Only ever did one canal trip and it was utterly delightful. I and my partner travelled up the Oxford Canal with two friends and their two children. Weather was pretty good and the pace was tranquil. The boat is very confined so you have to travel with friends with whom you get on really well. We all got along fine.
I like a lie-in: still do. So when the others got up, they’d pick up Catherine who was about 6 months old and chuck her into bed with me. That way we’d sleep on to say 10 am while the other silly buggers did things like breakfast.
We had maps and things and sometimes we got off to explore the local neighbourhood, usually some local pub. But then whole thing was a bloody pub crawl as we moved up and down the canal from pub to pub. I think on the penultimate day we moved just a few hundred yards from one pub to the next.
Washing facilities onboard were primitive and Jonathan, my friends’ son didn’t like the shower. So when his Dad took him in there we had screams of ‘No, Daddy, no.’ Passersby gave us strange looks but we just smiled back at them. Jonathan had a little life jacket and he was very very careful. Only his dad actually ended up in the canal. It wasn’t deep so only up to his thighs.
Water and shit are important issues on a canal trip. As you can imagine, you have to take aboard the former at regular intervals and offload the latter likewise. Food and booze are no problem because there are always stocks near to where your moor.
All in all, a bloody good holiday, one of the best.
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