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Saturday 24 September 2011

Monmouth Canal



The painting above is of a canal boat on the Monmouthshire to Brecon Canal. The bridge is near to a campsite we stopped at last year. The painting sold last week.

Alex and I bought a canal boat many years ago when we were first married. We bought it in the Exchange and Mart. I am not sure if that is still around. I don’t think we had even seen it but it was very cheap. The owner obviously just wanted rid of it and it was in a marina in Northampton.
Anyway the only real problem with it was the engine wouldn’t start and it was on expensive moorings. We decided to bring it along the canals to Welsh Frankton where we could more it for next to nothing (things have changed). We set out in the middle of winter and after a day or so the canal began to ice up until we had to use the boat as an icebreaker. At night we would stop near a pub to spend the evening in the warm with a few beers. We never got it all the way home as British Waterways were doing engineering work assuming no-one was mad enough to be using the canal at that time of year. We left it tied to the bank and returned for it a couple of months later. It was fine and it arrived in Welsh Frankton where it was used for a season. We later sold it when children came along to buy “things” for the nursery.

I later went on a canal boat with Prince Charles on the Montgomery Canal, which was quite pleasant. It was a lovely warm day and he is very personable.
Today we are awaiting the arrival of our next grandchild.

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