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Winter waterway: a cosy off-season trip on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal
A centrally heated boat proves perfect for a quiet Pennine cruise but canal maintenance and stormy weather mean plans have to be flexibleThe ice creaked against the boat’s hull, slabs of it spinning out of the way. We weren’t in the Arctic on a cruise ship but steering a narrowboat in northern England, almost the farthest north you can reach on the inland waterways. There was snow on the hills. The Leeds & Liverpool Canal, which climbs to 148 metres above sea level as it crosses the Pennines between the east and west coasts, had only recently thawed after a cold snap.A canal holiday is usually thought of as a summer pastime: standing at the tiller in T-shirt and shorts, followed by evenings in canalside beer gardens. But the canals are quieter in the off season (from October to May), and it is unlikely you will find queues at locks or water points. The sparsity of boat traffic is also easier on the nerves if you’re new to steering a 30-tonne steel battering ram round bends, through narrow bridges and beside expensive moored boats. For the first time ever, I would be at the tiller of a wide-beam (11ft 5in-wide) boat. Continue reading...
A centrally heated boat proves perfect for a quiet Pennine cruise but canal maintenance and stormy weather mean plans have to be flexible
The ice creaked against the boat’s hull, slabs of it spinning out of the way. We weren’t in the Arctic on a cruise ship but steering a narrowboat in northern England, almost the farthest north you can reach on the inland waterways. There was snow on the hills. The Leeds & Liverpool Canal, which climbs to 148 metres above sea level as it crosses the Pennines between the east and west coasts, had only recently thawed after a cold snap.
A canal holiday is usually thought of as a summer pastime: standing at the tiller in T-shirt and shorts, followed by evenings in canalside beer gardens. But the canals are quieter in the off season (from October to May), and it is unlikely you will find queues at locks or water points. The sparsity of boat traffic is also easier on the nerves if you’re new to steering a 30-tonne steel battering ram round bends, through narrow bridges and beside expensive moored boats. For the first time ever, I would be at the tiller of a wide-beam (11ft 5in-wide) boat. Continue reading...
