Canal Boating in LONDON - Quintessentially English!!

Canal Boating is essentially a slow journey in between pubs in the English Countryside. What's not to like??

So we thought we would give it a go, on a nice sunny day in Surrey, just outside London. At £120 for up to 12 people, it is great value for money, and we were left satisfied after some good old fashioned fun.

One of the best things about canal boating is, it's one of the few activities where you are given full control over a water based vehicle with no training. Turn up, given the keys, and off you go. Granted, top speed is 3mph, but still, I hate hassle, and this was hassle free. I remember whilst on holiday in Croatia, being really excited at the prospect of hiring a boat for the day, only to be told this was the largest boat I was allowed to hire;

I genuinely went to the boat yard wanting to hire a yacht, what a mug. Anyway, this did lead to some interesting complications (considering our experience...zero), especially linked to parking and turning around. The photo above gives you an idea of how this went... I wish I could say we made a 3 point turn, but it must have been closer to 20 points by the time we got there..

In case you are interested, we went to West Byfleet, which is accessible by train from London Waterloo in 40mins. Here is the company we rented from. Very nice family.

Excitement was in the air as we set off.

On the road :)

Here is my Spanish friend Carlos preparing lunch. He cooks a mean Spanish Omelette (I know, it surprised me too..), and is very good at cutting cheese with a blunt knife.

Here we are after our first successful mooring. It took sometime and all of our combined brain power to complete.

It wouldn't be the same without Champagne all over the floor.

We had a nice picnic on the Boat. Drinking seems to be the number 1 activity among fellow Canal Boaters, so we got involved best we could, on and off the boat. There is always some great little pubs along the canal and we jumped off whenever we seen a good one.

All in all, great day out with friends. Nice way to get out of the city for the day too. We seen all sort of bird, and all sorts of dogs jumping in the canal trying to catch them.. I hope others give it a go and have a great time like us.