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British Mensa Travel Special Interest Group |
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Off
the Beaten Track Most types of holiday that people take are fairly widely published; even if you don’t wish to spend a fortnight on the beach getting heavily sunburnt, everyone knows that such holidays are widely available. In this article I am going to describe a couple of which you may be unaware. Firstly, a recent article in VISA (issue 53A, December 2003) described a narrow boat holiday on the British canal system. Again I think it is widely known that such boats are for hire from several companies, and a group of about six people can hire a boat, and return it to the starting place either a week or fortnight later. Speed is about walking pace, so that it is difficult to do one of the circuits, with many retracing their route half way through the week. There is also the Narrow Boat Hotel Company, which is basically what the name suggests. In this company there are a few pairs of narrow boats which travel throughout the canal network of England and Wales. They have a fixed schedule and mainly change their passengers on Saturdays. They run from about the beginning of April until the end of October. I have been on one of these a couple of times, the first time from Oxford to Warwick and the second time from Market Drayton to Llangollen. It is possible to go on these cruises either on one’s own or with a small group of people. All the chores, cooking, driving and operating the locks are done by the crew, although passengers are able to help with the locks if they wish. It is very easy walking from one lock to the next, as of course it is level, and impossible to get lost. The meals were excellent, with full breakfast, cooked lunch and dinner as well as morning coffee and afternoon tea. The cabins are of course small, but immaculate and well equipped. The ones I have been on were crewed by a family, for whom it was a hobby as well as their business. It is possible to leave one’s car at a boat yard, or they will meet you from a station. The Oxford canal was one of the first to be built (authorised 1769 and brought to Oxford in 1790) and follows the contours to a certain extent, making it very bendy, but was the first waterway to link up Birmingham to London via the Thames. The Llangollen canal must be one of the most dramatic, crossing both the Chirk and Pont-Cysllte (pronounced pont-sis-ill-tee) aqueducts, the latter being high over the river Dee. There are also tunnels, which unusually can be walked through. It was normal to take the towing horse over the hill and leg the boats through tunnels, but at Chirk there is a towpath through the tunnel. Throughout the journey the crew know the places of interest nearby and stop accordingly. The second
excursion I want to write about in this note is a recent rail day trip
I did all the way (from Colchester) to the Eden project in Cornwall. Again
I hadn't realised that such excursions were available until told by my
cousin. The company was Past Time Rail, and they run about a dozen of
these trains to Eden in the year, starting in different places, examples
being Doncaster, Aylesbury, the one I took having started in Ipswich.
They also run several steam specials and other excursions, but this train
was hauled by a diesel, although the carriages were rather old. Amazingly, the train kept to time arriving at each station within a couple of minutes of the scheduled time, leaving Colchester at 0546 arriving at Par station near the Eden project, at 1229. The return journey started at 1720 from Par arriving back in Colchester at 2345 (Ipswich 0005). It was a very long but enjoyable day, and relaxing as there were no changes except for the short bus journey to the Eden project. There was a buffet car where snacks were available; full breakfast, lunch and evening meal was only available for those who had pre-booked. The Eden project was opened a couple of years ago, in the remains of a disused clay pit. It is arranged into three biodomes. They are the outside, the tropical and humid one, and one of a Mediterranean climate. With vast temperature differences, it is useful to have clothes that can be adjusted accordingly. There is a lot of walking, but there are wheelchair routes. Details
for the companies mentioned (I have no financial interest in either): Past Time
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