Oh, my -- how to summarize an incredible week on the Narrowboats with great friends -- this won't be easy. I have about a zillion pictures to choose from!
The six of us -- Rick and Gayle, old friends from Maine; Kate and Sally, old friends from Connecticut and Bob and I -- arrived by cab at Napton Narrowboats in Autherley Junction, Wolverhampton on Monday morning. Three of us left our luggage there and took the cab to a grocery store to shop for groceries for a week for 6 people. There was nothing on the boat but toilet paper and there wasn't enough of that. While we were shopping, the others unpacked our bags and stored them at the marina. Once we were back and the food was stowed, we had lessons in how to run the boat, all the boat systems, and how to operate the locks.
We got under way about 2:30 PM and quickly established our pattern for the week - Bob and Rick rode in the stern and took turns steering the boat and the women mostly rode on the bow, looking out for other boats and hazards and operating the locks. There were close to 60 locks on our route. We were on the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal ( locally called the "Staff and Worcs"). This is said to be one of the prettiest canals in England. On the way down, we were lowering the boat in the locks and on the way back we were raising it up. Operating the locks involves raising and lowering "the boards" using a lock wrench on a crank device -- some very steep locks took two of us to crank. This allowed the water to flow to equalize the height of the water on both sides of the gate. Then we pushed open the large wooden gates to allow the boat to pass in or out of the lock. We often used our butts to push the gates, which allowed us to use leg power.
We called ourselves "The Lockettes" and took this picture on the last day of the trip...
In between the locks, the scenery was breathtakingly beautiful. The trees were reflected in the still water, there were beautiful homes and gardens all along the way and we passed through lots of small towns with beautiful old English buildings and churches. There were birds everywhere and we heard lots of beautiful bird songs that we had never heard before.
The weather was pretty much as we expected in England. It was cool and rained at least a little bit almost every day but the vast majority of our trip there was no rain and we had some cloudy days and some sunny ones. Certainly I could say that the weather did not interfere with our fun!
The girls really enjoyed operating the locks but Bob and Rick (mostly Bob, as Rick fell and partially dislocated his shoulder early in the trip) had a difficult time steering our very long (64 foot) boat through tight turns, through very narrow bridges and past oncoming boats in stretches you would swear were too narrow for two boats to pass. The boat has a flat bottom and is only 6 1/2 feet wide and takes a VERY long time to turn. Before every lock, he would have to drop off some of the women on shore to go ahead and prepare the lock and then get the boat straightened out again so he could approach the lock at the right angle. Bob says if he had it to do over, he would get a slightly shorter boat.
There was a tree down and the canal was completely obstructed the day before we got there. Luckily, when we arrived, they had cleared a narrow path that one boat could just fit through.
Entering a lock:
You may be wondering how six people lived for a week on one long but very narrow boat. The layout is pictured here:
We spent most of our day in either the bow or stern cockpit areas, both of which had bench seats, although the person steering in the stern had to stand the whole time in order to be able to see down the canal. Down below, there was a large salon area that could seat all six of us, with two connecting tables that could be taken down and stowed away along with two folding chairs and an L-shaped settee. The small galley with a mini-refrigerator, sink, stovetop and oven, was just behind the salon. We ate all of our breakfasts and most of our lunches on the boat and Rick cooked one dinner (pasta puttanesca) aboard but the rest of the nights we ate in pubs. Working and cleaning up in the galley was done in shifts as only one person could really fit in there at a time. Behind the galley, there was a long corridor that ran down the port side of the boat and to starboard were three double berths separated by two bathrooms, one of which had a shower.
You may be wondering how we filled our days, besides looking at beautiful scenery and operating locks. We also stopped frequently in the small towns alongside the locks to put on water, do a little grocery shopping, do some laundry or, most importantly, visit the local pubs. It was really easy to pull off along the shore and tie the boat up. Every town we stopped in had at least one pub and some had several. We tried to stop by 4 PM every day so we could rest a while and then head up to town for a drink and a meal. The food we had was great and everywhere we went people were friendly and interested in talking to us and finding out more about what we were doing.
This is our boat (in the front) as seen from a bridge we were crossing to go into town.
Sally making friends with the locals at one of our favorite pubs; This pub was dog-friendly.
That friendliness extended to other narrowboaters we met, many of whom owned and lived aboard their boats. Without exception, they were friendly and very helpful, giving us lots of advice and tips on how to make our trip better. We did a lot of chatting with other boaters at the locks as there would often be boats waiting to use the lock after us.
Overall, this was an incredible trip and one we would recommend to anyone. It was the most fun way to see the English countryside, meet wonderful small town people and spend time with good friends that I can imagine. We loved every minute of it.
No comments:
Post a Comment