As Seen On Youtube, Broads & Non Broads.

[Broads01]

Nice short series about a 3 night break on Tumblehome from Martham's. They went south which is unusual for a short break but why not?

 

[YnysMon]

8 hours ago, Broads01 said:

Nice short series about a 3 night break on Tumblehome from Martham's. They went south which is unusual for a short break but why not?

 

Watched a few months ago, as it popped up on my ‘feed’.  Absolutely delightful. Like you I thought it a bit strange that they went south on a short break, but why not! 

[Lulu]

The water coming down the lock was a bit intimidating!

[Maxwellian]

Did that route there and back starting the other end. You soon get used to the locks. The set of lock near Beziers is interesting but the lock keepers keep you under control. We are looking to go back. Vaughan is excellent for advice on this canal.

[dom]

A lot of narrowboat vloggers annoy me, but I love Danni and Joe. I found it funny their questioning what a Norfolk accent sounds like, when I think south west accents have a lot in common and they're both broad south-western (quite possibly part of what I like about them).

I think there are at least two distinct Norfolk accents. I'm assuming the bloke from Le Boat doing the handover was a broadlander, which is quite a different accent to north or west Norfolk to my ears.

[Vaughan]

10 hours ago, dom said:

I think there are at least two distinct Norfolk accents. I'm assuming the bloke from Le Boat doing the handover was a broadlander, which is quite a different accent to north or west Norfolk to my ears.

You can certainly notice Cromer, Broadland and central west Norfolk as a bit different.  And then there is Naaridge, which is a language all of its own!

Sadly, most people in Norwich now seem to speak "Estuary".

[Vaughan]

Very nicely produced video, which was relaxed and chatty.  They also got the history of the canal, at the beginning, exactly right.  This was obviously an organised "press trip" such as we used to do with travel journalists but nowadays, internet bloggers can come and have a freebie cruise as well.  Nothing wrong with that, as I think they did a very good promotion.

I was the manager at Port Cassafières 40 years ago and it doesn't seem to have changed at all.  Except that in early October, they seem to have more boats laid up in the car park than they have in the water.  We were usually fully booked in October.

I had a job to recognise some of those drone shots as the canal has changed enormously since they cut down all the plane trees, a few years ago.  So no more shade over the canal.  They have planted new trees but we won't see the effect from them, for another 50 years.

The locks at Fonserrannes are spectacular when you go up them and you can see why the Canal du Midi is about the only one left in France where they insist that the locks are manned by lock-keepers.  You couldn't leave it up to hirers, to work a staircase like that!  The stone work in the locks is original.  They are built egg shaped to prevent the sides falling in when the lock is empty.  Seems to have worked, after 450 years!

What fascinates me about them is that when Riquet built the canal, he worked out that if he dug the short tunnel at Malpas and then had a staircase of nine locks at Beziers (which went right down into the river, then) this would allow him to have a "pound" of 54 kilometres until the next lock at Argens, near Homps.  It is all built halfway up the side of the valley as well, so it never floods.  Not only that, but he then used those 54 kilometres of water as the headwater lake to supply the staircase of locks.  A fantastic piece of engineering, long before the days of theodolites, and such like.

I look forward to seeing their part 2, which will be where the canal winds around the contours of the hills, with the vineyards of the Minervois on one side, and the Corbières on the other.

Hopefully, Lulu will link it for us?

As for the boat itself, I think the least I say about that, the better!

[Lulu]

4 hours ago, Vaughan said:

Hopefully, Lulu will link it for us?

Of course I will. I’ve been subscribed to their channel since they started renovating their narrowboat. They have also done a very interesting cycling trip to Greece. 

[floydraser]

The girl said she has never been to Norfolk. It would be interesting to see them do a similar thing on the Broads. So long as they gave their honest opinions.

[Vaughan]

3 minutes ago, floydraser said:

It would be interesting to see them do a similar thing on the Broads. So long as they gave their honest opinions.

I was also rather pleased to see that their blog - at least until now - did not have to include the almost obligatory collision, with hoots of laughter, that we always have to see on holiday TV programmes.  The producers always encourage it as it "makes good TV" but I can assure you, collisions do not sell boating holidays.

[floydraser]

40 minutes ago, Vaughan said:

I was also rather pleased to see that their blog - at least until now - did not have to include the almost obligatory collision, with hoots of laughter, that we always have to see on holiday TV programmes.  The producers always encourage it as it "makes good TV" but I can assure you, collisions do not sell boating holidays.

Absolutely! Which is why I wonder, do people keep making and promoting Youtube videos showing nothing but boat crashes on the Broads?

[Broads01]

1 hour ago, floydraser said:

Absolutely! Which is why I wonder, do people keep making and promoting Youtube videos showing nothing but boat crashes on the Broads?

Because sadly plenty of people will watch it, bumping up views, subscribers and advertising income. Personally I get no pleasure from watching others' misfortune.

[YnysMon]

2 hours ago, Broads01 said:

Because sadly plenty of people will watch it, bumping up views, subscribers and advertising income. Personally I get no pleasure from watching others' misfortune.

The worst ones are those with a ‘click-bait’ title. Invariably exaggerated. 

[Lulu]

As promised Vaughan :)

[dom]

Just after 5 mins in, the barge "Anjodi" is the one Rick Stein took out on his French Odyssey series.

Had to laugh at the "Premium" wine tasting being €9. If that was on the Broads you can bet the price'd be triple that.

[dom]

@Lulu has posted this one earlier in the thread, but I've just stumbled across it whilst browsing YouTube.

It actually made me feel a bit teary seeing the old Broad Tours boats, the old Roys store pre fire and Bridge Newsagent in Hoveton (I went to school with the daughter of the owners). Looking at the colour of the grass in places, I wonder if it was 1976. I also wonder if I was amongst the kids by the river at Caen Meadow, as we lived nearby back then.

What really struck me though was the view from Ranworth church around 2:35. Are they moored 7 or 8 abreast on the staithe? That's a new one on me if so!

[Karizma]

Only 7 foot clearance at high tide at Potter Heigham bridge .......... those were the days!

[SwanR]

Thanks for flagging these videos Sam. We often watch this channel. It was a delight to see narrowboaters trying out a cruiser. 

[Vaughan]

10 hours ago, dom said:

Looking at the colour of the grass in places, I wonder if it was 1976.

It was 1976 or later, as I spotted one of my own hire boats from Womack, moored at the Anchor in Coltishall.

[Vaughan]

17 hours ago, Lulu said:

As promised Vaughan :)

Most enjoyable, thank you.

[Vaughan]

16 hours ago, dom said:

Just after 5 mins in, the barge "Anjodi" is the one Rick Stein took out on his French Odyssey series.

Remember it well and how we all sneered at it!  The skipper of Anjodi deliberately forcing hire boats (which he called bumper boats) into the bank and having a good laugh, then displaying his own professional incompetence by ramming lock gates on more than one occasion.  He couldn't even steer it straight down the canal.

I met him a little later, when the barge was moored in the port at Marseillan, and I was in there looking after a group of boats on a journalists' visit.  As I walked past, he asked me if I was anything to do with the canal.  I replied "Yes. I am the regional manager for the bumper boats".   That shut him up.

Luckily Anjodi is now with new owners, who are a great deal more competent.

[SANTED]

I was on the Canal du Midi a few years ago and I followed ANJODI through a lock.

As I come out the other side he was away up the Canal and his boats name plate was there floating on the water just outside the lock I tried to fish it out as we went past but missed it. Only had the one chance as other boats were closing behind.

Pity about that ,I would have given it back had I seen them again ,otherwise it would have been a nice souvenir as I enjoyed watching Rick Steins French Odyssey on the Canal Du Midi

TED

[Vaughan]

34 minutes ago, SANTED said:

As I come out the other side he was away up the Canal and his boats name plate was there floating on the water just outside the lock I tried to fish it out as we went past but missed it.

Exactly. Scraped it off when hitting the lock gates on leaving.

I have heard a lot of people say how lovely Rick Steins programme was, but none of them are boat hire companies on the Canal du Midi!

[floydraser]

22 hours ago, dom said:

@Lulu has posted this one earlier in the thread, but I've just stumbled across it whilst browsing YouTube.

 

Lovely. Who wouldn't want a holiday on the Broads after seeing that? No jeopardy or crashes.

A remake would be interesting.

[webntweb]

On 13/11/2023 at 00:42, Vaughan said:

Remember it well and how we all sneered at it!  The skipper of Anjodi deliberately forcing hire boats (which he called bumper boats) into the bank and having a good laugh, then displaying his own professional incompetence by ramming lock gates on more than one occasion.  He couldn't even steer it straight down the canal.

Had a similar experience on the Canal du Midi about 20 years ago. There are a couple of very sharp bends where it was mandatory to blow your horn. We were on a 48 x 13.5 foot cruiser and approached one of these bends slowly and sounded the horn, there was no reply so we went ahead only to be confronted by the bow of one of the hotel barges which was mostly on our side of the canal. All I had time to do was turn the boat beam on to the barge and wait for the impact. Fortunately because of our low speed the contact was only glancing. The helm on the barge was definitely laughing. My little French deserted me so I could only give him a blast of Anglo Saxon invective. I rang the boatyard to report it and they sent a chap who just gave the boat a cursory inspection and said he couldn't see any damage but just to keep an eye on things.