Last week the Grand Union Canal was our home. We hired the shortest possible boat and zoomed up and down at 4mph, except for on Monday when we had to go to a funeral near Bridlington. We owe special thanks to Lyle for making that a whole lot easier and cheaper than it could have been.
We loved it. The herons; a couple of runs along the towpath (I run two miles up and one mile back, and there’s the boat right there!); a pot of tea sitting on the hatch; many, many locks; a bunch of geocaches; sleeping in a gently rocking bunk; pleasant evenings at the pub; more herons; moorhens; swans and their cygnets. Apart from the interruption, it was a lovely way to end the summer holidays, and we’ll definitely do it again. This might be my favourite picture of Pete ever.
i have fond memories of a childhood (well, early teenage) family holiday on the Grand Union canal. I actually grew up pretty close to it, but travelling through Milton Keynes on a narrowboat was quite an eye-opener… it looks pretty good. As I wasn’t able to drink in the many, many good pubs on the towpath, I think this was also the holiday where I finally managed to get past Tom Bombadil in Fellowship of the Ring (at about my fourth attempt).