Life in the slow lane

My auntie's house in Cheshire is pretty unconventional in the transport connections it sports. In one direction there's a railway line about two metres beyond the garden boundary, and in the other there's a canal about one minute away. Unfortunately there's no way to board the former without some serious acrobatics, but fortunately the canal is punctuated by a lock, so when the weather looked good we hired Rosie for the day and set off on a long slow cruise along the Cheshire waterways.



Unfortunately the fact that it was such a lovely day resulted in me ending the day with a rather red nose and that burning feeling, but it was worth it. It's hard to describe just how tranquil canal-boating is. We did it when I was younger, but I wasn't really old enough to steer the boat, so this was the first time that I had a chance to pilot for myself, affording some good opportunities for some rather embarrassing photos of yours truly.


Apart from one scrape along the bank, one bang when attempting a three point turn, and one beaching incident when hit by another boat's wash, the day went off without a hitch (although the last one did threaten disaster and took about ten minutes of heaving and shoving to get us free).

Everyone's so friendly as well. All of the boats you pass say hello and exchange pleasantries and so do the people on the bank. In fact, often you're motoring no faster than they're walking, so on one occasion I had a conversation with a couple of walkers lasting several minutes. Unfortunately though some are so engrossed in what they're doing that they don't notice as you motor on past.


Thankfully our boat was only about 30 feet long, and I'm filled with tremendous respect for those who pilot the normal 70 feet behemoths and who manage to make them so nimble. At times it felt like I was driving a barge without brakes and with a mind of its own, and the whole 'left to go right' mentality took a great deal of getting used to, but it was tremendous fun. I didn't appreciate quite how extensive the British waterway network was and how well connected the various canals are so I'm now filled with a desire to charter a boat for longer and make a proper go of it. Anyone keen?