It has been a great experience with some highs and very few lows; we were generally really lucky with the weather and we do wonder how we might feel differently about the experience if there had been more rain. We had planned that we would sell the boat after the trip, but I think we both knew this wouldn’t happen even before we set off. So we are now planning next year’s trips – if you would like to come along let us know. We have spent the day at our marina, it is lovely here and it has been a beautiful day and is a beautiful evening, a fitting end to our adventure.

The highs

Our visitors, the old hands and the new, you all seemed to have a good time. We were surprised we didn’t have more after the reactions of many to our trip.

The wildlife – getting close to or seeing shy wildlife who generally take no notice of the boat so it can be used as a hide.

The weather, even if it was definitely too hot some times

The tidal crossings – on the eastern rivers and the Thames

Waking up in a different place nearly every day

The waterways community, meeting new people, the volunteers

Finding canal side stalls / farm shops or good suppliers sometimes in unexpected places.

Seeing the seasons change; the trees were bare when we started and now they are beginning to change

The lows

The tidal crossing – on the eastern rivers and the Thames – the anticipation and concerns about what might go wrong, particularly coming back from the Ouse on a really blustery day and a massive tide (the day after the blood moon)

Not getting as far as we would have liked, partly due to closures, particularly the more northern canals as we are unlikely to get to these from our home base in near future.

Not finding many small suppliers, really miss our greengrocer, fishmonger and butchers, fed up with too much packaging on fresh food.

The statistics

We travelled for approx. 710 hrs, went about 1400miles and through 1008 locks

 

Thank-you for reading my blog.