I LOVE Lucy

Well … we both do! And I discovered I also love locks! 😆

I’m finding it a bit difficult to write this post to express how much we both really enjoyed this narrowboat experience. B-Rod went down a rabbit hole of learning about boat life over the winter, and I went in with no knowledge or expectations, but we both came out missing it the minute we stepped off the boat and left it behind!

It’s funny to think of how little distance we covered, how slow we travelled (maximum speed was 4 miles/hr), how really uneventful the days were but how happy each of us was every day simply puttering along. Maybe it was because of the slow pace of life, yet the focus we needed to steer the boat and manage the locks. Maybe it was because of the AMAZING weather we had (we didn’t expect to go to England for a sun tan!). Maybe it was because it felt like we were in the middle of nowhere communing with nature despite sometimes a city or town being just past the trees. Maybe it was because it felt like such a unique experience that even people that live here don’t often do (we came across so many locals who were fascinated and asked questions as we passed by). Whatever the reason we both were sad to see our time end, regretted that we weren’t on it for another week, and can’t wait to do it again at some point in the future.

First . . . some facts/details about how things work (those who know B-Rod know that is his area of interest/expertise!)

• there are 2,000 miles (3,200 km) of navigable canals in the UK today
• canals were used for transportation of goods (a horse could pull roughly 1 ton on a cart alone and 70 times more than that on a canal)
• tow paths line the canals which were used by horses pulling the goods
• we did the Caldon Canal (opened in 1779) which is a branch off the Trent and Mersey canal
• locks are used to raise a boat up or down in elevation, and are comprised of paddles (which control the flow of water to fill or drain a lock) and gates that are opened and closed to allow the boat in or out
• maximum length for a narrow boat is 70 ft to fit in the locks

We picked up our boat “LUCY” from Black Prince Holidays out of Stoke-on-Trent Hanley, unpacked, had our orientation and set out on our way.

We were excited, yet slightly nervous as we approached our first lock. We were going to pull over to think/figure out our way through it, but a situation happened where we were forced in immediately. Fortunately, we had met a narrow boater the day before who had walked/talked us through how a lock works, and I had that experience to fall back to. Successfully making it through our first lock, we were hooked!

We eventually fell into a rhythm and B-Rod became the designated diver. I tried a couple of times and could see the appeal and how meditative it could be (having to really focus on what you were doing as the minute your mind wandered, the boat would react in one way or another that you usually didn’t want!), but it definitely wasn’t my fav and it tended to overwhelm me easily when shiza hit the fan!

Being the driver meant you could usually feel when something got caught on the propellor or rudder. This means you were the one that had to get in to fix it/dig stuff out (that may have been a “rule” that I made up!)

I became the lock operator and LOVED it!! It got me out walking, it was physically challenging, at times giving me a sense of accomplishment when I completed a particularly difficult lock, it got me playing “games” of how I could be more efficient and it got me talking to all the other lock operators that I met along the way (fun fact that I learned from a girl that has been living on a narrow boat with her partner for three years . . . . it is often the women that prefer doing the locks and the guys that prefer driving or maybe as in our case, the women like doing the locks, so the guys are forced to do the driving?!)

We also came across bridges that had to be lifted and lowered.

There were also tunnels to go through. We went through the Leek tunnel four times (120m long).

But, we didn’t have the time to go through the Harecastle Tunnel (2.7 km long and takes about 40 minutes) which has staff on either end controlling how many boats go through at a time at certain times alternating each side.

We did moor at the entrance to this tunnel though for our last night which was quite peaceful with only us and one other couple.

Mooring a boat means to tie or tether a boat to the side and most places along the tow path were free to moor your boat and stay for up to two weeks (unless otherwise specified). We had some pretty good spots where we moored Lucy and settled in for the night.

One of our favourite things was waking up to the sound of birds in the morning. Sometimes we were in the middle of nowhere, but more often than not, it simply FELT like the middle of nowhere with a town just a short walk away. Either way, we spent hours enjoying the scenery as we passed by and watching the various birds we shared the canal with many of whom had a baby or two (or many) trailing along or waiting to be fed.

Not all of our time was spent on the boat. We’d often come across or hear about something that was worth stopping for and checking out along (or close to) the canal.

We went for numerous walks and took in the beauty of the English countryside from a view other than the boat.

We went into one town with the intention of finding specific supplies. We followed the route that google maps gave us to get there, but eventually pulled off when the road got super narrow and getting mowed down by a car didn’t make the supplies seem that important. Coincidentally, we pulled off the road into a 500 year old farmhouse whose owner has converted their barn into accommodation for people to stay in. She told us about the public footpaths in the UK (does it surprise you that B-Rod already kind of knew about them?!) These paths, which can be hundreds of years old (often dating back to the Romans), are paths in which the public have a “legally protected right to travel on by foot” which means if the path is in the middle of your field, you MUST provide access to whoever wants to walk on/along it. We did get lost a couple of times, but it was fun to keep an eye out for the signs and the various ways that people used to provide access to the paths. Eventually, we made it to where we had intended to go and successfully picked up our supplies.

We also ended up in towns with super old buildings and cemeteries that were interesting to wander in and imagine what life back in the day was like.

We went to pubs, and tea houses where we had classic English fare.

And at one town we made it to a street food festival where we had THE best portobello mushroom burger we’ve ever had!

It was sad to let Lucy go, but only makes us that much more excited for the next time we’re back (and we will be!) to try a new canal, a new boat and possibly with some other peeps!

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*** Want to see what a random day from the front of a narrow boat looks like (and I know there are a couple of you that do!)? Click here to see a sped up vid on a section of the Caldon Canal