Boating
Now then, you may know all this, but just in case you don't, here's a brief bit about narrowboats.
They're narrow. That's as in 6'10" wide. Often people call them barges - - but a barge is wider. You get more barges on wider canals - a lot of canals in England are too narrow for barges.
In the Olden Days most of the narrowboat was taken up with cargo - such as coal - and the crew - often a family - just lived in a small area of the stern.
But these days most narrowboats are pleasure craft and they have All Mod Cons. Here's the one that we've just been on, pictured yesterday morning near Skipton in the Yorkshire Dales.
Rather foreshortened in this photo, true, but idyllic-looking nevertheless.
It was 45 feet long and inside it looked like this:
It had a fridge, shower, loo, kitchen, cooker etc and claimed it could take a maximum of eight people. Which was rubbish as it was just perfect for three. Luckily there were three of us.
Because it was a hire boat the engine was slightly tired - - okay, what I really mean is "thrashed within an inch of its life" and this boat was a bit of a pig to steer. Well, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it like glue. In reverse it didn't seem to have any steerability whatsoever and in Going Forward it didn't do much better. And I used to be really rather not bad at all at steering, years ago. Damn.
Anyway, before I finish this first post about it all, I want to show you two of the things I like about holidays on the canals.
Firstly, I just love the fact that, within reason, you can moor up for the night out in the middle of the countryside (please see photo, above).
I just love the nights on the boat. I love that miles-from-anywhere feeling. I love the bats flying about, skimming over the water having taken over the insect-eating job from the day shift of swallows.
And I tend to wake up every morning at four or five, knowing that there'll be mist on the water, and I always creep out to take a photo of it.
And then, by seven or so, the mist has cleared and on a sunny morning the canal looks something like this:
As we kept saying - - Gorgeous!
Yorkshire countryside in early summer. Fantastic.
They're narrow. That's as in 6'10" wide. Often people call them barges - - but a barge is wider. You get more barges on wider canals - a lot of canals in England are too narrow for barges.
In the Olden Days most of the narrowboat was taken up with cargo - such as coal - and the crew - often a family - just lived in a small area of the stern.
But these days most narrowboats are pleasure craft and they have All Mod Cons. Here's the one that we've just been on, pictured yesterday morning near Skipton in the Yorkshire Dales.
Rather foreshortened in this photo, true, but idyllic-looking nevertheless.It was 45 feet long and inside it looked like this:
It had a fridge, shower, loo, kitchen, cooker etc and claimed it could take a maximum of eight people. Which was rubbish as it was just perfect for three. Luckily there were three of us.Because it was a hire boat the engine was slightly tired - - okay, what I really mean is "thrashed within an inch of its life" and this boat was a bit of a pig to steer. Well, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it like glue. In reverse it didn't seem to have any steerability whatsoever and in Going Forward it didn't do much better. And I used to be really rather not bad at all at steering, years ago. Damn.
Anyway, before I finish this first post about it all, I want to show you two of the things I like about holidays on the canals.
Firstly, I just love the fact that, within reason, you can moor up for the night out in the middle of the countryside (please see photo, above).
I just love the nights on the boat. I love that miles-from-anywhere feeling. I love the bats flying about, skimming over the water having taken over the insect-eating job from the day shift of swallows.
And I tend to wake up every morning at four or five, knowing that there'll be mist on the water, and I always creep out to take a photo of it.
And then, by seven or so, the mist has cleared and on a sunny morning the canal looks something like this:
As we kept saying - - Gorgeous!Yorkshire countryside in early summer. Fantastic.
posted by Daphne at 6:46 pm
4 Comments:
That just looks beautiful. Nothing else to say. Except I think I might be tinged green with jealousy.
How lovely. I've always wanted to go on a narrowboat holiday. Maybe next year...
Wow! Those two contrasting photos at the end were really lovely Daphne. I have always hesitated to narrow boat holiday because of a) the huge cost and b) the unreliability of our weather... By the way - have you passed your narrow boat driving test?
Looks fantastic! I haven't done a holiday on water yet, but would like to.
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