Messin' about on the river (Alvechurch (UK))

Member Name: andyk910

Product:	Alvechurch (UK)
Date:	07/03/09 (115 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lovely way to spend a week, relaxing

Disadvantages: No bigger than a caravan, you are stuck with whoever you go with!

**Introduction**
Have you ever considered a narrowboat holiday? If you have childhood memories of messing about on boats or you fancy the aquatic version of the freedom of the road, this might be for you. At its best, as you putter quietly along still water through beautiful countryside and feel at one with nature, you think "Hmm, wonderful. Stop at that next pub for some lunch and a pint, maybe?" Of course, at its worst, you are stuck in something little larger than a caravan that only does 4 miles an hour where you have to wash, cook, eat and sleep with a bunch of people who may be driving you insane and from whom you can not get away, and then you might be contemplating throwing someone into the oh-so peaceful canal.

My week on a 54 foot narrow boat brought more of the former than the latter, for sure (although I had my moments...).
**The Boat and facilities**
We hired the boat through a company now trading as UK Boat Hire (UKBoathire.com) - they previously traded as Alvechurch and you may have seen their cheerful red and green narrowboats on some of Britain's canals. We went to their base in Falkirk in Scotland (more or less at the mid point between Glasgow and Edinburgh) to collect the boat, get the basic instructions and start the holiday. This company have a larger base in the English Midlands and there are more boats for hire in central England than in the rest of Great Britain - because there are more canals, I suppose.

There are different types of boats available for hire from this company and others and also different sizes. We had opted for one of the larger boats and also for the luxury end of the range, so this 54 foot boat had effectively three 'bedrooms' (one was the converted dining table area), two bathrooms, a fully-fitted kitchen including four ring cooker, oven and microwave, cookware, pans, crockery, cutlery and glasses, TV, CD and DVD player and so on. Also, as this was the luxury end, the two toilets on board were electrically flushed (on many narrowboats, this is a manual pump process) and there was also an electric pump to remove water from the slipper bath after your shower, again replacing the more common hand pump. There was an effective heating system too, surprisingly necessary in Scotland in September, but I think being on the water draws heat out of the boat more than you would expect and we were grateful for it.
There were some nice touches too, like two sets of waterproofs for us. And you needed them. If you are stood on the back driving for a couple of hours in slow rain, you need them!

This boat was about £1200 for the week and would sleep 6 really quite comfortably. We had fewer people on board and there was space to be on your own now and then if you wanted to be. Two people would probably have been too few, however, for a boat this size.
**Some technical detail**
At Falkirk, in the shadow of the Falkirk Wheel where we collected our vessel (more about the Falkirk Wheel later) we loaded our luggage on board and also a couple of hundred pounds worth of supplies from Tesco's into the fridges and cupboards. A man from the hire company came and gave us a briefing on the (limited) maintenance necessary for a one-week hire, things like checking the weed trap. We were shown how and where to take on water along the way, given some instruction on how to drive, steer, stop and start the engines and other equipment (there is not that much - this is not a Jumbo 747).

There were some things we did not have to do, for example fuel. The boat came fully fuelled and it would be almost impossible to use all the fuel up in a single weeks cruising - you can't travel at night anyway (not allowed) so you can really only be going for a maximum of about 10 or 11 hours per day, if that. Actually, the enforced stop was rather pleasant. You do stop, make a meal, have a beer or a glass of wine, lounge around, talk and relax - all those things you are supposed to be on holiday for!
**The route - Part 1**
Canal boats - narrow boats - go past my window at home in Bristol, but I wanted to see some different scenery on my trip. I had heard about the Falkirk Wheel, a sort of aquatic fun-fair ride as well as a very practical and elegant solution to an engineering conundrum, and I chose to go to Scotland for my trip. I have been to both Glasgow and Edinburgh many times, but arriving by air, by road or by rail and never before on water.

Having collected the boat from Falkirk, we set off that afternoon to head towards Glasgow. Unlike many English canals, there are very few locks (relatively) on the Clyde Canal (technically I think it is the Forth and Clyde) which runs in part from Falkirk to Glasgow. Also unlike in England, the personnel from Scottish Waterways operate the locks for you (by arrangement): This is good and bad - good because it is one less thing to think about and learn and they are the experts, bad in that you do have to get somewhere at an agreed time, which removes a bit of the pottering element.
We stayed the first night outside a pub and restaurant on the route to Glasgow, tied up next to another boat (the place was a recommendation from the unfailingly pleasant and helpful Scottish Waterways folk) and cruised on the following day, reaching Glasgow that afternoon and tying up for the night at the Scottish Waterways Head Office. It was a real pleasure to arrive in this manner and see some new views of the city. We strolled into town for a pint on Sauchiehall Street (as you do).

Over the following day, we returned to Falkirk, ready to tackle the wheel for the first time.
**The Wheel**
Opened by HM The Queen in 2002, it is an engineering masterpiece. Using little more power than an electric light bulb, it is a boat lift, rotating two water filled containers or cassions 24 metres in height to connect the two canals, the Forth and Clyde to the Union Canal (which runs to Edinburgh). 24 metres, by the way, is about the height of an 8 story building! There had previously been a flight of locks to connect the two canals, but after the canals went out of use and fell into disrepair, the land these locks were on was built over and there was no prospect of restoring them. Instead, this wonderful wheel was built - a visitor attraction all in its own right and very exciting to use.

**Part 2 of the trip**
I had though - naively - that my more experienced friends would handle the task of getting into the basin at the Falkirk Wheel (one tight lock, just large enough to take this boat), then across the basin in front of a few hundred spectators, then into the cassion or bucket itself, then out of the cassion at the top and through a narrow pinch point (in a strong crosswind) through a small tunnel and another couple of locks: I had thought so, but I was wrong. "No" said the most experienced narrow boatman on board, heading forward as fast as he could "You'll be fine, Andy - you do it". Chicken. So I did. I didn't actually hit anything significant and it was exciting. As the top, getting out in a stiff crosswind, the laconic Waterways man said "See that gap there?" nodding forward. I said I did. He said "When the barrier at the front goes down, just put on full throttle and go for it. You probably won't miss" and with this advice in my ears, off we went.
A night en route Edinburgh, two nights in Edinburgh at the very smart basin in the middle of the city, with a day of exploring in the middle, a night at Linlithgow on the way back then through the wheel once more (muggins driving again), a final night on the boat back at Falkirk and hand it back the following day.

**Conclusions**
Very glad we did it, would do it again, want to do the Caledonian Canal further north in Scotland, recommend this company and this route. Do be very careful who you go with, because if they get on your nerves you are rather stuck with them.

Summary: Try iy. Very worthwhile