Month: March 2024

What is it like to be on a boat for six months?

And we’re off! We have made several short trips already this year, but this week we set off on our narrowboat for the next six months. This is our fourth year since retirement and our fourth year of boating all summer. The first year was in the North of England, the second in the South. Last year we travelled the westerly canals and rivers – Shropshire Union, Llangollen, Montgomery, Trent and Mersey, Macclesfield, Peak Forest, Staffordshire and Worcester, River Severn, Gloucester and Sharpness, River Avon, Stratford, Birmingham and Fazeley, Coventry and Ashby canals.

The obvious thing would be to head east this year, but the canal network is not so good on that side of the country so we have decided to complete a few more of the canals we have not travelled before, while picking up some of our “greatest hits”.

This week we journeyed up from our winter base in Stone, through the very long Harecastle Tunnel, and down 25 locks of heartbreak hill in a day. We are now travelling through the very flat and very beautiful Cheshire Plain. Over the next six months we plan to moor in Liverpool docks, cross the Pennines on the curly wurlys, travel through the Happy Valley, revisit the history of Bugsworth Basin and maybe go on a steam train next to the Caldon Canal. From there our plans are more fluid and that is part of the adventure.

People often ask us how we cope living in such a confined space for six months. Sometimes we see hire boaters having massive rows as they are not used to being on top of each other even for a week. But Mandy, the dogs and I have found our happy rhythm. We don’t try to go too far each day. We empathise when someone makes a mistake driving the boat – we all do it. I am happy for Mandy to sit in a quiet corner doing her cross stitch. She is happy for me to dash off to find a stately home or a roman fort.

I think we are very privileged to enjoy this life and am really looking forward to the next six months. I love retirement.

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I miss having kids

We spent a day with our niece and her children, Fred and Thomas, this week near St Andrews. After what seems like months of solid rain, we were lucky enough to get some sunshine, and we visited a beautiful garden and a dramatic beach.

It was such a good day. The boys are about six months and nearly three years old, so full of energy and character. I have always loved children. My wife and I were married young and had children straight away. We really wanted them, and also wanted the freedom of them leaving home when we were still relatively young. That worked out well and we have been able to enjoy the life as narrowboaters, travelling around the UK, without worrying about children at school or university,

However, sometimes I do miss having kids around the house (or boat). For a number of reasons I think it is unlikely we will have grandchildren, so we make the most of great nephews and nieces, like Fred and Thomas. And we still enjoy time with our sons and nearly daughter in law, even though they are now in their twenties and thirties, so hardly the same!

I bet if we did have kids again, we would soon find them tiring and would miss our freedom. Maybe we should borrow some 🙂

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Why is it so hard to take a picture of a kingfisher?

During many years of travelling on a narrowboat, I must have tried to photograph a kingfisher a hundred times. We see them on the side of the canal quite frequently. A flash of blue against the brown or green. But for some reason they are really hard to photograph. They seem to know what they are doing because quite often they will sit quietly on a branch until I reach in my pocket for my phone. As soon as I look at the screen they are gone, either disappearing completely, or teasing me by flying ahead of the boat to find another perch.

So this week I was delighted to find a bird that remained still long enough for me to get a series of pictures.

I know they aren’t great – too blurry. We meet a number of bird watchers along the canals. They tell me that I am doing it wrong. I should sit quietly with a huge camera on a tripod, and wait for the bird to come to me. A great kingfisher photo can take days or weeks of waiting. I am just too impatient for that.

I did find a better way to get a kingfisher photo a couple of years ago. I met someone on a towpath that had just taken a picture and she kindly shared with me.

Now that is a kingfisher!

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Should I wear hearing aids to reduce the risk of dementia?

My Dad died with Alzheimer’s in February 2022. I miss him but I do not miss his last few years, when he was a shell, who knew nothing and nobody. It is a horrible disease. Understandably I worry about getting older myself and look for signs of memory loss. I forget the names of people I know well, and sometimes I mix up words. For instance I might look for a “mooring space” for my car.

This week I was given the opportunity to join a research study about healthy people who might get Alzheimer’s in the future. They took my blood and have sent it to California to get the latest testing for signs of p-tau217, a protein which indicates the formation of amyloids in the brain, believed to be the cause of Alzheimer’s. If the test is positive, I will then go on to get MRI scans of my brain and then either an experimental drug or a placebo to see the results. They will also check my blood DNA to look for a particular gene which increases the chance of the disease.

Whatever the results, I will learn something and will help the research which is likely to help many others in the future.

Attending the clinic also reminded me about hearing aids. I have quite bad hearing at high frequencies but normal hearing at middle and low frequencies. Two years ago I tried out private hearing aids to see if they would help. They were expensive and I did not get much benefit so I gave up on them. But my hearing has deteriorated so I went this week to pick up some NHS aids. The doctor told me that many people give up far too soon, and that I should wear them every day for at least eight weeks before coming to any conclusions. She also said that latest research shows that wearing hearing aids can reduce the risk of dementia.

So that is what i am doing. Three days in to wearing them and so far so good. The world does sound a little hissy and scratchy because I am not used to the high pitched sounds yet, but I will persevere. And if it helps with my brain, so much for the better.

What do you think about what I am doing? Does it make sense, or after my father, am I just understandably paranoid?

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The best time of year to get a quiet mooring

We stayed this week at Tixall Wide. This is one of the loveliest moorings on the British canal network. Most canals are just wide enough for two boats to pass. Digging more would have been a waste of money. But when the Staffordshire and Worcester Canal was built, a rich landowner, Thomas Clifford, would only let the canal cross his land if it was dug to look like a lake, fitting in with his gardens that had recently been developed by famous gardener Capability Brown.

Narrowboat Thuis moored in Tixall Wide this week

Tixall Wide is really very beautiful and because of that gets very full. During peak season you need to arrive in the morning or you stand little chance of getting a space to moor. Even in the winter it is pretty full because it is a good place to wait out the cold weather, in walking distance of Great Haywood junction where you can get water and a bit of shopping.

But this time of year is the best to get a great mooring. Most of the winter moorers have moved on or are in marinas, and the hire boat season has not yet started. We were extra lucky this year because Tixall Wide had work done on a drainage culvert over winter, and so was not open to anyone. So this week we were moored with just three other boats. It was wonderfully quiet, and properly dark at night, with no light pollution. The moon and stars seemed so bright.

It is the earliest in the year that we have been travelling on the narrowboat since I retired and in all honesty, it is a little too cold and wet when steering the boat. In a few weeks it will be warmer and more civilised. But the big benefit is the peace. And when we are sitting in the boat with the stove keeping us toasty warm, it is a lovely place to be.

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