English canals

It could sometimes be tricky to find a spot to 'park' the canal boat!



A drink with Dad by a lock, while Mum did the grocery shopping ...



In a lock

In a spin at the playground at Westport Lake



Throwing a pot at the Wedgwood Pottery



One of the lovely pubs we stopped off at

Waiting to enter the lock

Mum and Edie get ready to open the gates and let our canal boat out of the lock




   

Edie and Matthew were great skippers

Della:
The canal boat trip was awesome! It's probably the main part of our big trip. The locks were one of my favourite things on the canal boat trip because you got to push the gates to let the boat in and out of the lock. It was a weird feeling on the boat - you rocked back and forward. Sleeping on the boat was hard for me because there was a hole in the roof near my bed and me and Celia (my doll) got wet. And also it just wasn't that comfortable. There were lots of animals and birds in and around the canal. Like swans and ducks, moorhens, coots, cows, horses, sheep and otters (although you usually don't see them - but we saw one). Another highlight was my lovely Auntie Becky. She had a sleepover with us and she was soooooo much fun.

Edie:
I loved staying on the canal boats. As you can see from the last photo, me and dad took turns steering the boat. I had had a bit of practice because I had been sailing with my cousin before, but it was still pretty hard. And very fun! We always tried to get to pubs for dinner but sometimes we couldn't moor( park ) close enough. Every time we got to a pub I always had sausage, chips, and peas! I don't know why! We took it in turns helping mum with the locks. Except for one day when mum and dad did fifteen locks in the pouring rain.( I was sleeping in!) One weekend Aunty Becky had a sleepover with us. We went to Wedgwood pottery factory and threw a pot ( made one ) and painted one each ( which we will bring home with us somehow ) which was great fun. Me and Della had our own cabin.

Jen:
We had a great two weeks on the canals in the north of England. We did the 'four counties ring', which took us along the Shropshire Union, Trent and Mersey and Staffordshire and Worcestershire canals through the counties of Cheshire, Staffordshire, Shropshire and the West Midlands. We travelled around 110 miles and took our boat - Dentdale - up/down 96 locks.
Dentdale was 62 foot long and quite comfy inside - as long as you don't need too much room! We had a double and two single beds, and the dining table converted to a double bed for when Becky had a sleepover. A little kitchen, loo, shower, and even two armchairs and a telly/DVD player (which we only used to introduce the girls to Swallows and Amazons).
Life was slow-paced. The boats can go a maximum four miles an hour. We tended to have a leisurely start to the day and how much ground/water we covered depended mainly on how many locks we had to tackle. On one memorable morning we went down 15 locks in the pouring rain - it took us three hours, and the pub lunch that followed was well-deserved.
Our favourite overnight mooring spots were in the middle of the countryside, away from roads, next to a field with only cows as neighbours. A 'park' near a centuries-old canal-side pub serving local ales and hearty meals was also pretty good.
We did a little exploring on land - when Becky joined us we went to the Wedgwood Pottery. We dropped into Market Drayton to do some laundry and Nantwich for a doctor's appointment. But most of our daylight hours were spent tootling along the waterways, admiring the beautiful English countryside and the wildlife - including swans, ducks, moorhens, coots, little blue and brown kingfishers, swallows, rabbits, and a single otter!

Matt:
This was indeed a wonderful two weeks; a blur of green and pleasant English countryside, great pubs (and greater ales), of countless locks and the challenge of manoeuvring a 62 foot monster along a narrow canal. These boats may be slow, but they don't turn on a dime, as the Yanks would say; nor do they stop very easily. Somehow we avoided any nasty dings and the girls did a sterling job with the locks and, in Edie's case, as stand-in skipper.
It brought back many happy memories of canal trips of the past, most recently a little over a decade ago with Jen's folks, and more distantly of childhood adventures on the narrow boats.
Our decision to spend two weeks completing the circuit, rather than one as many prefer, proved an excellent one, allowing sleep-ins, pub visits and the kind of gentle pace that befits the canals.
And no one fell in!