Passions: the bliss of pootering along a canal at a snail's pace

With a top speed of 4mph, you are forced to take it slow and easy

If you want to slow the pace of life and switch off from the 24/7 world of social media, it’s simple - step on a canal boat and pooter away.

The boats have a top speed of four miles an hour, but, more often than not, you’ll be overtaken by walkers on the towpath as you move slowly, and serenely, along the waterways.

I’ve been canal boating a couple of times in recent years and love it - even if I did manage to fall in tying up one afternoon. Handily, I scheduled my fall to be right next to a shower block, but the cut finger sustained while being hauled out made it look more like a major crime scene.

We go with friends who have been canal boating for decades - and never fallen in! - and have loved every second of exploring different routes around Shropshire, into Chester, and on to the breath-taking Llangollen canal in north Wales where the bridge is just wide enough to take one boat. Glance down and it is a sheer drop!

Life on board is tight but you have all mod cons, and there is nothing more enjoyable than tying up at the door of a pub, having a pint and then exploring the town.

There is something rather special watching the landscape change at a snail’s pace - one minute you are pootering under a motorway, the next you are in the middle of nowhere spotting kingfishers and all manner of birds and wildlife, and then back into the centre of a city or town where you end up right behind a Waitrose.

Fresh air comes as standard throughout - you’ll soon log plenty of steps heading to the next lock - and there’s always that slightly apprehensive experience of taking the tiller and trying to steer a relatively straight path past moored boats. Even at one mile an hour it’s a challenge to a novice!

There’s also a lovely cheery cameraderie among boaters. They’ll help you out if you get stuck, will unwind a few locks to ease your passage, and advise of any delays up the river.

It truly is a different world; one which lets you reset and relax - simply by being on water with no rush to actually go anywhere specific. Well, you can’t rush even if you wanted to, and that is the absolutely beauty of life in the slow lane on water. Just don’t fall in …

Allan Crow is Editor of The Fife Free Press, sister title of The Scotsman