Canal Boating #travel #England

One thing to do in the UK is canal boating. There are several companies that will hire you a narrow boat, give you the fairly minimal training you need to get started, and let you go. We hired one from the Anglo-Welsh hire company and picked it up near Dundas Aqueduct. It wasn’t hard to arrange this from the US.

The boats are compact, but fully functional and pleasant to live in.

This shows our first mooring, snugged against the bank.

You spend a fair bit of time in the country.

Locks can be interesting.

Slightly scary the first time.

But by the time you’ve done Caen Hill, you’ll be a pro.

Most of the time it’s straightforward. We did run into some difficulty with strong winds one afternoon. (The engines on the narrowboats aren’t exactly powerful and the wind can push the bow around).

It is a fun family trip, though you should be prepared to walk, especially if the locks aren’t far apart.

I didn’t take many pictures of the towns we passed through (Chippenham, Devizes) mostly because they look like typical English cities. I was also somewhat busy with the mechanics of locks and shopping at the time. The small towns were more interesting.

Author: rharrisonauthor

International man of mystery. Well not really, although I can mangle several languages and even read the occasional hieroglyphic. A computer scientist, an author and one of the very few people who has both an NIH grant and had a book contract. An ex- booktrope author and a photographer. View all posts by rharrisonauthor