It is interesting to see your own way of life portrayed on television, particularly if it is a little different.
We are familiar with Robbie Cumming’s Canal Boat Diaries and always thought them the most honest representation of how we found narrowboat life. Then there was Narrow Escapes which, while entertaining, bore little familiarity to our very own narrow escape.
This week there was another view, that of Dave on his narrowboat Inspired by Nature. He opened up his floating home to Ben Fogle for an edition of Channel 5’s New Lives in the Wild.
Ben joined Dave on the Macclesfield Canal which we lnow . It is hardly a remote outpost, and indeed one which led some criticism on social media. People said that it wasn’t wild. They didn’t tackle any locks (although they did go to the services at the top of the Bosley flight of locks), and there was much conversation about how cheap it was to live afloat as a continuous cruiser which many don’t agree is the case.
For me, many of those comments missed some of the most glorious elements of not only the proramme but the reality of life afloat. The programme captured that on a narrowboat in the UK you can be literally living in the wild if that’s what you choose. You can be away from neighbours (the human kind). You can be surrounded totally by nature. The Macclesfield isn’t the wildest but there are many canals, particularly in Lancashire and Yorkshire where we have found moorings that are remote.
The glory of the waterways is beautifully captured on Dave’s YouTube channel which is named after his boat, which as we know, becomes a floating hide in many ways, allowing us to observe wildlife (and sometimes as Dave pointed out on the programme, humans too). Birds and animals of all kinds tend to ignore the boat unless we openly offer food or conversation.
There are few ways of living that allow you so many choices of how and where to live.
As we know from our years of experience as continuous cruisers, living on a narrowboat gives us the option of:
- Regularly changing views and scenery
- Choice of the environment you want to live in – city, rural, wilderness
- A chance to be surrounded by woodland or pastureland
- Opportunities to live alongside high rises or country cottages
- Staying put for up to 14 days at a time, or move on after a night or two
- Lifting your ropes and moving on if a neighbour you don’t fancy turns up and moors too close
- The choice to moor close to pubs and shops or far away from them
- The opportunity to cruise on stretches without locks or to choose stretches with locks
- And as we know very well right now, if your family have the good sense to be near a connected inland waterway, this life can give you the chance to moor close by for a while when wanted or needed, and then to untie the ropes and head off to pastures.
Dave talked of his narrowboat life as his therapy, a healing place, and in many ways this life can be exactly what the doctors order to strengthen mental resilience.
Living afloat is very much about being in the present moment. When boating we tend to be mindful, in the moment and focused on the here and now. It is safer that way! Tackling a lock or even steering through a narrow section of waterway demands focus and concentration.
Sleep is something doctors advocate, and sleeping afloat is very often for me at least, the very best quality of sleep. We tend to choose moorings away from streetlights, in quiet spots where often the owls are our only companions. This lends itself to uninterrupted hours of sleep. If we also adopt the Circadian rhythms then sleep seems even more rewarding, sleeping in the dark and being active from dawn to dusk.
That being active part is also part of medical advice, and continuous cruising, particularly if we are doing locks and swing bridges helps with that. Regular stretching and lifting, raising the heart rate and walking between locks adds to the healthiness of this life.
The calm of water has proven benefits. Watching water moving is relaxing. The uplifting beauty of sunrises and sunsets reflected of water are good for the spirit. The sound of moving through water at a maximum fast walking pace is calming too.
Being outdoors amid nature is another big plus of this life, and we all know the benefits being outside and in nature can bring. It seems to me that not only being outside so much but being aware of being surrounded by nature 24/7 must be the very best situation. Bricks and mortar are by their very nature more of a barrier than steel, insulation and wood. We are constantly aware of nature, of the weather, of the wildlife, in a way that you cannot be in a house unless it is made of glass.
If I am totally honest, this programme was a much-needed reminder to me of the advantages of living afloat. The constant rain and continuous state of the river being in flood are making my spirits as soggy as the ground outside. Dressing up to take the dog out is a faff. Waterproofs are wonderful, we are lucky to have them, and new wellies with grip are making life safer, but oh I am fed up of needing them every time I want to go out. I know we are happy and indeed want to stay here because it gives us a chance to help with our two grandsons, but Tiller Itch is setting in, probably because we can’t move even if we wanted to. We might move nearer to the water point (although the nearest one isn’t working…), or to the toilet services, or we might just fancy taking the boat for a trip to wherever the nearest working services are, but we can’t because of the flooding, and there’s more rain forecast so levels are not likely to subside soon.
Rant over. New Lives in the Wild shot as it was in autumn reminded me of the beautiful colours, the manageable nature of canals (unless there’s a breach or a breakage of equipment), and made me look forward with anticipation.
It reminded me that it is possible to have the best of all worlds in a nomadic life surrounded by home comforts, moving slowly through the days, missing nothing (apart from a bath), and gaining so very much on the way.
Pickingupducks 