Aesop the famed Ancient Greek fabulist was said to have told the tale of the hare and the tortoise. One so fast, so fleet of foot, and one so slow to be ridiculed.
We learn such fables as children, but so often forget them as adults. As adults so often we are encouraged to go further and faster, higher and longer more rapidly. Speed is so often seen as positive, slowness as either regrettable or something to be overcome.
Living a slowed down life rebalances the rhetoric. Living afloat on a home that travels at a maximum 4mph gives time to appreciate the advantages of going at a considered pace.
Our life recently has been playing out the hare’s route versus the tortoise’s route to get from A to B on the canal network in real (slow) time thanks to the demands of British Shallow Time (BST) that has led to canals and locks being closed through lack of water.
Our original plan, let’s call it Plan A, when sun was still a pleasant thing, was to take a simple route of 66 miles and 57 locks (about 35 hours travelling time) to get ourselves from where we were enjoying summer to where we need to be next month for major regular work on the boat.
The drought led to restrictions of many miles and many locks of Plan A on 3 July and 20 days later the decision was taken to close that section completely making Plan A unviable. It remains closed now nearly 3 months later.
So we made what turned out to be the right decision that it Plan A was probably not going to open for us in time for our deadlines.
Onto Plan B then. It would be a lot longer, at 115 miles but involved one one more lock (58) and it would take longer – 53 hours. But oh, dear, a flight of locks en route was closed because of the drought meaning the entire route was out of use. So Plan B was out of the window.
That then took us to Plan C a huge detour. Plan C would take us 129 miles, 155 locks and double the time of Plan A. But it was the only choice unless we sat and waited and hoped. Sitting, waiting and hoping could work, but the potential of it not working at all, none of the waterways, none of the locks reopening when we needed them to could be high. Water levels have risen slightly but the important thing to note there is slightly.
So we set off on Plan C. Just as we approached a pivotal make or break point on the outskirts of Birmingham, a section of canal which had been closed unexpectedly opened due to the slight improvement in water levels.
That meant an on the fly move to Plan D which reduced our mileage by just 4 miles but glory of glories, cut the number of heavy locks we had to work by 38. So Plan D it was. Plan D involved using locks which were just reopening after weeks of closure. They made for hard going with drained pounds and high levels of rubbish in the water.
Plan D also required arriving at some lock flights with restrictions within their opening hours which meant some long days.
But it has worked. Slow (very very slow at home times) but moving on gradually, we have now arrived almost where we need to be, just 17 miles and 13 locks from our final destination after 125 miles, 117 locks and many long hard hours. We have crawled into bed some nights by 8pm utterly drained.
Today the locks that blocked Plan B have begun to reopen for limited times for the many people queuing there. We are now in a relaxed, leisurely moving mode whereas if we had waited hoping against hope they would open, we would be queuing and then trying to dash for the entire remaining journey time (taking into account that we don’t and can’t move every day because of work and family commitments). There would be no safety net if another issue appeared en route, like a broken lock, or a fallen tree.
Now, we are planning the final stages of our move in a relaxed fashion. We have time to catch up with friends en route, to enjoy the areas we are travelling through.
Taking the longer route but in the mode of the tortoise, slow but sure, determinedly moving on has led us to meet people from Northern California, Scotland, to travel at a speed where we had time to watch kingfishers, remove 18 bags of rubbish and debris from the network, and help others.
We have gone further but slower. It has been hard work and often utterly exhausting’ but we have had time to smell the flowers, watch wildlife living amid the autumn colours, and do our bit to improve where we live.
Nature doesn’t hurry but plants grow and seasons change. We have time at our speed to appreciate what is around us, and that can never be undervalued.
It doesn’t matter that we go slow or have detours. Like the tortoise we get where we are going, and have adventures on the way. It really does pay to go slow. The hare rushed ahead, got bored and exhausted hinself so he took a nap. While he was sleeping the tortoise steadily travelled past him. It is a fable but its truth still plays out every day in modern life.
