223A: Slow TV (not a vlog)
It’s not a vlog this week but instead one of my occasional “slow TV” real-time recordings from the bow camera, with super stereo audio from the microphone also on the bow. This is my trip from above Gailey down to Autherley with only one tiny edit where I had to change the camcorder battery.
Start point: https://goo.gl/maps/V3DTnC9sxhzdqs1cA
End point: https://goo.gl/maps/Q2MUqq7qsD5Ht3L87
Hi David. Jim (technically James) here from the US. I’ve become a narrowboat VLOG junkie over the past couple of years; so much so that I’ve been window shopping boats listed for sale in the UK, researching visa requirements for Americans wanting to spend half a year annually in the UK and half back home, council tax requirements for marina-based, above boards liveaboard situations, builders and the build process, used boat options and most importantly (from my perspective) how the maps of the UKs incredible network or cross-country rights of way frequented by rovers overlays with the canal and other inland waterway network. There’s pretty decent overlap/intersection, making it possible to cruise from roving right of way point to right of way point. My thought is to marina a boat as a UK residence as well as my main non-public UK transportation device, cruise to walking start points, moor up along the canal for 4-5 days and do loop walks, beginning and ending at the boat, was, rinse, repeat, working my way all around the UK and experiencing a good bit of it it from the waterway and pedestrian perspectives.
I’m a historian by education, solicitor (attorney) by profession, and a rolling stone/nomad by avocation. In 2014 I walked across much of Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire on sabbatical (inn to inn) from Cheltenham Spa to London, stopping at many Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Roman, Saxon, Norman, Medieval, and academic sites along the way. It turned out to be the greatest, most restorative holiday of my life (I’m 56 now), unmatched by treks through the Peten to explore minimally excavated Maya sites, canyon hikes among Ancestral Pueblo ruins of the US desert southwest, or meandering afoot through ancient Hellenic sites in Greece, Sicily and Asia Minor. It didn’t hurt that my walk took me through “Tolkien Country” – nerd alert.
Cruising the Cut is one of my favorite narrow-boating channels (It flip flops between #1 and #2, depending on mood – not bad as I’m subscribed to 18 topical channels). And your Slow TV episodes are second to none for aspiring narrowboater relaxation. However I was wondering whether you had considered shooting a Canal Time/Slow TV episode from the helmsman’s vantage rather than from the bow? Solo cruisers will experience cruising from the stern rather than the bow.
At any rate, one thousand thanks for your efforts and being one of my primary Virgils through the underworld of the last couple of years. I hope one day to cross paths afloat.
Best,
Jim
Hi James. Glad you enjoy the videos. The slow TV episodes are a bit of a bonus video really, rather than an intentionally-produced video; in other words, I run the bow camera so as to give me footage for the vlog videos, and then just upload what it saw as a by-product. To do the same from the stern would mean running yet another camera non-stop and dealing with the footage on top of what I already do, so it’s not something I’m like to take up.
I really enjoy these slow realtime videos. Keep them coming !
Jim
Thank you!