So why am I doing this?

I’m forty, my life is going nowhere, and twenty years as Civil Servant in London has been quite enough, thank you very much. Luckily I’ll be leaving soon with sufficient in the bank to fund a new dream.

So why a narrowboat?

For a start. Don’t they look fantastic? But, more seriously, I like the idea of travelling around the 3000odd miles of canals and rivers, taking my home with me, and having a lot less bills and “living expenses” to worry about, and living my life at (on the whole) my pace and no-one else’s. Obviously they’re will be quite an initial layout (buying and fit-out), but even minor things like being able to chug along, watching the view slowly go by for morning as the engine supplying electrical power to a washing machine and the wood-stove cooks my dinner is enough to bring a little smile to my face.

There’s also a degree of ‘eco’-ness about the whole thing, too. (Oh, and a good lump of Yorkshire “owt for nowt”, too!) So that means using the engine, wind, sun and water to generate electrical power, reusing and recycling as much as possible, and either using food that is free or making food go further and better. Should I be able to get a Cruiser-stern boat, that’ll also mean I’ve sufficient deck space on which to set-up a small garden and greenhouse for my own vegetables. I may well even see if I can grow spuds in sacks hanging on the side of the boat! I’ll definitely be using the woodsmoke from the stove and fire to prepare and preserve my own meat and fish.

There have been quite a few influences for all this. Two of them are gentlemen I’m very unlikely to meet, but they are Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall and Dick Strawbridge. Both, in their own distinct ways, feel a loving and heartfelt promotion of a better way of living.

Hugh is very much of the food side - a subject very close to my heart! I watched everysingle one of his shows, from “A Cook On The Wildside” to “Beyond River Cottage”, and his passion for good food re-sparked the cook in me. Getting the book “The River Cottage Cookbook” from a close friend at Christmas bought it home to me that I really love cooking, and I do want to be more involved with where my food comes from and how it’s prepared. An ex-girlfriend of mine may very well remember a rant I had in a new supermarket that everything seemed to be geared towards pre-made food and not ingredients.

Dick shows the many imaginative and inventive ways to be both green and miserly on what you have to pay for – another thing close to my heart. Watching a re-run of his “It’s Not Easy Being Green” and his unquenchable enthusiasm for ‘eco’ inventions inspires the tinkering and building part of my soul.

Both, in their own way, have been a driver towards this new life.

All I want is A Good Life. A life that allows me to explore the country, learn new and old skills, eat well, but still use the washing machine and enjoy my Home Theatre system!

So that’s what this is all about. The phrase “on a journey” has been overused and abused by the press and people quite a lot recently, but this will be a physical, emotional and psychological journey from a disaffected and disenfranchised office townie to a comfort seeking traveller on the cuts and rivers of the UK.

The biggest influence has been this – I once upset a girlfriend when I said “why on earth would I want to go to New York when I’ve never even seen the Lake District?”

BUT!! I’m not turning into a tree-hugger!

Quite the opposite!

I still watch Top Gear!