early on that Craig should do most of the steering and I should be the lock operator. We passed through our first lock - more logical and less scary than I had imagined - in the small town of Wheaton Aston, where we decided to pull up for the night once we noted the steely, bulbous sky. We had a hearty meal at the Hartley Arms pub - one of the many dotted along the canal network - admired a domino league trophy standing next to our table, and spent the rest of the evening watching a bit of TV on the boat before going to bed. Sounds cushy? It is. Inside Sir Galleron is a double and single bedroom, a small but comfortable bathroom, a well-equipped kitchen and - believe it or riot - a lounge with four chairs, TV/video and CD player. From the following day, we spent up to seven or eight hours a day on the move. Despite that sounding like a drag, what struck us both was the sheer chillout of the canal experience. Travelling at no faster than 4mph, you can't help but engage with nature and notice the little things that make the journey worthwhile - the sound of rushing water down the side of a bridge, a mother duck and her ducklings waddling by the towpath, the pleasant dampness of the forest, a bird skimming along the top of a mirror-still canal. There is not one iota of stress to be had ... Unless you run aground and get stuck, that is. Unfortunately, it was me at the helm when another boat passed us a little too quickly at a point where the edges were shallow, and their wake was enough to jam us firmly. For half an hour we tried everything we could, but when you're two people against a 16-tonne boat, trust me, you don't have a lot of weight to throw around. Eventually, two boats came past, and one kind man and another lovely couple were good enough to stop and help us. After almost two hours, several unsuccessful tries, rope bums and nearly a second boat aground, it took the muscle of two boats to eventually pull our stricken Sir Galleron from the bank. We thrust a bottle of thankyou wine on the couple's boat as they chugged away, and later tried to buy a beer for the man, whose name we discovered was John, when we met him again at a tavern downriver. He declined, simply telling us to help other boaters if they needed it. For me, that was symbolic of the whole trip. Narrowboating isn't just a hobby, it's a fraternity. People wave and smile to strangers in passing, offer help, advice, and admire each other's boats. Once you take to the water, you become part of a small, friendly community. As we pulled back in to drop off the boat - having cut short our trip thanks to my little grounding effort - I realised the difference between spending several hours a day in a car and on a narrowboat. When you're driving a car, it's all about reaching a destination. On the canals, what's important is the journey. |
