Five reasons why I like Narrow Escapes

You would think that living on a narrowboat would be enough boating for anyone, but over the past few weeks when we have moored up for an evening we have been enjoying watching “Narrow Escapes” on Channel 4. This was a surprising hit for the channel when the first series came out last year. I say surprising because it has no celebrities, no fast action, no mystery. It is just a wholesome look at real people living in boats on the UK canal network.

I think we enjoy it so much for a number of reasons

We know the locations. Each programme follows a number of boaters on rivers and canals around the UK. Since we have now travelled pretty much the whole network ourselves, it brings back so many happy memories.
We know the people. Some of the boaters featured are new to us, and I look out for them on the cut. Others we have met before and we can reminisce about what we thought of them in real life.
We know the life. The programme is designed for people who do not boat, and shows what boaters get up to. There is many a knowing look between me and Mandy when they show the trials and tribulations of living on the water.
We know what not to do. A lot of the people they feature are new to narrowboating and we can spot many mistakes they make before they happen.
It is not a vlog. There are many many narrowboaters who produce video blogs. I confess I do enjoy some of these but some of them are pretty self indulgent and often far too long. Professional editing is a wonderful thing.

The OG of Narrowboat TV is Robbie Cumming, with his Canal Boat Diaries, which is now on the Yesterday Channel. He started off on YouTube eight years ago and I still watch him. But for boaters and non-boaters alike I recommend Narrow Escapes. Wholesome TV.

June 6, 2025 0

A tree is down across the canal. What should we do?

We are back on Narrowboat Thuis this week. We have missed boating these past few weeks. Our son Rob and fiancée Alessa borrowed the boat last week and took it half way round the Four Counties Ring. They took good care of it and finished at Market Drayton. So with some shuffling of cars, we met them there and are now cruising back to the marina in Stone. We need to be back for next Thursday which should have given us plenty of time, but on a Narrowboat, nothing is predictable, and on the first afternoon we saw a warning from Canal and River Trust (CRT) that the canal was closed ahead of us due to a fallen tree.

It was not just any fallen tree. The CRT team had visited it and decided their chainsaws and equipment were not hefty enough for the task. A specialist contractor would be required and that could take a while.

There is no point getting stressed living on a boat, so we moored up by a good pub and prepared to wait it out.

But then we saw a boat coming towards us from the direction of the stoppage and they explained that in fact the tree had fallen in such a way that there was room for a Narrowboat to pass underneath. It might not meet the CRT Health and Safety guidelines but it seemed fine to us, so we set off again and passed happily under the heavy tree before the pesky contractors arrived to close it down.

Life on a Narrowboat is full of adventures. They may not be world changing but each day has surprises and problems to solve. Sometimes it is a physically tiring life, being outside and moving heavy locks. But always it is a mentally tiring life, despite being the coolest most chilled thing we have ever done.

We are glad to be back.

May 30, 2025 0

Going for a walk in Kirkham

Kirkham is the nearest town to our village in Lancashire. The Aldi is our nearest proper supermarket, and Kirkham is where I go for my hearing aids, and for the dentist. For trains it is our nearest station. It is a pretty little market town.

Most of the time I just drive through it, paying little attention. This week I read an article about the town in a magazine, and decided it had to be worth a walk. I am a great believer that the best way to learn about places is to travel slowly, whether on a Narrowboat or on foot.

The first surprise was to see what looked like a bus shelter, just sitting by the road, and housing a weaving loom. It turns out that Kirkham was once a thriving mill town, and this was the last loom ever used, after the last mill closed in 2003. Apparently in the mid nineteenth century Kirkham was the biggest town in the area, several times the size of Blackpool.

Then I discovered the old town square, a huge mural, a fascinating church, even a Tardis.

My walk took me along a footpath called Remembrance Way which was recently put in place, with wild flowers and sculptures, and along an ancient track which once would have headed up to a fort in Roman times.

It just goes to show that there are many interesting things to find almost anywhere, if you just open your eyes. Every day is a school day, and I like school.

May 23, 2025 0

Who would go to a theme park in May?

It was my birthday last Saturday. It was also my nephew’s wedding down in London. We had such a great weekend, shared with our “little” boys and their partners and with the wider family. The sun shone the whole day and Dominic and Louise were clearly having the best time. I do love a good wedding.

But because we were celebrating the wedding, my birthday had to take a bit of a back seat. I was given some fantastic presents and cards, but I waited till I got home on Sunday to open them. I had to buy my own cake (caterpillar of course) and I decided that like the king I would have an extra birthday – on Wednesday. For the past few years I have found that I love a selfish birthday, where I go off on my own and choose my own adventures, this year I went to Blackpool Pleasure Beach.

It is term time and most children are still at school, so the theme park was not too busy, despite amazing weather. I could get on all the rides with barely any waiting. I rode The Big One, Icon (twice), Revolution, Infusion, the Big Dipper, Avalanche, Steeplechase, Launch Pad, Nickelodeon Streak, Rugrats Lost River, Wallace & Gromit’s Thrill-o-Matic, The Ghost Train and the Chinese Puzzle Maze. The only thing I bottled out of doing was Valhalla, allegedly the best water ride in the world, but one where everyone I saw was getting completely soaked.

So if the kids are at school, who goes to Blackpool Pleasure Beach in mid May? The answer seems to be three categories. There are parents with pre-school children, coming to try out the little rides. There are groups of school kids, where a teacher has somehow persuaded the head that it is a good educational experience to go to a theme park. And there are thrill seekers like myself, taking advantage of the lack of queues. In particular there was a group of Belgian roller coaster fans, who travel the world trying out the rides.

What a great week and what a great way to celebrate my birthday. I topped off the day with a visit to Notarianni’s, a famous Blackpool ice cream parlour, where I picked a sundae made with strawberries, vanilla ice cream and chocolate and pistachio sauces. Yum yum.

May 16, 2025 0

What do my podcasts say about me?

Over the years there has been a lot written about what our choice of music says about us. If you like Wagner does that make you an aggressive Teutonic? If you prefer Strauss does that make you weak willed and airy fairy? Does a taste for the Beatles mean you are out of date? Does liking Taylor Swift mean you an empowered feminist or a young teenager? Many of us claim to have eclectic music taste because we think we like such wide ranging genres. The reality is that if someone else looks at our music collection they can see a definite style, that reflects who we are and where we have come from.

I have a feeling that our taste in podcasts says even more about us. Here are some of mine.

I was an early adopter of podcasts. They arrived as an option in iTunes in June 2005 and I immediately started downloading them to my iPod so that I could listen on walks with the dogs. Many of the early ones were just repeats of radios programmes and I subscribed (not followed in those days) to several Radio 4 programmes, some of which you can still see above. I think “Last Word” was one of the first made available. I also remember the exciting day when after several years of waiting, the BBC added “The Archers” to its podcast list.

It was pretty easy in those early days because there were not that many podcasts available, so I had time to listen to all the ones I liked. In recent years, the number of podcasts has just exploded. I am now a complete old fogey because I write a blog instead of hosting a podcast. Why do so many people do podcasts? I am sure the top podcasts make a lot of money, but for many I suspect it is just an ego thing, or maybe, like this blog, it is a satisfying way of sharing what you are thinking with a few friends. What it does mean is that there is huge choice.

You can see above that my selection covers politics, drama, history, current affairs, film, comedy, science. What is the common thread? I think that all the podcasts I choose are entertaining, not too difficult to listen to, not too long. Back when I was working, I used to listen to business podcasts, but they have now gone. I am surprised I do not listen to a narrowboat podcast. Perhaps I am just bored of all the boat vloggers.

And what does my choice says about me? Maybe that I have eclectic taste. Or not.

I would welcome feedback this week. What do you think about my choice of podcasts, and what do you prefer yourself?

May 9, 2025 0

What does my narrowboat dream mean?

I had the weirdest dream last night. Normally I can’t remember dreams but this one was so vivid it is still in my mind. What does it mean?

We were travelling around the canals with a white hire boat as a partner. I was helping someone drive the hire boat and I lost concentration. The hire boat crashed out off the end of the canal and into a shopping centre. Meanwhile Alex Horne from Taskmaster was on our boat with Mandy. This situation was clearly so ridiculous that I realised it must be a dream but when I pinched myself I did not wake up so I concluded it must be reality. Then families from the shopping centre started swarming all over the boat and I couldn’t get them off.

What does it all mean?

I suspect it has something to do with the fact that we are coming to the end of our first long trip out on the boat this year. The last month in the East Midlands has been a wonderful adventure and we have many more experiences to come this year. But this weekend we go back to a house for a few weeks, with things to do including a wedding to attend, a girls weekend for Mandy, and jobs around the house,

Perhaps the shopping centre represents us mooring up for a while. Perhaps the families represent us seeing our families. Perhaps not waking up from a dream represents our ongoing retirement narrowboat dream.

But what on earth was Alex Horne doing?

I asked ChatGPT who said “Alex Horne, a creative and slightly oddball character, might represent a whimsical or unexpected influence—maybe even a part of yourself that enjoys the absurd. Mandy’s presence shows she’s part of your emotional foundation and daily life. Perhaps this suggests you’re trying to balance your grounded world with something more chaotic or silly.”

Or maybe it is just that the new series of Taskmaster has started!

May 2, 2025 0

When the memories all come flooding back

This week we have continued our narrowboat journey in the East Midlands. This is an area we have not seen before on the canals and not one I am familiar with in real life. We have mostly been travelling on the Erewash Canal, a beautiful but badly maintained and vandalised waterway through the ex-coal towns of Long Eaton, Ilkeston and ending at Langley Mill. We had a tough time, getting grounded due to low water levels, steering past sunken boats and fallen trees, and struggling to open leaky locks.

So you can imagine my surprise when we reached the extravagantly named “Great Northern Basin” at the top of the canal and I found all the fishing signs were from Matlock Angling Club.

I grew up in Matlock and just seeing the signs took me back there. Memories of school lessons, playing in a brass band, singing in a choir, going to church where my Dad was the vicar, going to pubs for the first time, learning about girls. It was not just memories. I could feel what it was to be an adolescent again. Simpler times than now, with no social media, more freedom, fewer expectations. For me they were happy innocent times and all of that came back to me from a few fishing signs.

You may wonder why Matlock Angling Club would cover such a town. the truth is that it is only a few miles away. Great Northern Basin is at the junction of the Erewash and the defunct Nottingham and Cromford canals. Cromford is very close to Matlock. Indeed we had a school reunion there last year.

But when I grew up my parents did not drive and so my view of the world was limited to Matlock and places I would visit by public transport such as Bakewell, Buxton and Derby. Funny to think that now I think nothing of travelling around Europe for a month.

I’d give the Erewash 4 out of 10 as a canal experience, but to bring back being a teenager from a couple of signs, that must be 9 out of 10. Happy days.

April 25, 2025 0

Nottingham in a Narrowboat

We have travelled most of the UK canal and river network over the past five years. There are a few loose ends and this week we ticked off another of them – Nottingham. Within a few miles this used to be a real hub for water transport. There is the wide river Trent, there used to be a Nottingham canal through the town centre and a Beeston canal past the massive Boots works. Nowadays these are merged into the Nottingham and Beeston. In addition there is the Erewash canal, the river Soar and the start of the Trent & Mersey canal. Two further canals, the Derby and the Grantham have not been navigable for many years.

These days the waterways here are no longer used for industry. There are just leisure boaters like ourselves. A wide variety of people on the cut. Around Nottingham town centre there are homeless people living in tents, and wealthy owners of gin palace yachts. Some of the canal is run down and a bit rough. Other areas have been fully gentrified and look beautiful and expensive.

We are currently moored by the steps outside County Hall, a massive piece of architecture from the early 20th Century. Rowers from the nearby National Water Centre glide past us with their coaches shouting at them from the riverside. Swans and geese keep us company. We are overlooked by Trent Bridge Cricket Ground. It all feels very different than the run down industry that dominated the local canals here a few decades ago.

I am glad we have visited Nottingham. I’m off out now to see the museums to see if I can discover more. Every day is a school day.

April 18, 2025 0

When do ducklings arrive on the canal?

Our TV on the narrowboat uses old photographs as a screen saver. It shows photos from similar dates in previous years. For two weeks I have been looking at ducklings, goslings and signets. But this year we have seen nothing – till yesterday.

First we saw a new family of red headed ducks. I didn’t get a picture sadly. And then we passed three individual ducklings, including this one. Based on previous years I now expect to see more and more over the next few weeks.

So I have two questions. 1. Why do ducklings all arrive at once? 2. Why are they later this year when the weather is really warm this year?

I am guessing the answer to the first is that being born in Spring gives them the best chance of survival. It is late enough to avoid the worst cold weather, and early enough to keep numbers of predators low. The second is more tricky. Mallards have a 28 day incubation period, so perhaps the current warm weather is irrelevant. The blog I wrote a month ago was entitled “Is it too cold to live on a narrowboat?”. So did the ducks just wait another week to incubate their eggs?

Things that make you say “hmmm”.

April 11, 2025 0

Where shall we go on our narrowboat?

After I finish writing this blog, we will be setting off on Narrowboat Thuis for our first long trip of the year. Since I retired in 2021, we have spent most of each summer on the boat, travelling around the UK. We have navigated most of the canal and river network now, so the big question is where to go this year.

We have a map of the water network on our fridge

In previous years I would have had a pretty clear view about the destination, although the journey from day to day would change, depending on weather, how much we were enjoying an area, and our mood. But this year is more complicated because we need to do things off the boat throughout the summer. Our new window shutters will be arriving at the house in a couple of weeks. My nephew is getting married in early May. We have a weekend away with Mandy’s brothers and partners in June.

Another complication, or perhaps benefit, is that we have paid for our marina mooring for the whole year. Instead of a single journey around the country all summer, we plan trips out for a few weeks, and then back to our home mooring in Stone.

So I am looking for somewhere to go that is a couple of weeks away. Mandy quite fancied heading back north again. But the Macclesfield Canal had a breach last week, so is closed to through traffic. We both love the Shropshire Union towards Wales but we have been on that route so many times. It would be nice to do something new. One of the few places we haven’t visited on the canals is Nottingham. Or we could go back to somewhere we have only visited once, such as Oxford.

Well let’s set off south and see where we end up. I often tell people that the best thing about narrowboating is that the destination is less important than than enjoying the journey. Maybe we will see a kingfisher today. Maybe we will meet fascinating people at the locks. Maybe I’ll find a stately home to visit.

The sun is shining. There is a light breeze. Time to untie the ropes and set off on our mystery trip. See you next week.

April 4, 2025 0