We have looked at a canal boat – a narrowboat – holiday several times over the decades and yet, it’s never happened. In the early days, we were initially tempted and then, we considered the likelihood of being trapped on the boat with two children in the notoriously unpredictable, wet, English weather…. and…. chickened out. Then, we got into yachting holidays with the girls when they were a bit older and that worked: we could pick warm weather locations with glamorous night time anchorages, great swimming stops during the day….. it all worked… and therefore, tootling along the British canal ways retreated even further back in our plans.

Then came covid. Our plans this year have been decimated. Small potatoes compared to what some have endured, I grant you. But to people with itchy feet and a need to control their own destiny…. pretty unbearable. We have made use of our timeshares to go to France but now even that route requires quarantine. So, when we looked at having an autumn breakaway, we looked at UK timeshare exchanges. And, lo and behold….. what should be there, but the opportunity to swap some of our points for a week on a canalboat. It was fate! The time was finally right!

So, Saturday, we pick up our boat at Worcester Marina. We are sailing for a week with our friends, Stuart and Fiona. Our canalboat sleeps 6 but, 4 in comfort, in private cabins with bathrooms. We plan to enter the Severn just below Worcester, sail south to Tewkesbury, head up the Avon at that point, overnighting at Evesham and Stratford upon Avon and then retrace our steps. We chose this route because – yes – in mid/late October, the weather is going to be dicey. So, we have picked a route that will put us through towns where in a worst case scenario, we could simply stop and sightsee, rather than taking a more isolated, rural canal route, that would be inflexible given poor weather. And what about if the pubs were closed??? Tinned pilchards anyone????

So… that’s the plan.

Tomorrow, Bob and I are heading up as far as Tewkesbury, so that we will be on hand easily for Saturday. Its been a bit touch and go with covid. Until Monday night, we were still not sure it would actually happen. But…. we seem to be in luck. Our area remains out of the high risk zones and as we are travelling along in our own floating home, we ought to be able to keep socially distanced with ease.

Hope you enjoy reading along with us.

By the way, I added my earliest travel blog to this site over the last couple of days (sorry if you got a load of unwanted email updates) : A Round the World Cruise we took to launch retirement in 2015. It actually “lives” on another website and I can’t easily export it here, so I have added links to the pages and the pictures. It’s a fantastic trip though, so, I recommend having a look if you haven’t already followed those days. https://travelswithallie.blog/category/cruises/round-the-world-cruise-2015/ will take you to the main page for the trip, scroll down to the first post and then work up.