The weather was sunny, the mood was chilled, the final three-hour stretch from Market Bosworth to the navigable end of the Ashby canal at Snarestone was, without doubt, the most beautiful cruising I’ve ever done. It did indeed take me to the edge of heaven.
I haven’t been to the Crick Show for a couple of years because it’s much the same each time but this year I wanted to book some boat tours and also buy some bits for my current boat – so I moored the boat again and headed off to Northamptonshire in the camper van.
After the first May Bank Holiday weekend away from the boat, I left the marina at Hinckley and continued my journey up the Ashby canal, dodging rain showers as I went, to arrive at Market Bosworth.
A quick bonus vlog! Having popped back to my childhood home of Droitwich for my sister’s birthday and a family meal, I was also able to pop down to the canal as that weekend saw the annual St Richard’s Festival being held in which narrowboats converge on Vines Park and sell all kinds of wares from their boats on the towpath, with other sellers in marquees in the park.
A Bank Holiday weekend approached and as I was going away for a few days to visit family, I wanted to moor the boat somewhere secure rather than just leave it on the towpath. So I headed a bit further up the Ashby canal to Trinity Marina at Hinckley and paid to have it moored there.
After several pleasant days moored at Hawkesbury Junction on the North Oxford canal side, it was time to go through the stop lock and up the Coventry canal for a short way before turning right onto the Ashby canal. However, I also needed food supplies, so I first headed away…
At last! The lines have been taken up, the mooring relinquished – yes, let go entirely – and I’m off on my 2019 cruising adventures starting with a trip up the North Oxford canal to Hawkesbury Junction where it meets the Coventry canal.
It’s the longest, highest canal aqueduct and it’s in Wales; in this video I’m visiting Pontcysyllte but I’m not doing so alone – my boat’s nowhere near there so I’m hitching a ride with Kath & Anna of the Narrowboat Experience. Don’t look down!
I visit a narrowboat hire firm in Gilwern, South Wales, on the Mon & Brec canal. Amongst their fleet of conventional narrowboats they also have two fully-electric ones that don’t even have solar or a generator on board. So how have they managed this feat when it would be impractical elsewhere? Watch and find out!
In this vlog I visit the “Pamela May”, a trip boat run by the charitable Droitwich Canals Trust. We see their current boat and hear about the excellent work of the Trust but visit Ortomarine, the company building the Trust’s brand new, all-electric powered boat.