Which is a good canal to visit? After a year spent as writer in residence for the Canal & River Trust, I’ve put around a thousand miles of slow travel on English and Welsh waterways under my boot soles, my bicycle tyres, my kayak’s keel and under a few narrowboat hulls as well. People feel, perhaps, that I might be someone they can safely ask which canal they should head to for a day out, a week’s cruise or a long walk.
But with some 2,000 miles of towpaths and navigations spread across dozens of different waterways, it’s impossible to choose any one over the others. They’re all different. They’ve all got their unique attractions. Do you want the excitement of going underground in the Dudley tunnels? The dizzying strut of the Llangollen canal as it crosses Britain’s highest aqueduct? The 30 locks in the Tardebigge flight on the Worcester & Birmingham canal?
Declaring a favourite canal of my own is hard, too. But then there’s the Kennet & Avon (K&A) canal. I’ve known the K&A longest, had the most adventures in its company, and am familiar with the quirks and rewards of its personality. It’s like an old friend.
The K&A opened in 1810. With the many locks needed to climb up and down the Wiltshire hills, it was a difficult navigation to build and maintain, but it connected Bristol to London, on either side of England, making it an important trade link, a kind of lushly pastoral Northwest Passage.
My first trip on the K&A was as a teenager, kayaking for four days in the late 1970s. The canal was in the process of being renovated after it had fallen into disuse earlier in the 20th century. The 16-lock flight at Caen Hill was still derelict. There were stretches of waterless channel where I had to pull the kayak past on a trolley. But the paddling was idyllic slow adventuring, along a weed-embroidered ribbon of water that crossed what seemed – even to an impatient youngster – a timeless landscape. Pike charged fleeing perch, and cows came down the banks to drink. Swans and ducks and kingfishers. A possible otter sighting. There were starry nights sleeping out. The odd pint in a waterside pub. It was a Cider With Rosie type of youthful trip; a voyage of gentle discovery.
Over these past years, I’ve often revisited the canal. I’ve spent an early morning watching a heron stalking and daggering the shallows for small fish. I’ve played guitar and sung through the night in the Barge Inn at Honeystreet, a drop-in local for boat-living musicians, crafts-folk, and passing narrowboaters and walkers. And I’ve pedalled my folding bike the canal’s full length on the towpath and along parallel lanes, sleeping out at night and eating in waterside pubs.
A few weeks ago in Devizes, I took to the water again, with a folding inflatable kayak (with it, I can reach even the remotest stretches of canal by public transport). I was inspired by the Devizes to Westminster Canoe Race – each Easter, it challenges pairs of paddlers to cover the 125 miles to London via the K&A and the Thames. I set off to paddle the same route, but without the masochism of racing. With four days for the trip, it was as if the clock had gone back to those days when I’d first kayaked the K&A. There were the same views, the same miles of tranquil waters – many more since the canal’s restoration – the same locks.
Late one night at the Barge Inn, on another trip along the K&A, someone had summed up the magic of canals, of all canals. “You see,” they’d said, “it’s because time works differently on the waters. It’s not timeless but it’s slow time. The working boat families and their boats may have gone years ago, but if they came back today they’d fit right back in, because so little has changed.”
It’s what I felt gliding along in the kayak. Little seemed to have changed between paddling on the canal many years before as a teenager and being on its waters again. And that’s a rare feeling in this speeded up world we’re all hurtling through.
So, when I’m asked which canal to visit? Well, I always reckon the one nearest to you is a good start. With the majority of Britain’s population only a handful of miles, or less, from a waterway, the options for slow waterside pleasures are plentiful. Fish or birdwatch. Boat, kayak or cycle. Volunteer on maintenance projects, or stroll between towpath pubs. Or just sit and gongoozle. Whatever you do on a canal, you get more time for your minutes, hours and days.
More great canal getaways
Woodland and wildlife in Wales: If you’re looking for peace and serenity and to switch off from the digital world, head to the Monmouthshire & Brecon canal in the stunning Brecon Beacons national park. It’s one of the most beautiful and peaceful waterways in the country. Following the line of the lovely wooded Usk Valley, it is a haven for wildlife and a favourite for nature-lovers, walkers and cyclists.
An oasis of tranquillity in London: To escape the office and find some zen between meetings, head for a waterside picnic to unwind and watch the ducks swim by. Little Venice, on the Regent’s canal in Paddington, is an oasis of tranquillity, hidden away from the mainline train station and busy roads.
Canal heritage in Yorkshire: If you’d prefer a spot of history and to learn about 200 years of canals, visit the Saltaire world heritage site in Shipley on the Leeds & Liverpool canal, the longest canal in Britain.
Exercise and unwind in Birmingham: If you want to raise your heartbeat, head to the Birmingham & Fazeley canal for a cycle or jog along one of the recently improved towpaths through Birmingham city centre. Or simply admire the historic architecture and passing boats on a towpath walk. Birmingham’s waterways provide ample, ideal spots to unwind in the middle of a busy city.
The Canal & River Trust cares for 2,000 miles of waterways across England and Wales. We believe that whatever you do, life is better by water. Discover the special places on your doorstep at canalrivertrust.org.uk
