I’ve finally succumbed to a canal boat holiday

All my life I’ve wanted to take a narrow boat holiday down one of Britain’s canals but have never got round to it. There’s always been something easier and more pressing, perhaps even a touch more glamorous than a week spent floating around Britain – a trip to Andalusia, a city break, a train-ride round Siberia – but this year, in my mid-fifties, I’m finally making it happen. With my cousin and both our young daughters as crew members, I’ve shelled out on the rental of a four-berth narrow boat – painted a resplendent red and racing green, a bit like a Hornby train. In late July we set sail, or rather diesel engine, for four days on the Shropshire Union Canal – just a slice of the 2,000 navigable miles of canals that spread over the country, from Devon up to the Scottish Highlands. 

Partly it’s the look of narrow boats that has roped me in – long, gliding, elegantly painted, and with a plume of smoke often emerging from a chimney.