Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
'Don't worry about that, Neil. We don't mind not having power. We just wanted some-
where to sleep,' said Ben.
'Nah, don't be silly. You won't be able to fully appreciate life in a narrow boat without
electricity.'
As well as being a marina for privately owned boats, Blackwater Meadow Marina also
had a fleet of hire boats, one of which Neil had let us have for the night. He kept apolo-
gising profusely that it had not been thoroughly cleaned.
IhadneverbeenonacanalboatandIwasutterlyshockedwhenIclimbeddownthrough
the hatch. I am not exaggerating when I say it was more luxurious than my own house. It
had a lounge area with a flat screen TV, DVD player and hi-fi; a dining area with seating
for several people; a fully-fitted kitchen that included a dishwasher; a bathroom with an
actual bath, and two bedrooms - one of which had an en-suite. It was arguably the most
lavish accommodation of the trip.
Ben claimed the double room, as the boat idea had been his, and I took one of the single
beds in the other bedroom.
After giving us the tour of the boat, Neil disappeared back to his house and returned
with a bottle of red wine, four cans of beer, some teabags and half a pint of milk.
'I'm afraid my cupboards are empty at the moment,' he said, 'otherwise I would have
offered you some dinner, too. The town is only a five minute walk down the road, so I'm
sure you'll find something easily enough there.'
Neil had become a leading contender for the 'nicest person that we met' award. This
award didn't exist, by the way, but if it had then Neil would have been a leading contender.
We drank a can of beer each and walked the five minutes into Ellesmere town centre.
I don't mean to suggest that we needed the Dutch courage just to venture into the town
centre. Ellesmere is really not that intimidating.
We called into an Indian restaurant after being lured in by the smell. The young waiter
told us we would have to come back on Tuesday to speak to the manager. It was Sunday.
Waiting two days for the possibility of getting a free curry was a little impractical.
We had another rejection from a takeaway but then a kind man from the kebab house
gave us a large portion of chips to share.
'If only we had some bread,' I said, 'then we could have chip butties and wine back on
our boat.' That was a line I never thought I would hear myself say.
'Great idea. I'm sure we can get some stale bread from the Co-op over there,' said Ben.
Ben was not suggesting that Co-op is notorious for selling stale bread. He meant that
shops that sell bread are likely to have surplus stock at the end of the day that they are
forced to throw out. It was 9.30pm, by this point, and the shop was half an hour from clos-
ing.
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