A Family Affair

There were a lot of moving parts to get this three weeks of life on a narrowboat underway. My cousin Jim, third from the right, and his wife Karen, on his right, took a cruise around the North Atlantic to get to the UK. After a week in London they visited with my brother Charlie, far right, and his wife Ann, on his right. Charlie drove them to my sister Jane’s, far right, and her partner Martin, taking the photo. I joined them after visiting with my sister Sally, top picture. Sally helped me gather together herbs, spices, and other essentials for the boat which we have used extensively. Jane and Martin prepared an amazing Indian meal, which has set a high benchmark for the trip.

Then we all journeyed to Bradford on Avon, and stayed at the first of three Barge Inns that we have visited so far on this trip

The next day we met our boat, Dundas, and piled on.

And so we are underway.

Above is the second Barge Inn of the trip, where we had lunch on the second day. We did the Caen Flight on day three. It is considered one of the gems of the waterways. We tackled locks both before and after the main flight. We went from lock 23 to lock 50 that day. A huge sense of accomplishment was felt by all. Below is the before shot with the flight behind us. From left to right, Elli, Wendy, Jim, Mike, Maggie and Karen, the crew the first week. Wendy is Jim’s niece and Elli is her daughter. Mike is now honourary family, joining us from my new home of Owen Sound.

The lock gates closing.

The original living wall. We were a well oiled machine, each taking different roles all the way up the flight, from boat driver to lock lackey, and an advance crew who set up the next lock.

Going through locks is hard physical work, interspersed with time to contemplate the beauty around us as the lock fills or empties. And of course the challenge of landing the boat to unload lock crew, then entering the lock without banging on the sides of the lock. My cousin John joined us after missing the opportunity of participating in achievement of the flight but photographs of him will have to wait until the next blog. I need a good long session in a pub with better wifi to transfer photographs via the cloud from my phone to my laptop, so until next time.