23 April 2014 Buxton: Dry Land Today

This is an account of our first narrowboat trip, undertaken with dear friends Betty and Geoff in 2014.

This adventure came about when, in 2013, B rang and asked if we would like to hire a boat with them and do the Canal du Midi in France. Knowing nothing about canal travel I did a little research and the first picture I came across was two young lithsome bikini clad women draped across the top of a boat sipping champage a position in which, no matter how hard I tried, I could not imagine B and me! The next thing I discovered was that all the beautiful old trees lining the canal were either dead or dying due to the Elm Tree beetle. We were not off to a good start and with L showing little interest I rang B and declined.

HOWEVER, less than a week later L happened to be watching one of his fav. English TV presenters, Julia (someone) do a walk along the Llangollen Canal in England and Wales. Halfway through the program he called to me and said ring B&G and tell them if they are interested in doing the Llangollen Canal wer're in. They watched the last half of the program and the rest is history.

B has kindly let me copy her blog of our trip to which I will add here and there, from fast fading memories - as I begin this task in August 2025. Many thanks to George who not only taught Betty to blog, but had to repeat the whole process in 2015 with me; he has also spent many hours researching to enable me to copy B's blog.

Let's go

The Old Hall Hotel..where we lay our weary bodies last night is lovely in the beautiful old Spa town of Buxton. Exquisite architecture.

And very comfortable it was.  Thank you B who researched all the off boat accommodation.

Visited the stately home "Chatsworth House" today, home to the Cavendish family for 100's of years.

Mind blowing history and opulence. Nearly needed an ambulance evacuation to get us back up the hill to the car park, we were so exhausted, not wanting to miss anything..before closing.

L has been doing a great job with the driving , apart from his aversion to a straight or main road.

However his penchant for the back blocks, has led us to some amazing scenery, beautiful farmland

and not forgetting loss of hair for the unfortunate navigator. (On our way from the Manchester airport to Buxton we came to a roundabout, not just your ordinary 2 way roundabout, this one had 5 exits. It was only after completing 3 full circuits of it that we found the correct exit - much to the confusion and hairpulling of the driver, navigator - not to mention the feelings of the fellow motorists at the time, whom I must say were, on the whole, very forgiving.)

We flashed passed an interesting cavern on our long way home  through the hills.

"the Devil's Arse " The men may be going back tomorrow for an exploration!

Must away,

Love to family & friends, goodnight.