Dan's 1995 holidays

April 1995: “Hazelhurst” - Heritage Narrow Boats of Scholar Green

With my GCSE’s fast approaching I can’t quite remember how I managed to convince my parents that a weeks boating was a good plan, but somehow I managed it, and we were off down the Caldon Canal and back, an attractive and often overlooked canal
.
The boat was “Hazelhurst”, we were to be her first hirers. She was a 44ft sparkling Sister to “Bosley”, hired the year before.

She performed faultlessly and we were relieved to hand her back in one piece!

Summer 1995: “Tempest” - Alpha Craft of Brundall

After years of reading the brochures and knowing all the Broads hirecraft it was with some reservations we booked our first Norfolk Broads holiday.

After the disasters of boat standard and holiday on Loch Lomond I knew that the boat needed to be first class.

With a tight budget set Alpha’s 29ft 2-5 berth “Tempest” was not to dissapoint. Built just a few seasons earlier she was of a nice standard and of modern appearance and went down well with my Mum and Dad.

We arrived at base quite late, after the journey being even longer than imagined and, possibly as a result the tuition we got was quite poor. We moored at Norwich for the first night and the next day were to learn the importance of the tides when trying to moor on the Southern Broads.

Lessons learnt the next day we crossed Breydon Water and had an enjoyable week with good weather, and me madly trying to snap as many hireboats as I could and wishing we’d hired there years earlier but knowing we’d be hiring most years from now on!

October 1995: “Napton”, Anglo Welsh of New Mills

I’d been working at the New Mills base for two seasons, and the offer of an (almost) free holiday was too good to turn down.

“Napton” was one of my favourite boats we ran that year. I’m not sure why, possibly because she looked smart for being all steel as many of our boats then had fibreglass tops, or possibly because the interior had been nicely refitted.

The Peak Forest & Macclesfield canals are worth a visit, with plenty of good scenery.