A weekend away

MESSING ABOUT ON A NARROW BOAT TRIP DOWN THE WORCESTER AND BIRMINGHAM CANAL

They say if you’re rushing, you’re doing narrow boating all wrong. There’s no slower way to live than tilling a boat, being overtaken by dog walkers.

You’d struggle to find any part of Britain’s 2,200 miles of canals that isn’t pretty scenic, but here in the heart of England it’s all pretty blooming bucolic and very Great Canal Journeys. You start out in Britain’s industrial heartland and by the time you’re gliding past farms and canalside pubs, you can practically hear Prunella Scales uncorking a bottle of wine for Timothy West.

We planned to go from Worcester Marina to Stoke Prior and back over three nights, staying the first and last nights in the marina, but as virgin narrow boaters we took it steady and, in the spirit of slow, decided to travel less distance to enjoy a bit more scenery, meet a few more locals and do a bit more messing about in boats.

Where we set off

At Worcester Marina, we’re given a demonstration of how to work locks, and shown our home for the next three nights – the Dunn’s Lark (above). It’s one of ABC Boat Hire’s longest, I still marvelled quietly at the tiny storage and niftily lipped shelves. The Lark is light and tasteful throughout and much more comfortable than I’d expected: a sort of luxury caravan on water, with yacht aspirations. The boats can be configured in several ways. We had a double room and a twin, with two bathrooms, for our family of four. At the front of the boat, a well equipped kitchen and a cosy dining area open onto the front deck. For the uninitiated, the back deck is for steering from and the front deck is for drinking tea, reading, waving and showboating.

What we did

Basically, we boated! That’s the lovely thing about a trip like this: the getting there is the holiday. We stayed in the marina the first night, ready for an early start in the morning, and it is indeed well worth spending an afternoon wandering around Worcester’s historic streets, fabulous cathedral and boutique shops, if you have time.

Day two dawned sunny, and we piloted (only canal plebs say ‘drove’, you know) upstream towards Stoke Prior. It’s surprising how quickly you pick up the skills required to steer such a long vehicle and go from newbie to boaty show-off. We only had one or two ‘interfaces’ with other boats along the way and a couple with canal banks.

You travel slowly through the edges of Worcester, passing the backs of envy-inspiring houses with canal views and into smaller villages. Having conquered our first six locks ( go, us), and caught the sun ever so slightly (foolish us), we stopped near Tibberton for a well earned picnic lunch on the boat and then set sail, metaphorically, again.

As the day cooled, and the scenery we passed became more untamed, we began spotting the wildlife. It really is all around you on the canal, from the swans nest we passed and the cob that followed us for a large stretch of the journey just to check we were definitely minding our own business, to two herons, launching themselves from the reeds over our heads, to the blue, shiny dragonflies that darted alongside us. Take your binoculars: the riverbanks are teeming with life. (And, pro tip: take walkie talkies, too, so you can communicate easily with the person at the tiller when opening locks.)

We moored up in Hanbury for the night at a junction where the canal forks, looking down both the Droitwich canal and The Worcester and Birmingham. Having eaten in The Eagle and Sun pub at the side of the canal, played lots of card games we never normally make time for, and collapsed into impressively large beds for the space available, we slept like logs. Narrow boating is a surprisingly tiring business, it turns out.

And in the morning, like mad dogs and Englishmen, we did it all again on the way back to Worcester.

What we ate

There are lots of good pubs along the canalside. We ate excellent fish and chips on the second evening at The Eagle and Sun in Hanbury (eagleandsundroitwich.com). On our return to the marina we enjoyed a delicious cream of asparagus risotto with king prawns at Benedicto’s ( benedictos.com), a Sicilian restaurant nearby. But mostly, we cooked on the boat. Because, as we all know, food always tastes better on the water.

The best thing

The sense of community. First thing in the morning, the marina is a riot of boaters coming in and giving away their unused pints of milk, growlers of beer or other treats not scoffed on their journeys to those about to set off. Along the way we met a lock keeper who was born and lived his entire life in his cottage on the canal; a lady who came to the canal each day and knew all the swans by name; and two retired couples, who’d narrow boated together in their 20s, about to set off for the second time together in their 60s and 70s. With each friendly encounter we picked up boating tips and skills and some solid life advice.

Prices from £519 for a short break with 20% early discounts on dates for 2020; abcboathire.com.