Hi Old timers! Yes, I am quite aware of narrowboating in France.People said Irealnd was going to be a problem, but we knocked that off in 6 weeks! ;-) I have met a few people that know of our exploits and have been down and UP the Rhone. They said the Up was no problem, just long days with nowhere to stop in between. As for hanging about on the Thames tideway / MSC for locks and dealing with commercial craft, then we have been there. My limited experience of Europe, so far has been a 20m barge in The Netherlands (Ijssel, where we met things like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HBNPyXlP0c and thne rather a lot of Friesland. Also Somme in David Long's NB, which was a baptism of fire as I did most of it solo, while David car shuffled. I think if anyone wants to see how even a solo narrowboater can get on in Europe, then look no further than one of the founders of this list! Adrian will, no doubt go on about the Rhine...but then I would probably be unlikely to take a barge on that. In reality, if Linda and me (as opposed to TNC) ever do Europe it will be in a rather more suitable craft, a 10-13m Dutch Steel Cruiser. I why do I say suitable? just a whole lot easier, because that is what pleasure boating in Europe is set up for, not necessarily safer or not doable in a narrowboat.
ps, we will be in Ireland for a good while yet...and there will be plenty of opertunities for people to come over for a couple of weeks Irish cruising! -- Neil Arlidge - NB Earnest - Shannon Reg 7410 Read about the TNC Irish travels at: http://www.tuesdaynightclub.co.uk/Tour_07/index.html Stanley & Judith Voets wrote: > Don't forget Neil that when you are in France you have to wait for > the lockie to put you through the lock. Sometimes they wait for the > opposite direction boat boat instead of turning the lock. One day we > waited over 1 hour for a hotelboat to get to the lock and lock down. > Of course when it's 30 degrees C in the afternoon it's best to sit > under a tree and enjoy life. > > Stan ( now definitely boatless :-{ ) > > P.S. there are lots of narrowboats in France and you can even hire > them in NL. > > Judy & Stan Voets, > [EMAIL PROTECTED], P.O. Box 103, San > Geronimo, CA. 94963, Tel: 415.488.0985 > > You may never know what results come from your action, but if you do > nothing, there will be no results. - Gandhi > > > > On Feb 28, 2008, at 12:57 PM, Neil Arlidge wrote: > > SNIP > >> >> but when I am bored with Ireland it is straight >> to Europe, where we will probably knock the whole system off in a >> couple of >> years, including all the bits where you can't get your barge! ;-\) >> >> -- >> Neil Arlidge - NB Earnest - Shannon Reg 7410 >> Read about the TNC Irish travels at: >> http://www.tuesdaynightclub.co.uk/Tour_07/index.html
