Dyertribe

We're having a wet room installed at home and the installer (a trusted friend who happens to install bathrooms) has recommended "wedi" board. Worth googling it?

I agree with Hamsterfan, Drayton Manor is an excellent day out on a canal holiday and Valley Cruisers are a company I have hired from on three occasions and would use again. I think you can also get to the visitor moorings of Cadbury World but have not done this myself. I would suggest that if you are taking 4 children under 8 that you have more adults than just your husband and yourself, we have one daughter who has been narrow boating from the age of 18 months, but the most children we have had at one time is 3 with 5 adults on board and that was great fun but we had one adult in charge of the kids when locking and the rule that they were not allowed out of the boat without their life jackets. I'm not overly cautious having been a Girl Guide leader for many years taking them camping, hiking etc but I would not contemplate four kids and two adults on a narrowboat as a relaxing holiday!

On the subject of "Health & Safety" I remember my first canal holiday, I must have been about 8 at the time, we hired a boat from a boatyard in Kinver (?? Dawncraft) It was GRP with a wooden cabin, leaked like a sieve, I remember my father and uncle pulling it under a bridge one rainy night to keep us drier! It was steered from the centre and powered by an outboard motor encased in the rear cabin which was so full of exhaust fumes we had to close the doors when on the move and then ventilate well before my 2 year old cousin and I went to bed.... How we didn't get carbon monoxide poisoning remains a mystery! Water came in jerry cans and the toilet discharged straight into the cut. We loved every minute and it was the first trip of many.