Early boating

This weekend, I decided to look out some photos from our early boating holidays. Our first was on the Thames, at least ten years ago, in a tupperware boat called Oxford Tobago.


Oxford Tobago was steered with a wheel, from a position at the front of the boat. It also had a large sunroof which slid back. However, we quickly realised we'd rather have been on a narrowboat, so our next trip was on the Llangollen Canal, on an AngloWelsh boat called Bluebell.

Bluebell was very small, probably not much more than 35 feet. It was pretty basic inside too. Our next boat wasn't very much different. I don't remember what it was called, but we hired from Severn Valley Cruisers at Stourport (who don't seem to hire any more).

We did the Stourport Ring. The first night was spent breasted up with a large number of other boats on the landing of a Severn lock whose mechanism had failed. We also did the Tardebigge Flight, went through Birmingham for the first time, took the Old Main Line to the Black Country Museum in Dudley, went down the Wolverhampton 21, and did Bratch Locks.