We've been incredibly privileged during the past nine years to navigate the vast majority of the UK Inland Waterways. Initially for two periods of six months in our first narrowboat (NB) Northern Pride. For the past six years living aboard NBAreandare.

Over the 2015 August Bank Holiday weekend, the Inland Waterways Association held the Northampton Festival of Water, primarily to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the opening of the Northampton Arm. This waterway connected the now Grand Union Canal to the River Nene, providing a route to the East Anglian waterways, culminating at The Wash.

We decided to pay to be one of only two boats booked to trade at this festival, having not previously experienced these waters.

The Tidal Trent

We first ventured onto the tidal Trent during our inaugural six-month narrowboating experience in 2009. Naively, we had little idea of the challenges of navigating a tidal river. Though to be fair, Barry says he did. As a laid-back Kiwi, unlike me, he rarely worries or over-thinks. I vividly recall being confronted by a gigantic gravel barge sitting low in the water as I turned a corner. Thankfully for us (though sad for the industries they supported), the gravel barges stopped navigating the river in 2013, the year we returned to England.

Much of our leisurely travelling time has been undertaken early in the year, due to trading commitments since the spring of 2014. Last April, returning from a month in New Zealand, we chose to venture southwards to explore at Gloucester Quays - and experience what the Gloucester Sharpness Canal had to offer. Those were in themselves a joy to visit. An additional, unexpected thrill, was the picturesque and fascinating sunken ships on the banks of the River Severn, able to be extremely easily accessed from the Canal.