Amber Graafland
Perhaps inspired by England’s pedestrian performance in the Rugby World Cup, the Warner Leisure Hotels group is staging walking
rugby games. The chain for over-50s said its customers wanted team sports to be made more accessible. The slowed down version of rugby is mixed sex and there’s no jumping or high kicking. warnerleisure
hotels.co.uk Caroline Brown of holiday firm Shearings on the importance of UK domestic tourism:
Abta delegates were wowed by the convention venue, the five-star Westin Resort,
Costa Navarino in the Peloponnese, southern Greece. If you want to see what impressed, Signature From Thomas Cook has
seven nights half board from £1,055pp, including flights, from Manchester on May 8 and transfers. thomascook. com, costanavarino.
com
the rise of stays with Airbnb and Homestay be peaking? Abta says 8% of us used the ‘peer to peer’ firms for rentals this year, while 7% plan to in 2016.
After an Acme course in canal cruising and narrowboat maintenance Mark, the man from Drifters boat hire base, asked: “Any questions?” Trying to sound nonchalant, I replied: “Er, how do we know if we’re going too fast?” With a furrowed brow, he replied: “You’ll see waves. You don’t want waves.”
Well that told me then. Setting off along the Llangollen Canal from Cheshire towards North Wales, all I could think about was ho how I hadn’t really taken in much of what IhI had just been told. And I couldn’t shake off the uncomfortable feeling that I probably sh should have taken a lot more information on board (see what I did there?).
How hard can it be, I naively wondered. A Anyway, with a month’s supply of food and e enough tea to sink a ship (you drink a LOT of tea on a canal trip), we were off.
We were late so the sun was setting and the light really was beautiful. We had a blissful one-and-a-half hours of no locks, a and as we headed towards the Wrexham bo border with the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct ah ahead of us, the world was our oyster.
The crew of the 66ft six-berth Yellow Le Legged Gull barge, me and Justin and the kid kids Rudy and Georgia, were happy and everything was tranquil. What we had forgotten, of course, was the million or so locks and lifting bridges ahead of us.
Things got more interesting when we checked the map and realised it was going to be pretty impossible to reach our target of the three-chamber staircase lock at Grindley Brook by nightfall.
Thanks to tonsillitis and a Holy Communion party we were a day late. Mark, if you’re reading this, we only made waves for this first stretch an and it was kind of an emergency.
I had been told by friends who had barge for form that the holiday would be very relaxing. Th They explained the slowness of the journey (s (speed limit 4mph) would impart a sense ofo calm. ‘’ Who’s heard of canal rage?” they DashingD Daniel Craig dons the 00700 tux once more when Spectre – theth 24th James Bond movie – is releasedrel on October 26. If you’ve gotgo an inner MI6 spy just waiting to be let out there’s a chance to get shaken and stirred in London – but you may need to get lucky at the Casino Royale first.
Thames City Cruises has teamed up with The London Helicopter to offer a glamorous secret agent-style thrill experience. The joked. Well, all I can say is that there was mutiny on our boat from day one.
After that peaceful initial period we began to ‘ lock back in anger’. To start, we passed the first boat we met on the wrong side (I am positive we were told to stay left). Then we crashed, then nearly hit another boat. At Grindley Brook I was relieved to learn the slightly daunting threechamber staircase has a lock keeper. This lock can get busy – expect traffic jams – and is tricky to navigate.
Thanks to the Great Canal Journeys TV series we were pretty clued up on all things canal-related. But sadly, Timothy West and Prunella Scales we weren’t. These two acting legends made it look so easy. I’d like to know their secret – I suspect it was wine.
Thanks to eight-year-old Rudy, who had just completed canals as part of his school project, we were regaled with canal facts.
Did you know the canals were brought Shaken and Stirred in London package features an 18-minute chopper flight over the capital’s best sights, an adrenaline-pumping high-speed jet boat ride along the River Thames, followed by a chance to recover with a three course dinner – accompanied by the essential Martinis of course! – on board the floating restaurant RS Hispaniola.
Prices start at £272 adult/£258 child. Book at thamesjet.com