Narrowboat

When I met David and he said he had a narrow boat time-share - one week a year - I was not impressed. After all, having been in the Royal Navy for 25 years I would at least have expected a Frigate!

Because my father used to be a fisherman, David presumed I was au fait with boats - but apparently not - so the first year or so David had quite a hard time.  This wasn't helped the first year by my being unwell and David cracking a rib, so we were a pair of crocks.

By the second year I was becoming more useful and we started to enjoy ourselves.  It helped that we were travelling the same route as the first year, going out from Evesham in Worcestershire, travelling up the River Avon to Stratford, then up the Stratford Canal, and returning. 

It was wonderful mooring in the centre of Stratford, right next to the Shakespeare memorial, in fact becoming part of the tourist attraction. Boats are permitted to moor there free for up to 48 hours, the only down side being the incredibly difficult lock at the bottom (needing at least four people to man because of old warped gates and the very difficult exit at the top through a blind tunnel) no matter, it was still fun.  

One year we went to the beautiful, authentic Swan Theatre to see Cymbeline (http://www.william-shakespeare.info/shakespeare-play-cymbeline.htm).  Another year it was Ken Dodd on 'The Humour in Shakespeare' - well what we found was that there is very little, but Shakespeare gives us humorous situations - and Ken Dodd certainly did!

The following year we travelled south from Evesham to Tewkesbury, up to Worcester and then down to Gloucester and back. Again it was fun mooring on the River Severn in Worcester and in the actual Docks in Gloucester. 

A tight squeeze - very near Birmingham, the year we did the Birmginham Ring which was hard work (see http://www.canaljunction.com/canal/birmingham_navigations.htm, - a useful site)

One year we travelled north and south from the base at Market Harborough.

Barbara and Vicky, the year that Barbara joined us for half the week - which I think she found quite enough!

Vicky and Steve usually join us for part of the holiday and one year Fi came along too.

This picture shows us near the top of Foxton Locks ( http://foxtonlocks.com/)

Unfortunately we will not be going on the boat this year, so we hope to bank our week and have two weeks next year.