The UK is covered by
canals which used
to be
the roadways for carrying goods to
market. Boats
could
carry much more weight that animal drawn
carts and do
it
much more easily. They were also the
way royalty
traveled
from one place to the other. Palaces
and/or castles
were
always 20 miles apart- the distance the
monarchs
could
travel in one day's time. (The
difference between a
castle
and a palace is a castle is fortified
against attack
and
will be walled and/or moated.) These
canals are
still used
today and there are two kinds of barges,
wide and
narrow
draft. The wide ones go on the larger
waterways and
the
narrowboats on the smaller canals. The
are sized to
fit
into the locks they have to navigate in
the area in
which
they berth. Some are so narrow, there
needs to be
two
(which is what we were on). One houses
the public
areas,
kitchen, diningroom, salon, etc. The
other has the
sleeping cabins. Ours had five cabins,
all with
their own
shower, toilet and sink. They travel
separately but
are
joined while docked for access to both
boats. There
were
just four of us, not including the
husband, wife, son
and
dog that owned and ran the boats. We
were in
Cambridgeshire in the middle eastern
portion of
England in
an area known as East Anglia. Our boats
were named
Barkis
& Peggoty and were on the upper reaches
of the river
Great
Ouse in a town named Brampton. I
have always
loved
Britain and wondered how one could
decide where they
would
want to live if they moved there. This
trip was my
answer.
It is that beautiful. We would take off
every
morning and
have to navigate locks throughout the
day - all of
which
were worked by us. We would pitch in to
the the
water
level raised and lowered. We went to
several
different
villages every day, one more picturesque
than the
other.
Thatched roof houses everywhere with
populations in
the
hundreds. England is covered with
3.5 million
miler of
footpaths, some of which followed the
river. We would
often
walk from one place to another, rather
than ride in
the
boat (we would usually beat them to our
destination)
and
take Benjamin, the owners' dog, with us.
We would go
to
pubs and talk with the local people.
Some of the pubs
were
1,000 years old. This is such a good
way to get to
know
the people and they are so friendly.
They don't see
many
Americans or tourists at all. The
owner's wife is a
gourmet cook so you can imagine how
wonderful the
meals
were. She shopped every day in the
villages where we
stopped and everything was perfectly
fresh. We fell
in
love with this area and would settle
there in a
minute. The second week of our trip we
went on a
walking
tour of Devon and Cornwall in the
southwestern part
of the
island. If you've ever heard of "Lands
End", this is
where
it is. Everyday we set out on a hike
through the
beautiful coastal countryside of this
area, stopping
for
lunch in a quiet village. Farmers are
required to
accommodate footpaths through their
property and most
days
we were walking alongside sheep and
cows. Once
again, the
villages were old, small and beautiful.
In Cornwall
we
stayed in a village called St. Mawes and
the ruins of
a
castle were in view from our hotel (the
hotels have
about
10 rooms). There was a coach that took
us to
different
destinations each day and from there we
would walk
and met
up with the coach (people that preferred
not to walk
would
stay with the coach and tour from
it). Each
village was
different as was every walk - some
through forests,
some
coastal, others through fields, etc.
In Devon we
stayed
in an historic town named Dunster and
our hotel dated
back
to 1500. Here again there was a castle
just behind
us
which is still inhabited. The same sort
of scenario
as in
Devon, walking everyday. There is an
area here
called
Doone Valley where the story "Lorna
Doone" was based.
We
learned more about this country in these
two weeks
than in
all our other trips to the UK combined.
There is
nothing
like going where the "people" are and
experiencing
their
lives, as they live it. We'd go again
in a
heartbeat.
