Barge Holiday: The Brecon and Monmouthshire Canal

We had decided to celebrate our one year anniversary by going on a barge trip and went for the Brecon and Monmouthshire Canal as we liked the area and wanted to see more of it.  Of course, we booked it a while ago we had no idea that we would be moving to the area, but we decided to keep it as it was as one of the main points of a barge holiday is just to slow down and as we no longer needed to 'visit' places we could really just enjoy being on the barge.  

There isn't really a whole lot to say about the route we took as there is only one navigable canal here with no off-shoots which goes from Brecon to just south of Pontymoile.  For this trip we started at Llangynidr, where we collected the barge from Country Craft Narrowboats, and first headed north to Brecon before very slowly pottering south to just north of Pontymoile (bridge 56 to be exact) and then back to Llangynidr again.  Our trip was about a week and that was plenty of time to do the canal, though as with all holidays we felt we could have easily done longer.

I've realised that I didn't take any photos of the inside of the barge, but I actually really liked the space that we were living in.  It had everything that we needed and there was plenty of storage space.  To me it didn't feel like we were crammed in or that I needed more room, although a stove would have been a nice addition even though we didn't really need it heat wise.  If we ever decided to live in one we would need to downsize some of the things we have, but it would definitely be doable.

A couple of things that we did really enjoy were the much slower pace of life you had to do, the fastest you could travel was 2.5 mph and even that was too much on some sections of the canal, and always being surrounded by wildlife.  For most of the trip we didn't really hear any other man made sounds, just the movement of the water, the wind, and some birds singing.  It was really nice always being around greenery as well and waking up every morning to really only seeing water and trees.  It definitely helped that we had good weather, I'm not sure how we would have felt if it had been raining the whole time.  For most of this canal you can just moor your boat anywhere on the towpath side of the canal (unless there was a sign telling you not to) and that meant we got to choose places that were away from other people and the villages that are dotted along the canal.  That definitely had it's charms.

As we were celebrating our anniversary we did eat out a couple of times, especially when my parents came up to visit, but for the most part we just stayed and ate on the barge.  As we could only have what we had brought with us we ended up saving quite a bit of money on that front and there's something to be said for that.  The shops are really close to us at home so it's tempting to just go out and get any food we want when we want.  I wonder how possible it would be to try and keep the barge mindset with us the rest of the time.

This isn't the first time that I've been on a barge, but it had been a while so it was a nice thing when I found myself adapting back into being on one.  Part of me likes the fact that the things that you need to worry about are a bit more fundamental like checking the engine is alright, making sure you have enough water, and thinking about where you can stay that night.  I find that sometimes in my normal life I start worrying about other things that just aren't as important and don't really matter that much. It was good to get a break from this.

All in all it was a very enjoyable holiday and I could see myself spending more time on a barge, even living on one if I needed to (or in fact didn't need to).  You never know, there may be a barge in our not so distant future.