Time For a Swift Exit

So the 2009 season is almost upon us. The boats have been given some tender loving care over the winter and we are ready to welcome our guests with a friendly smile and a heart warming song... well maybe not the last bit.

With this in mind, what better way to prepare for the coming season than by disappearing for a week. OK, so it's not the whole team that are making themselves scarce but the owner John and his family who are taking a boat out for the week. Whilst I admit that it is great to get the chance to do this every so often there's also a good reason for it. When talking to guests about the various routes they can take and offering advice on good places to stop, it helps if you've travelled the route yourself and experienced what it has to offer. Last year we did the Cheshire Ring, this year we are heading towards Llangollen and are seeing how far we get.

It's our intention to spend maybe seven or eight hours a day cruising, depending on our mood and so we should gain a good feel for what is sensibly achievable on a weeks holiday. Also, we haven't been along the Llangollen Canal for a few years so it's a chance to update our knowledge... oh and of course we'll be getting away from the hustle and bustle but we are glossing over that and going for the "it's really hard work and a bit of a chore" approach.

So five of us (three adults and two kids) will be setting off at some point on Saturday on the six berth narrowboat Beeston Castle. Heading down from Preston Brook towards Middlewich, along the Middlewich Branch towards Barbridge and then down to join the Llangollen Canal.

During our trip we are trying something we haven't done before, but which a lot of canal bloggers (are they called cloggers?) do and that is to post updates to the blog at least once a day with our progress and daily (mis)-adventures. We have the wireless USB stick at the ready and are keeping our fingers crossed that it will get a signal. So, if you'd like to follow our week long holiday... erm... I mean working fact finding mission full of hard graft and work... then we'd love you to join us (not literally of course, after all it is only a six berth boat and we are not that close yet).

All the best.

John, Paul, Caron, Freddie & Maisy
The Non-Holidaying Hard Working Crew