 The smart interior of a
Cambrian Cruisers Narrowboat. |
Day 1
- Saturday 14/9/02
Got up in the morning planning to leave at midday but as you know when you
have a business it never really goes the way you planned so I managed to
finally leave Epsom, Surrey at 3 p.m.
I had a bit of a strange morning. When I got all my bits and pieces done I
had to pack. I couldn’t pack any earlier because of an oversensitive dog -
once the suitcases come out the dog gets a sudden fear of being left behind
with all the whining and begging you can imagine.
I wasn’t too sure of what to bring as I had never been on a boating holiday
before, and I wasn’t too sure as to what I could buy underway, so I decided
to be on the safe side and head down to Marks and Spencers and spend £50 on
bits and pieces of food you know the kind I mean: pierce film and place in
oven.
Got back to the packing and decided to lend myself 6 bottles of wine, boxed
the whole lot up and placed in the boot along with the luggage and a very
relieved dog and off I went.
Round the M25 and out onto the M4, no hold ups on the way - in the direction
I was travelling anyway. After a rather stressful morning, it seemed like
things were finally going my way.
I got to the Severn Bridge after approximately 1.5 hrs drive and to be
honest I
didn’t realise that I had to pay an admission fee to enter Wales! As this
was my first visit to Wales, I thought to myself, ‘£4.60, hope it’s worth
it!’
I found Cambrian Cruisers without any problems. The literature Bob and
Nicola sent me was really quite good. The time now is nearly 5.45pm and I
thought better of taking the boat out that evening. Instead I spent time
with Bob and Nicola who gave me the idiot’s guide to Bethany, our home for
the next week.
I decided as the evening was closing in that it would be a good idea to stay
put for the night. To be honest the size of the boat up close was a lot
bigger that it looked in the magazine!
Gypsy, the oversensitive dog, and I, spent the rest of the evening
familiarising ourselves with the boat and trying to plan the forthcoming
week.
I must say, having never been on a narrow boat before I was gobsmacked by
the standard of the facilities on board. Being 6ft 3in and 17 stone, I was
astonished that I was able to have a comfortable shower and that my feet did
not hang over the end of the bed!
Sitting down with my TV dinner, having prepared it in the fully fitted
kitchen, I decided to open the first of my ‘borrowed’ bottles of wine and
soon discovered the first flaw of narrow boating: no bottle opener! Still, a
publican can open a bottle whatever the situation.
Having consumed the bottle of wine (and half of another bottle), I decided
to treat myself to an early night and get up early the next morning.
Day 2— Sunday 15
/9/02
I finally dragged myself out of bed at 10am having had the best night’s
sleep I can remember — still not quite sure if this was due to the comfort
of the rocking movements of the boat or the 1.5 bottles of wine!
Took the dog for a quick walk, couldn’t face much breakfast and decided to
get underway.
Bob helped me get started, went though the running of the boat with me and
took us out of the marina to the canal. I was now well on my way, even
though Bob told me he would drive down ahead of me and raise the lift
bridges for me.
I found the boat quite easy to manage after Bob got off — you know what it
is like with backseat drivers. I was a bit nervous going through my first
few bridges - but I don’t think I left too much of a mark on the boat - and
if I did I deny all liability!
I spent the next few hours getting grounded on a regular basis. After a
while I realised that I was being too nice and moving over too far to let
people pass and while they went merrily on their way smiling and waving at
me, I would spend the next five minutes trying to get moving again.
Around 2.30 p.m. I arrived at Talbont on-Usk. I found it quite an easy place
to moor my boat as the waterlevels were quite high there. I decided that I
would give the TV dinner a rest for the day and find somewhere to have
Sunday lunch. So I had a walk down to the village, which was very petite
with a couple of
shops and a few pubs. I had a look round outside the pubs and I decided to
have lunch at the one I thought looked the most appealing. MISTAKE!! Entered
the bar with Gypsy on a lead and asked the guy behind the bar if the dog was
ok and he replied: It’s on a lead isn’t it? I thought fine — Welsh humour,
and ordered myself a pint of lager and asked him for the lunch menu. He
stood and stared at me and stared at his watch for about 15 seconds and I
asked him if it was a problem and he said that they had been very busy but
that he would take my order anyway. I went to sit down at the cleanest table
I could find and waited.. and waited. While I was waiting our friend behind
the bar refused to serve three couples lunch because they were too busy — I
counted 9 people between the bar and the garden! My lunch arrived at 3.45
and I must say it was quite nice.
I took Gypsy for a walk and as it was getting dark I returned to the boat. I
sat down with the paper and a cup of coffee. 15 minutes later I realised
that I had been invaded by about 2 million midges, flies and various other
insects! I had a little more company than I planned for that evening what is
it they say about uninvited guests always overstaying their welcome? So one
good piece of advice from a novice: close your windows before switching on
the light at night!
Lets just say I slept with a duvet over my head that night.
Day 3— Monday
16/9/02
Rudely wakened by a crowd of ducks, that I had given all my bread to the
previous evening, looking for breakfast at around 10 am. Went to the shop to
get breakfast for the ducks and a newspaper for me. Had a light breakfast,
took Gypsy for a long walk and headed on down the canal.
I was slowly beginning to relax and enjoy travelling at about 2 miles an
hour. At this point I decided that if I was really going to get into this
way of life, I needed to remove my watch and switch off my mobile phone not
that it worked in very many places anyway.
The next milestone for me was the Ashford Tunnel, which looks quite
harrowing as you approach it. The 375 yard long tunnel is designed for
narrow boats not for narrow boats with standing tillermen my height, so I
found myself crouched on the deck and trying to navigate through with two
inches to spare on either side of the boat. No doubt the biggest challenge
of my adventure so far!
It was then all plain sailing until I arrived at the dreaded locks. Well
thank God my able assistant Nicola was there to lend a hand! I’m not sure
though whether her concern was for her boat or me! Nicola decided that it
would be a good idea if I got out of the boat and did all the hard work
while she came onboard and navigated through the locks.
Considering I knew that Nicola would be there to help me in my hour of need,
I had not familiarised myself with the workings of these 200 year old locks
as I would have done without her.
Everything went to plan, even though I was a bit shocked to find that it
took 25 minutes to pass through each lock although with Nicola’s expert
guidance it went very smoothly. Well, the last lock was a little distance
away and around a corner and so I walked ahead of the boat and thought that
I would prepare it for Nicola to let her know how much attention I had paid
to her instructions previously. I will never forget the look of horror on
her face as she came round the corner! Needless to say I got the whole thing
the wrong way around. How I ever
thought the boat would go downhill I will never know!
After helping me, Nicola returned to her busy base.
Having overcome the stress of the locks I decided I would head on to
Crickhowell. On approach to Crickhowell, I came across a group of school
kids in canoes and after I passed them they were looking for a race despite
the dismay of the group leaders. I never thought I would win doing 2 miles
an hour but to be honest I did cheat a little. I wouldn’t let them go past
me!
I moored at Crickhowell as the sun was going down, took the dog for a walk
freshened up with the intention of checking out the highlife of Crickhowell
and wearing at least one of the five designer shirts which had so far not
seen daylight since Epsom. In actual fact none of the clothes I brought were
appropriate for a boating holiday in the Brecons. What you need is
tracksuits, t-shirts and at least 1 woolly jumper not designer shirts and
leather jackets!
Gypsy had a smut on her face when I put on the leather jacket to hit the
town and she knew she wasn’t going. I left the boat and the dog and headed
to the bridge, but when I saw the hill I would have to climb to get back to
the boat after a few pints of lager, and with Gypsy's sad eyes playing on my
mind, I decided to give Crickhoweli’s nightlife a miss and settled in with
yet another delicious TV dinner and a bottle of wine. As I removed the
dinner from the oven I noticed a drawer below the oven, which revealed,
amongst many other things, a bottle opener!
Day 4—Tuesday
17/9/02
Got up — late again and as I had missed out on Crickhowell’s nightlife,
Gypsy and I went to discover the village. It was about a mile walk from the
boat and we spent an hour or so just having a walk around the town and
headed back — uphill — to the boat (breathless!).
After lunch, we headed on our merry way down the canal. By now I was getting
a lot more confident with the boat - it certainly didn’t feel like I had
only been at it for a couple of days. My navigation skills were definitely
improving - I even had the pleasure of seeing another boat grounded when we
were passing each other!
I did find that the canal water levels were very low in places which made
passing other narrow boats very difficult without one of the boats grounding
- thankfully not always me. It also surprised me that particularly in the
areas of low water levels the trees along the edge of the canal actually
overhung by some seven feet.
I arrived early evening in a town called Gilwern and as I was mooring up the
boat I got talking to a very delightful young lady who’s name happened to be
Bethany. She was out for a walk with her grand mother and I took a picture
of her with ‘her’ boat.
In the evening I decided I would venture to down-town Gilwern. Gypsy and I
went into a pub to see Liverpool playing Valencia. When we arrived there at
kick-off at 7.45pm the bar was empty apart from the barman watching
Eastenders and when I asked him if he was showing the football, he replied
that he would put it on after Eastenders. Considering the outcome of the
game, I wish it had been the Eastenders omnibus edition rather than watching
Liverpool being taught a lesson by the Spanish.
Day 5 — Wednesday
18/9/02
Basically, I didn’t do much today. I was so relaxed I decided to take the
day off and spend some quality time with my dog.
We went for a long walk along the canal to find a suitable place to turn the
following day and we found just that place when we approached Govilon.
Had an absolutely wonderful day with Gypsy. I got back to the boat, had a
shower and another TV dinner (no wine tonight) and was in bed at 8.45. I
have never been so relaxed in my whole life!
Day 6— Thursday
19/9/02
Got up around the usual time and headed down-stream to get turned around and
it was less of a problem than I had expected. It is a bit odd going
backwards with no steering — then I realised why there was a pole on the
roof!
I made my way back to Crickhowell where I spent the night with my last TV
dinner. When I read through my canal guide that evening I realised that I
had left myself a long journey for the next day — about 9 hours —
considering I should have the boat back by 6pm.
Day 7— Friday
20/9/02
Surprise surprise, I was up today at 8am! I took Gypsy for a long walk as it
would be quite a while before she would get a chance again. I made myself a
massive breakfast and headed up the canal.
It turned out that Gypsy need walking more frequently than I could stop so I
developed a new technique. At a bridge, I would sail close to the edge of
the canal and let Gypsy step off. She would then walk along the edge of the
canal and do her business (no pooper scooper — sorry!) and hop back on at
the next bridge. It took a couple of tries before she got used to the idea
of being left on the towpath like that.
As I was heading up the canal I had time to think about my time on board.
I can safely say that I have not had such a relaxing break for a very long
time. The whole set-up is easy: no airports, no delays or cancellations, no
hassle, and let’s face it, if I can do it anybody can and it does give you a
sense of achievement when you are able to sail for 9 hours without grounding
once!
If you are somebody like me who is exposed to a lot of stress and
responsibility in everyday life then this is the ideal way to get away from
it all and, as the Yanks would say, completely chill out for a couple of
days. This was all helped by the fact that I felt I had the Cadillac of the
Brecons
The exceptional level of service that I received from Bob & Nicola is
something I will never forget. They should be very proud of what they have
and their ability to make you feel at ease and that help is always at hand
24/7 when you need it — and believe me I did a few times, but the less said
about that the better!
|
Neil McEleney visits the
Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal.
