Recently, a myself and two of my brothers decided on a weekends holiday on the Grand Union Canal or “Brothers behaving badly” as my wife christened it.
We took my brothers narrow boat The Narrow Escape and headed from Aylesbury to Hemel Hempstead and back. This was one of the most enjoyable holidays I have had; the ability to travel slowly along quiet waterways, full of fish and wildlife, with herons sitting like sentinels every few hundred yards and even Kingfishers were to be seen as they hunted the fish in the canal. It helps that the three of us share a love of nature, good beer and have a common sense of humour. Navigating the locks was always fun and my brother Norman seemed to be able to travel back and forwards across the canal instead of in a straight line and was soon nicknamed, “Captain Zigzag” (and that was before we had a drink).
All along the route there were pubs and restaurants that catered for the passing traffic, many serving ales that I had never heard of before. To be able to travel a few miles, sit outside an old English pub in the sunshine, with a pint of real ale and ploughmans lunch, in good company is my idea of heaven. And then back on the boat and chug down the canal until it was time for another beer. In the evening we would moor at one of the many mooring points along the bank, most with watering facilities and then head off into a sleepy village to explore the available pubs and restaurants. At the end of the weekend my sides were aching, we had laughed that much and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
The boat was equipped with everything you could wish for and the idea that a narrow boat is necessarily a rough and ready form of accommodation is way off the mark. OK my brothers boat is a bit of a wreck but there were narrow boats on the canal that were like a floating 5 star hotel, with double bedrooms and on-board Jacuzzis, satellite TV and broadband.
If you want something a little different and the freedom to travel where you want, at a pace that suits you, go for a narrow boat holiday. You wont regret it.
