Cruise around the Brecon Beacons on a narrowboat holiday
IT’S not often you look up from doing the dishes to see a duck and her ten ducklings watching you with interest from just the other side of the sink.
Welcome to life on the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal.
We hired a narrowboat — the Red Billed Finch — for a week to cruise from Goytre Wharf, in the border country north of Newport, into the heart of the lovely Brecon Beacons National Park.
It’s a simply gorgeous corridor of green that runs around 35 miles between the two.
That doesn’t sound very far but with an average speed of 2mph you’ll need to put in the hours to get to Brecon and back in a week.
And you need to pay attention — this is an unusually shallow canal with very soft edges so unless you stick to the middle channel you will frequently run aground and need to use a pole like some demented Venetian gondolier to get free.
Also, there’s plenty of narrow bridges and one tunnel that’s so low you doubt at times you’ll be able to get through it.
But otherwise it’s the perfect canal trip for a novice. There are very few of those pesky locks, only six each way, most staffed with volunteer helpers — and there is very little other traffic so you have the whole width of the water mostly to yourself.
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To keep as much as possible to one level, minimising the need for those locks, the engineers who built it followed the lines of the Brecon hills (and it’s barely changed since — most of the bridges and trappings are original early-1800s vintage).
This means the canal’s course continually meanders and you typically have hills on one side, valleys on the other and great views of mountains such as The Sugar Loaf at all points.
It was built to support coal mines and iron works — the World Heritage industrial site of Blaenavon is nearby — but those and their filthy by- products are long gone.
Greenery has returned, so it’s more stunning landscape than eyesore.
Your route also passes a couple of quite lovely market towns, Crickhowell and Abergavenny, before it terminates at a third, which gives you plenty of chance to stock up on food and drink.
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Speaking of drink, there is also scope for that. There are two or three pubs where you can actually moor outside the beer garden — which I must say does cut quite the dash — and many more you can walk to from your boat.
If you can manage the climb, The Goose & Cuckoo, above Llanover, is amazing if you like your boozers atmospheric and simple.
This formula kind of applies to the on board accommodation.
Narrowboat furnishings are basic but functional. This extends to the lounge, the bedroom, the bathroom and the cooking facilities.
Which leads me on to how I got the closest to channeling Basil Fawlty I’ve ever managed.
I was on the deck of our boat, enjoying my captain status, while my partner, Sian, was busy in the kitchen below, grilling bacon.
A couple were approaching along the towpath and, just as they reached me, the smoke alarm began screaming.
Attempting the voice and manner of Basil, I said: “Ah, there goes the fire alarm — breakfast must be almost ready.”
That episode aside, the week could hardly have been more tranquil — a haven of wildflowers, grazing sheep and birdsong.
The boat’s name, The Finch, was appropriate in this sense because this was a holiday that featured a lot of birds.
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As we chugged along, we spotted robins, sparrows, chaffinches, goldfinches, greenfinches, magpies, wood pigeons, buzzards, kites, wrens, grey wagtails, pied wagtails, dippers, treecreepers, blackbirds, chiffchaffs, herons, blue tits, great tits, coal tits, long-tailed tits, swallows, kingfishers, jays, jackdaws, great egrets, mute swans, coots, moorhens, bramblings, blackcaps, stonechats, siskins, those ducklings from the washing-up — and a lot of others.
Phew, or should that be coo. This is a UK holiday that puts you right in the middle of nature. The whole effect is quite hypnotic.
GO: South Wales
SAILING THERE: The Red Billed Finch narrowboat sleeps up to five people and costs from £999 for four nights or from £1,299 for a full week plus £50 deposit for a short break or £90 for a week.
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