The only way to travel! Travel adventures

I just love boats, but not huge cruise liners.
I nearly bought a narrow boat, but was afraid it might sink. They need a lot of maintenance!

The canals in Britain are a different life style, a silent way to travel and be at peace with the world. A wonderful experience.

In my twenties, I was living on a farm called Manor Farm.
For a few, who know part of my life story, I was homeless as a teen. I had the good fortune to move into the house of a film director, who was Danish. I lived with her teenage kids, of similar age to me, in a beautiful townhouse.
She was away for six months, and I had never met her.
I went downstairs one day, and there she was…‘Hello, I’m Ann, and you can stay!’

Much later, an envelope plopped through my letter box. My partner had a lead role in a film. I was to be an extra and work in the catering team.
We hired two barges, one for catering and the other for the filming.
The story was of three guys who had to deliver a narrow boat from Knapton Juction, Warwickshire to London for as much as they could drink along the way. The canal is 137 miles in length, ending in the Regents canal that goes through the  London zoo.
The teens in the family chose to sleep on the filming narrow boat and I with my partner on the catering boat. Everyone else chose hotels with all expenses paid. The boat appealed to the Gypsy in my soul. More peaceful too.
The filming took place in a frosty, icy February for six weeks. The budget was shoestring. The canal was the Grand Union. It was cold and icebreakers cleared our journey every day for filming.
The landscapes were magical, with frost sparkling in watery sunshine. The town showed the backs of houses not as smart as driving through main streets. My other job was as a runner on flights of locks. One lock was against us uphill, and I had to run with a large key to open all the 30 locks with a corresponding partner on the other side of the canal.
Evenings, we either watched the days filming, in a hotel, or frequented the old fashioned pubs, socializing and playing skittles or shove  halfpenny. Very old traditional games.
As an extra, I walked along the river bank my long blond hair blowing in the wind flirting with the three stars in our film. It was a beautiful sort of travelogue, but although the director had won awards previously, not much happened with the movie. It was sold to Spanish television. I only saw one copy a few years later. So I can’t even show you a clip.

Narrow boats are traditional and were used for transporting heavy goods. They are painted in dark green and red, painted with flowers. They were horse drawn originally. They traveled in pairs, the first boat transported heavy goods. The family’s who owned the boats lived in the second boat called a butty.

Have you had any boating adventures? Do you love boats? Or another form of home or travel?
Our theme is travel, boats, and your travel adventures.
Music, memes, gifs, film clips, chat all welcome…respect all commenters.
Enjoy… Lian and Kieran