Narrow boat adventure in the UK
Armed with bags of provisions and a couple of bikes, we picked up our boat and started to head southwards very slowly gaining confidence as we went. We are both fairly familiar with boats – both motor and sailing – but it did take a few days before we were proficient with navigating this very long boat round some very sharp bends and through narrow bridges!
Day 3 saw us go through the seven locks at Napton which was a physical challenge for me as they are heavy to manoeuvre – and as we moored up that night, we realised that unless we upped the pace, we weren’t going to reach Banbury. After a quick discussion – we decided that the route was less important than the journey and we focussed instead on including the elements we wanted to do.
Looking at the map, we both wanted to do the Braunceston Tunnel because at 2042 yards long, 14ft wide and with a quirky S bend in the middle somewhere, it was certainly going to be a bit different. Boats wider than 7ft have to ring for permission but we were just under. So we headed back and took the detour along the Grand Union Canal to Braunceston. As we entered the tunnel, we could see a speck of light in the distance which we initially took to be the other end – but in fact it was the head light of another boat coming towards us, followed by another two behind it. Even at ‘tick over’ speed, it is impossible not to bump other boats and the sides of the tunnel – quite an experience – and it took us about 25 minutes to get through.
We had done several series of locks on this journey – some of my favourite ones were those at Hillmorton which were extremely pretty and I have attached some photos of them. One thing that struck us both was the friendliness and comradeship of the other boat folk: as we went through the locks, we found ourselves helping the boat in front of us, and in turn being helped ourselves by the boat behind. We were also surprised by the number of house boats we saw. Some of the locks were manned – some weren’t – but we were helped with advice from several people which was lovely. The trickiest ones were the double ones – they definitely needed some experience with the throttle to maintain position.
With a couple of days to go, we decided to head back up the South Oxfordshire Canal past our depot, and then through Rugby to experience some urban cruising. Once through the city, we enjoyed some really pretty scenery for the last night or two before heading back to Clifton upon Dunsmore to return our lovely boat.
So what was the verdict?
• There was virtually no mobile phone signal, TV reception or Wi-Fi for the whole week which would be a problem to some – the lack of TV wasn’t a problem to us but the Wi-Fi access could have been better. We even bought a gadget which should have improved it, but it didn’t! • It was fairly cosy even at 67ft, and we did see some families of 8 in similar length boats – so pack only the essentials as storage is minimal. • It is an expensive holiday for 2: great value for 8 though! • If you are over 6ft, then you are unlikely to have a good nights’ sleep if you can fit in the bed at all! • The friendliness of all the people we met was fantastic • The scenery was lovely pretty much everywhere we went and you could moor up wherever you liked which was a great freedom
Would we do it again? YES definitely