Narrowboat AREandARE

From the 2009 & 2010 tantalising tales, traumas and stunning photographs of Barry (photographer) and Sandra (writer) from New Zealand aboard NB 'Northern Pride', to the stories of their 2013 return journey, purchase of 'AREandARE', progress on sustaining their live aboard continuous cruiser lifestyle, and Barry's quest to gain residency and 'Indefinite Leave to Remain' in UK ...

Saturday 15 March 2014

Well worth watching - Great Canal Journeys

Although we choose not to have a TV on board, we do occasionally watch programmes via the Internet that interest or inspire us.

We'd heard that Prunella Scales and Timothy West had filmed a four-part series called Great Canal Journeys, and the first one was on The Kennet and Avon which we loved travelling along in 2010. The 'M4 of the day' as they so aptly describe it.

On Thursday night we watched part one. What a well-thought out and scripted programme, showing the canals of England and Wales in such a positive light, with the British actors proudly boasting their involvement in the K & A restoration over 20 years ago, and their decades of narrowboat ownership and holidays. 

They travelled from beautiful Bath, to the Caen Hill Flight of locks, and finished at Devizes. We've fond memories of this stretch, as Barry's friends Dickie and Sandra, from Rottingdean, joined us at the lock flight , staying on board all the way to Bath. Such fun!

We loved Timothy and Prunella's comments when they first looked around their hire boat, and saw a 'telly' in the lounge area. 

"Oh no! We don't have a telly on board. We have crosswords, games and conversation!"

Fabulous. People after our own hearts. Though of course nowadays we do have the internet, which tends to stifle the above activities somewhat!

We were interested to watch Pru visiting the Floating Salon hairdresser, where Barry and I also had our hair cut. It's very encouraging to see her still there and loving the lifestyle. She does, of course, have a wide beam boat rather than a narrowboat - I don't think it would be possible to run such a business in a width of 6 foot 10 inches!

We'll be watching the next three episodes - though probably on my iPhone with unlimited data rather than the laptop as it ate up a lot of data streaming the programme, and we'll run out which we've learnt is an expensive challenge!

Oh, and we've passed the 200,000 page views since our last post - thanks to everyone who stops by here to share our journeys.

2 comments:

  1. I loved it and the relationship between them was really touching.

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    1. It was wasn't it? So together, accepting of each ones foibles and strengths in such a kind and loving way. Of course the cameras only show us what they want us to see, but it was obvious how much they loved and cared for each other - and the Inland Waterways.

      Thanks for commenting Nick, it's always lovely to know people are reading ;-)

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