Narrow Boat on the Grand Union Canal

We have been in England just over a week now and it has just flown. After arriving at Stifford Clays on Friday we had a few days to relax – dinner with Grandma Nell, Andy and Pat at the Whitmore Arms on Saturday and lunch at St Lawrence Bay with Margy on Sunday.

Monday we were off for our trip on a canal boat with Mary, Brian and Monty the dog. We met up with them at Gayton on the Grand Union Canal and were very soon off on our allocated boat – The Pied Bill Grebe. Brian had been on a narrow boat before but the rest of us were novices. It soon became evident that I would not be steering too often, not unless we wanted to fish tail up the canal! Mary was better than me but basically we left Brian and Robin to steer. Mary and I stuck to jumping of the boat, pulling it in, tying up, opening and closing locks etc.

It as a fantastic four days – the weather was perfect, the canal was not crowded and the scenery was just beautiful. Our route was from Gayton onto Braunston and a couple of miles further on to a winding hole (bit of river wide enough to turn a long boat around) where we turned and retraced our path back to Gayton. We went through thirteen locks and a tunnel and of course, had to do go back through them again on the way back. Funny, but the locks were much easier on the return trip. Going through the locks we met up with other boaters and it was a really friendly event, manning the locks. Going through the quiet countryside was just lovely and I would recommend such a holiday to anyone. Mind you, at the end of the day we were so tired that we all fell into bed fairly early – all that fresh air and physical work tires one out! We owe Mary and Brian a big thank you for inviting us to join them.

Friday we returned the narrow boat to Gayton and after saying goodbye to Mary and Brian continued up to Nottingham to meet up with old friends, John and Jean. Jean had a lovely lunch ready for us and it great to catch up with them as we had not seen them for two years.

At the moment we are in a motel just off the M1 and after breakfast will head back down to Stifford Clays, stopping off at Bedford to visit Shirley and Jack on the way. The weather has not quite as hot as it was earlier but the weekend is tipped to be in the mid 20’s. We must have brought our weather with us.