Lots of folk ask me about hiring a narrowboat for a holiday so I thought I’d make a video about it. By coincidence, friends and fellow YouTubers Greg & Lou Virgoe, and John & Mandy, had decided to book a week’s hire – their first time on a narrowboat – so I tagged along to document the hiring handover.
The canals are an oasis of calm, peace and tranquility – and now of culture too, as The Piano Boat brings concert-hall level classical concerts to the inland waterways, courtesy Masa Tayama and Rhiana Henderson. Join me as I talk to them about the project, the hurdles they’ve had to overcome and their plans.
A few weeks ago, I had the great pleasure of spending a day aboard the fuel boat and butty of “Jules Fuels” on the Grand Union canal. The day started – early! – with loading of supplies and then off we went to deliver to customers south of Milton Keynes.
A bonus video, the realtime bowcam footage of the trip from Weedon to Whilton (the bottom of the Buckby lock flight)
The penultimate Not A Vlog of the 2018 cruising, this is the trip on the narrowboat from Blisworth to Weedon via Gayton Junction on the Grand Union canal.
After several weeks, at last I embarked on the final leg of my autumn 2018 cruise along the Grand Union canal, the return stretch taking me from Blisworth, through Gayton, Weedon, Norton Junction and ultimately to Braunston.
After several days at Yardley Gobion, during which time I had the boatyard opposite look at – and hopefully fix – the diesel leak, I carried on with my return journey up the Grand Union canal, going back through Gayton, up the Stoke Bruerne locks and up through Blisworth tunnel (no signs of any ghosts this time round).
It was a great pleasure in amongst my canal cruising this autumn to welcome, all the way from Canada, the RV Geeks onto my boat. They joined me for a day to experience narrowboat cruising, even taking the tiller and steering the boat.
This is NOT a vlog. It is “Slow TV” – real time footage from the bow camera as I took the narrowboat from Grove lock through Leighton Buzzard and up to Stoke Hammond.
In anticipation of both some friends coming to join me for an afternoon, and then some special guests from overseas coming aboard a few days later, I edged just a few miles further north on this leg of my trip up the Grand Union canal, mooring my narrowboat at a point where both sets of visitors could easily find and get to me.
