By the time this article is published many of you will have returned from the summer break, however one or two of you might still have some leave left this autumn and be thinking where to go, or what to do. You may also already be thinking about what to do next year. Either way if you want to try something a bit different why not try a canal holiday aboard a narrowboat in the heart of England.
There are currently daily flights from Lisbon to Birmingham Airport and with a flying time of just two and a half hours you could soon be aboard your very own narrowboat. My family and I did just that last summer and hired the 6 berth narrowboat Shadowfax from Chas Hardern Boats at Beeston, Cheshire. At a little over 20 Meters long Shadowfax was new for the 2007 season and very well equipped with a spacious kitchen, plenty of sleeping area, two toilets and a shower room. Chas gave us plenty of instruction on how everything operated, the rules of the road on the canal system, and finally he accompanied us through a couple of locks to make sure we were confident before he left.
A week did not allow us time to undertake a circular route so we opted to head for the industrial Midlands town of Wolverhampton, turning around at the mid week point. and visiting different places on the return leg. Often referred to as ‘The Shroppie’, The Shropshire Union was formed by the ‘union’ of a number of canals. Along its 66 mile length the canal passes through 47 locks. The southern section, which we traveled, boasts of being one of the most under populated areas of canal side in the country, although we found many welcoming villages and towns along the way and managed to moor next to an Inn of some sort every evening.
The Shropshire Union has a totally different character to many other other canals, being built later it follows a more direct route and strides boldly across valleys on high embankments and digs deeply through narrow rock cuttings. The canal is narrow especially compared to some of the European ones and through some of the cuttings we found ourselves temporarily aground on the mud when passing other boats. Not surprisingly we also found ourselves in full reverse once or twice when we met others around blind corners. The locks along the way were well maintained, quite easy to operate and were grouped in easy to work ‘flights’ at Audlem and Market Drayton.
A narrowboat holiday on the Shropshire Union is one of the best ways to see the English countryside in all its autumn glory. There are a number of firms who specialize in narrowboat hire and no license is required to drive one,. Narrowboats are generally hired on a self catering basis and are usually fully equipped requiring you only to bring along yourself and some food. Notwithstanding the uniqueness of a narrowboat holiday it is not cheap. A weeks hire this autumn is likely to cost around one thousand Euros, however, you won’t need to rent a car for the week, which will go some way towards offsetting the cost. Chas Hardern boats can be found at http://www.chashardern.co.uk/
