Canal Boat
Our canal boat was 11m, it was about 2.5m wide, which was wide enough as the locks were not much wider than the boat. It had a deck up the top and it was white. We were on the boat for a week going down a river and into a big canal. There were at least 20 locks and a canal going over another canal. One lock was a triple so the river dropped about 4.5m at this point. you really drop down each lock! There were barrages at each lock for the water to go down and usually there was a mill there too.
The canals were used to carry materials, wine and things. So they were important before railways were invented.
If you made one mistake coming into a lock, you would go boompher, boompher, boompher on each side. So on and so forth. It was really hard to drive, luckily I made a really good job of it. If you turn one way, then you have to turn the other way a bit. If you are going really slowly, then it is incredibly hard to drive because when you go slower, there isn’t as much force on the rudder and then it doesn’t turn much.
You can drive it from inside or outside. Outside was easier because you could see where you were going.
I slept at the very back with Max. I was half underneath Max’s bed.
George
We had bikes on the roof and for the first days we rode our bikes round the towns or back to get the car. After that we met a young French lady who helped us shift the car along so that we could drive off at the end. A taxi was a huge price and not at all affordable! In exchange we made her a flash two course dinner and she was a good sort.
We visited a chateau whose farm grew and sold wine and we saw a pigeon house, dog kennels, a place for ferrets. We found out that oak was good for strong rafters but the beams should be poplar as it is flexible.
George was the best child driver. We only had one incident going up the wrong passage - missed the arrow sign in the bushes and took off into thick weed, reverse not working, slow reverse/drift out with a smoking engine! Phew!- Ed
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