{"id":1,"date":"2013-11-14T04:41:45","date_gmt":"2013-11-14T04:41:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/narrowboatingforbeginners.com\/wordpress\/?p=1"},"modified":"2016-12-29T21:56:13","modified_gmt":"2016-12-29T21:56:13","slug":"why-a-narrowboat-trip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/narrowboatingforbeginners.com\/wordpress\/why-a-narrowboat-trip\/","title":{"rendered":"Narrowboating for Beginners"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Shadow<\/p>\n

(This is the first chapter of the book)<\/em><\/p>\n

Why a Narrowboat Trip?<\/h2>\n

I<\/span>f you\u2019re reading this book, you\u2019re probably already planning to take a narrowboat vacation, but you may have friends who ask what\u2019s the appeal of the canals. Of course the majority of your friends have no idea what a narrowboat is, about the history of the canals or the part they played in the Industrial Revolution. I\u2019ll address all that later, but first I thought I\u2019d relate what drew me (and will possibly draw you) to narrowboating.<\/p>\n

For some reason, I\u2019ve always been fascinated by the thought of rivers and boats. When I was growing up in San Antonio, Captain Gus <\/span>was the afternoon kids\u2019 show on the CBS affiliate television station KENS. More than once, I recall, the show played a serialized version of Journey to the Beginning of Time<\/span>, which depicts four boys who visit the American Museum of Natural History in New York. The boys somehow take a rowboat down a river of time and view extinct animals like woolly mammoths and dinosaurs. The movie was shown in six-minute segments and I enjoyed it immensely. I\u2019m sure it\u2019s responsible for many paleontology degrees.<\/p>\n

\"noteJourney to the Beginning of Time<\/span> was originally a 1955 Czech movie, Cesta Do Praveku<\/span><\/em>. An American company filmed new opening and closing sequences and dubbed the dialog for serialization in the US. You can find some snippets on YouTube. VHS and DVD issues of the original Czech film are available. The 1975 Three Men in a Boat<\/span> can also be found on YouTube, and it even inspired a BBC documentary by the same name.<\/p>\n

Then just as I started college, I watched a BBC television adaptation of Jerome K. Jerome\u2019s book Three Men in a Boat<\/span><\/a>, about three Victorian men who take a skiff from Kingston upon Thames (now a suburb of London) to Oxford. It\u2019s a silly movie and a rambling book, following their misadventures that include being lost in the Hampton Court maze, trying to open a can of pineapple without a tin opener and the unpopularity of a banjo poorly played.<\/p>\n

Three Men in a Boat<\/span>, Journey to the Beginning of Time<\/span>, Huck Finn<\/span> and The Heart of Darkness<\/span> somehow combined over the years into a desire to take a boat along the Thames or punt the Cam. It was further fueled by a 2001 trip to London when my husband and I walked along Regent\u2019s Canal, and the fire would be stoked again by reading The Wench is Dead, <\/span>in Colin Dexter\u2019s Inspector Morse series, wherein Morse solves the death of a woman whose body was found in the Oxford Canal in 1859.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately we weren\u2019t able to return to England until 2011 when we took our first narrowboat vacation. I was overjoyed to find that expectations matched reality but I also discovered that my childish enthusiasm has mellowed into a quiet enjoyment.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A narrowboat vacation is so unlike anything most Americans have experienced, especially for those of us from the larger states. We\u2019re accustomed to traveling cross-country, across time zones and through several states on interstate highways at 75 mph (or faster). We plan trips where we visit both the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone and Glacier national parks in a car, station wagon, van, sport utility vehicle or motor home. Distance is the goal.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s therefore hard to contemplate a trip at 2 mph where a full day of travel might only be 15 miles, and more likely 10 because you spent all day in a pub. Admittedly you might have spent several hours on a train or in a car getting to your boat hire, but once you\u2019re on the boat, you experience canal time and distance. You\u2019ll often have no television signal, no Internet access and sometimes no cellular access. You wake up with the sun and you go to sleep when it\u2019s dark.<\/p>\n

\"relaxIt is important to relax on a narrowboat trip. Use it as an opportunity to display a side of your personality that you never get to use.<\/p>\n

And yet a narrowboat trip isn\u2019t necessarily relaxing. As a beginner, you\u2019ll be pretty scared when you\u2019re handed the keys of a 60-foot-long, 15-ton metal boat after 30 minutes of instruction. You\u2019ll feel overwhelmed at your first lock, not really understanding how the darn thing works much less know what\u2019s the first thing to do. But these fears and worries are nothing like the fear of picking the wrong health plan, religious extremism or whether your 401K will survive.<\/p>\n

You also might not relax because everything you see is new. You\u2019ll marvel at the genius of the Industrial Revolution and how two simple, wooden gates, a rack and pinion, sluices and paddles can lift a boat uphill or lower it downhill. You\u2019ll wonder: Is that bird a duck or a coot, a goose or a swan, a cormorant or a heron? You\u2019ll enjoy peeking into back gardens and looking at for sale signs and wishing you lived on the water. You\u2019ll slink away after a feral boat person (See <\/span>\u201cFeral boat people\u201d in How to Steer<\/span><\/a>) yells at you for leaving a wake. You\u2019ll laugh at some hapless boat handler who rams your boat and then you\u2019ll remember that when you do the same later on.<\/p>\n

I remember the line from Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol<\/span> when Scrooge, after his conversion, \u201cfound that everything could yield him pleasure.\u201d Even standing in the rain while tying up the boat for the night is now a pleasant memory and afterward sitting with friends at the dinette table, sipping wine and eating cheese, will be one of the memories I cherish the rest of my life.<\/p>\n

If you can find the right mix of people for your crew, it\u2019s an amazing opportunity to both test and deepen friendships. If you have children, it\u2019s a chance to spend time away from distractions. Parents and children alike are sobered looking down a deep lock as water comes gushing in to lift a boat. Opening and closing a lock gate has a primal satisfaction for young and old.<\/p>\n

For weeks after your trip, you\u2019ll dream about the canal and suddenly realize how you should have negotiated that bridge. Every once in a while, in the shower, you\u2019ll feel your body sway to the slow dance of the boat.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not alone in quoting from Kenneth Grahame\u2019s The Wind in the Willows<\/span> when Ratty says to Mole: \u201cBelieve me, my young friend, there is nothing\u2014absolutely nothing\u2014half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Line<\/a>
The European water vole (\u201cRatty\u201d in The Wind in the Willows) has all but disappeared along the canals. The CRT has several conservation programs to encourage their return.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a>Other reasons you may enjoy narrowboating<\/h2>\n

<\/a>Because you love history<\/h3>\n

If you\u2019re traveling the Bridgewater Canal<\/span><\/a>, then you\u2019re really traveling history, for it was the first \u201ctrue\u201d canal in England, connecting the River Mersey and Liverpool with Manchester. It opened in 1761 (but not completed until 1776) because the 3rd<\/sup> Duke of Bridgewater needed to get his coal from Worsley to Manchester.<\/p>\n

\"noteThe Bridgewater Canal is not actually part of the Canal & River Trust, which manages most of the waterways in England and Wales. In fact there are several canals and navigations that remain separate from the CRT. It\u2019s easy to overlook some of these \u201chidden\u201d canals.<\/p>\n

If you visit the boat yard at Ellesmere<\/span><\/a>, which is operated by the Canal & River Trust, you can see and hold some of the patterns used to cast parts for the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, completed in 1805. When you visit the Harecastle Tunnel<\/span><\/a> on the Trent and Mersey Canal, you can marvel at the fact there is no towpath. Boatmen would lie on their backs and \u201cleg it\u201d (using their legs to propel the boat) through the tunnel.<\/p>\n

\"noteActually there are two Harecastle tunnels. The first, engineered by James Brindley (who also consulted on the Bridgewater Canal), was completed in 1777 (when Brindley was five years dead). Brindley decided not to include a towpath through the tunnel because of the extra labor and engineering involved. Thomas Telford, the engineer who built the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, built the second Harecastle tunnel in 1827 to relieve the congestion caused by the first tunnel (it took three hours to leg it), and aided by 50 years of engineering advancements, he added a towpath.<\/p>\n

The Anderton Boat Lift<\/span><\/a>, which was completed in 1875, connects the River Weaver and the Trent & Mersey Canal by lifting boats 50 feet, eliminating the need for a great number of locks.<\/p>\n

Your narrowboat TARDIS makes further stops when you see the stonework of a lock dated 1810 and the wooden gates dated 1999 (they last about 20 years). Or you travel right to the present when you visit the Falkirk Wheel<\/span><\/a>, which opened in 2002 and looks like a piece of modern sculpture.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Because it\u2019s relatively affordable<\/h3>\n

A narrowboat vacation is affordable if you consider that you\u2019re paying for lodging, transportation and meals in one package, and if you\u2019re traveling with friends, you split the cost several ways. If you restrict yourself to enjoying the scenery, walking or cycling beside the boat and cooking all your meals on board, you\u2019ll save money, eat properly and get some exercise.<\/p>\n

Or at least you can tell yourself that. Realistically you\u2019ll be tempted to visit pubs and local attractions such as steam railways and stately homes.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Because you like adventure, sort of<\/h3>\n

Another draw for me is the safe sort of adventure the canals offer. I\u2019m still reasonably fit and active. I ride my bike, practice a martial art, hike and even climbed a 14,000-foot mountain recently (setting a world record for slowest ascent), but it\u2019s been years since my last whitewater rafting trip and my flirtation with rock climbing is a distant and painful memory. Nevertheless I still like a little adventure in my life and a narrowboat vacation is just about perfect.<\/p>\n

Looking out over the edge of the boat while crossing an aqueduct is sufficient to get my heart pumping, passing through a tunnel cures me of any desire for spelunking and eating haggis or spotted dick is as far as I need to go to emulate Anthony Bourdain.<\/p>\n

Navigating a narrowboat can be difficult and a boat\u2019s layout can be an important factor when choosing which boat to hire. The kitchen arrangement of this boat makes it pretty easy to pass through even when someone is cooking.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s just enough real danger\u2014falling into a lock or hanging up the boat on the cill\u2014to keep you on your toes and just enough challenge\u2014turning around in a winding hole or backing into a berth\u2014to keep you from feeling complacent. If we ever do want to challenge ourselves, we can cruise in the off-off-months or take a boat out ourselves, without our friends. Two people are kept fairly busy turning a lock.<\/p>\n

In fact a narrowboat vacation is just about perfect for an Anglophile middle-aged (soon to be senior) couple with an interest in history. But be warned. One trip is never enough.<\/p>\n

\"A
Navigating a narrowboat can be difficult and a boat\u2019s layout can be an important factor when choosing which boat to hire. The kitchen arrangement of this boat makes it pretty easy to pass through even when someone is cooking.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What Americans need to know when considering a narrowboat vacation in the UK<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p74kO9-1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/narrowboatingforbeginners.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/narrowboatingforbeginners.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/narrowboatingforbeginners.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/narrowboatingforbeginners.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/narrowboatingforbeginners.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"http:\/\/narrowboatingforbeginners.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1196,"href":"http:\/\/narrowboatingforbeginners.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions\/1196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/narrowboatingforbeginners.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/narrowboatingforbeginners.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/narrowboatingforbeginners.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}