2019 UK NARROWBOATING AGAIN

Canal trip summer 2019 overview

To follow our travels, look for blogs dated 24th June to the 7th September 2019.

Some of you may be aware that we have been given the opportunity to look after our friends Wolfgang and Marlene’s canal boat the Ange De L’Eau for the months of July and August this year 2019.

We met Wolfgang and Marlene when we did our four month sojourn to the canals of the UK in 2016. Marlene and Wolfgang will be returning to their hometown of Lilienthal in Northern Germany to spend some time in their garden. They have not had the pleasure of spending summer at home for five years now and are wanting to get reacquainted again. Wolfgang will also be taking his trusty motorbike and heading a round the countryside with his other bikie mates. There is a well known motorbike club in Australia called Ulysses Club Inc. To be a member you must be over 50 and their motto is “To Age Disgracefully”. We have since learnt that there is a Ulysses club in Germany……

In 2017 we did look after Ange De L’Eau for a few weeks whilst the guys went to Munich to celebrate Marlene’s 60th. Think we did an alright job considering we get to look after her for two months.

As you all know, whilst we were doing the Downunder Odyssey, Joannie and Simone from Montreal looked after the house and Toque. They returned to Montreal when we arrived back to Calgary early May, but have now flown back out on the 20th June to do a July and August stint looking after the house. Alas though for them, Toque will not be staying home as she is yet again attempting to accumulate her frequent flyers miles and head off to the UK with us. They will have five intensive days of Toque time as we do not fly to the UK until the 25th June.

 

This canal trip will see us visiting the southern canals which we have never ventured on before except for the Worcester and Breton Beacons. Below is a map that gives you roughly an idea of our plan which all going well should be accomplished in the two months.

We will start from Leicester in the centre of England and head south past Welton Hythe (Ange De L’eau’s home marina), down the Grand Union Canal to London where we will spend 5-7 Days. Then we head west along the Thames River to Windsor and onto the Kennet and Avon Canal to Bath and Bristol. Finally it will be a bit of back tracking before heading north onto the Oxford Canal, through Oxford and back to Welton Hythe. We estimate that we have about 221 hours (who’s counting!) of cruising and god knows how many locks, to achieve our objective.

We are both very excited about this trip as it is all new territory and this is the year of Di’s 60th where she has advised Fraser that it is not just for one day of 2019 but for all 365 days of the year. We have already organised some very special events during our time in the UK but will not give these surprises away at this stage.

We hope you all enjoy our travels and please feel free to drop us a comment.