Fibre & Tan

Fibre & Tan We’re Lee and Gwen, with Harvey the dog and we are narrowboat continuous cruisers. We would love to share our adventure with you !
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We retired in 2025 and are now exploring our way slowly around the UK canal network on Narrowboat Spooky.

Hopes raised... then instantly dashed! 🤣Anyone who follows our journey on Narrowboat Spooky knows how much I love foragi...
06/08/2026

Hopes raised... then instantly dashed! 🤣

Anyone who follows our journey on Narrowboat Spooky knows how much I love foraging along the towpaths.

Lately, it’s been mostly wild blackberries—tasty and useful, but a bit routine.

Then, a absolute vision of loveliness appeared: Chicken of the Woods! I’ve been hunting for this exact mushroom for weeks. 🍄✨

The catch? It was growing directly on a black locust tree. Because the bark and wood contain toxic compounds, many foraging experts advise skipping it entirely—even if some risk-takers say long cooking neutralizes it.

I never take chances with wild mushrooms, especially when cooking dinner for two. I’m far too old to go looking for another partner, so I’d better keep Lee safe! 😂❤️

The search continues... 🎯

Have any of you had good foraging finds recently? Lots of sloes here but still very hard and unripe so more patience required 🤣

06/08/2026

"Middle of nowhere"

Falling in love with the Shropshire Union Canal...we have loved it so far.

From views over the countryside looking at castles to wild cuttings full of green trees with the sunlight pouring through, the Shroppie has continued to entertain us.

It seems to be one canal where the water levels are still acceptable and narrowboats are making their slow journeys along like they have done for centuries.

These cuttings are full of lush green trees and a welcome change from the fields of golden crops that we have been passing through.

Rapidly becoming one of our favourite canals. What's your favourite canal?? Let us know below.

We also have bumped into quite a few of our followers recently who have recognised us or the boat. It's always great to stop and have a chat. If you see us on the canal feel free to wave and shout hello 👋

Lee & Gwen

05/08/2026

We Came, We Saw, We Rose 93 Feet 🚤💨

After leaving Nantwich, we set off for Audlem and the famous run of 15 locks on the Shropshire Union Canal in Cheshire, raising the water level by 93 feet over a distance of one and a half miles.

We haven't done that many locks for a while, and it was a warm day.

Extra Weetabix (or any other breakfast cereal of your choice 🤣) that morning and big girl boots on 👍🏻

We had two warm-up locks before reaching the main flight, and then off we went.
What a brilliant day! Luck was with us—it was quiet with few other boaters, and at most of the locks, the water levels were in our favour, meaning less winding.

I even swapped with Lee a few times so he could stretch his legs and I could have a change too.
I really enjoyed being at the helm and should do it more often! Whether Harvey the Boat Dog enjoyed it is another matter. He went very quiet 🤣

Within 2 hours (we weren’t rushing!), we'd done 13. But after finding a nice mooring spot, we had a nice cup of tea and a biscuit and decided we were done for the day!

I made a Reel out of the short bits that I filmed at each of the 13 locks we went through. Two hours compressed into less than a minute😁

Hope you enjoy!

05/08/2026

Muddy Towpaths & Canal Life 😁

A lot of the towpath along this bit of the canal looks like this - and that’s before the rain🤣 .

The canal runs through deep rock and earth cuttings here, preventing proper sunlight and drainage, and the area borders natural wetland habitats like Loynton Moss

It must be a bit of a challenge for cyclists and walkers!
It also bought back memories of winter! 🥾🥾🤣

04/08/2026

Up the Junction

To us narrowboating is about exploring. It doesn't matter if you've been down that bit of canal before as the seasons change the trees and flowers throughout the year and it all looks different again.

However....going past this junction which is the Middlewich Branch of the Shropshire Union gave us a brand new part of the canal to explore that was new to us.

There is something special and exciting for us about not knowing what's around the next corner or what we are going to see next. We stop when we see something interesting to explore. We do have guide books but sometimes you've just got to throw caution to the wind and see where you end up.

Do you prefer to know what's ahead and have it planned out or are you happy to be surprised and find your own adventure?

Lee & Gwen

04/08/2026

IT’S RAINING! 🌧️💧💧🎉🥳
Real wet raindrops coming from the sky!
The first rain in months 😁☔️


Next stop: Nantwich 😁Nantwich was our next destination after Chester. A hard act to follow 🤣However, This historic town ...
03/08/2026

Next stop: Nantwich 😁

Nantwich was our next destination after Chester.
A hard act to follow 🤣

However, This historic town also has a very interesting heritage—from ancient Roman salt-making to beautiful Tudor timber-framed architecture. It was also a centre for tanning and shoemaking and a trading hub in 1500 for Cheshire cheese!

Since we were just passing through, we didn't have time for the brine baths or the intriguing secret nuclear bunker nearby (obviously not that secret anymore!), but we still packed in plenty:

☕ Coffee in a lovely Tudor building with gracefully sagging gables, housing a bookshop❤️ and café.

🍺 A very nice glass of chocolate stout at Ebeneezers—ironically located inside an old 1857 Methodist Chapel!

🛍️ A browse through the indoor market.

For me though the highlight was St Mary’s Church, built in the 14th century. A wonderful guide showed me around—the stained glass and hand-embroidered kneelers (including one of a narrowboat!) were beautiful.

The church has a glass-covered hatch at one point in the floor which shows the amazingly shallow foundations, and you can see the lean on the pillars and arches.
At the top of the columns, they’ve installed thin "glass monitors" across the cracks. If the stone pillars shift, the glass snaps to signal structural movement. I suppose since they’ve stood for 700 years, they should be ok for a few more! 🤣

We’ll definitely return to stay longer—that nuclear bunker is quite an incentive!

03/08/2026

Whatever floats your narrowboat! (Literally) 🛶🍕

Some of you asked for a reel of Nantwich canal floating market, so here it is!

The markets are planned ahead at places all over the canal network. They are run by Roving Canal Traders—boaters who live and work full-time on their narrowboats, cruising from town to town and transforming towpaths into lively and colourful pop-up shopping streets.

The traders display their wares directly from the decks, hatches, and roof racks of their boats, or lay out displays along the towpath directly in front of their moorings.

There’s always a cake and coffee boat (essential!) alongside plenty of other stalls: food (cheese!), jewellery, gifts, dog treats, clothes, and more.

This market even had a fantastic pizza boat! If you watch the reel, you can see the wood-fired pizza oven right at the front of their boat. 🍕

Another great thing about these markets is that they’re such a wonderful opportunity to catch up with friends. Whenever we go to one, we always run into familiar faces!

Which boat are you heading to first: the coffee & cake boat or the pizza boat? ☕🍕. Pizza first then cake and coffee maybe ?

02/08/2026

Well (😁🙄)... Look What We Found at Beeston Castle! 🏰

On the way into Chester, we stopped for the night and sat outside having dinner at the front of the boat, admiring the view up to Beeston Castle.

It looks very high up on the crag and has an excellent view of the Cheshire plains in all directions. A perfect spot for fortifications!

In the reel, you can see the shape of the ruins right at the top of the hill as we travel along. There is a path that goes there direct from Whartons Lock on the Shropshire Union canal. It was a bit of a walk up there, but we were surprised to find more of the ruins intact than we’d expected!

Beeston Castle is a dramatic medieval fortress perched high on a sandstone crag in Cheshire. Even before the medieval fortress was built around 1225, the crag served as a Neolithic gathering place, a Bronze Age metalworking hub, and a massive Iron Age hillfort.
The castle features a 370-foot (113-meter) deep well cut straight through solid sandstone, making it one of the deepest castle wells in England.

Also, there are rumours that King Richard II hid a massive fortune of gold, jewels, and crowns at the castle before heading to Ireland in 1399. Treasure hunters checked the giant well and excavated multiple times, but nothing has ever been found... yet!

Well worth a visit!

Where would you hide your treasure up here if you had to leave it?
Let us know in the comments so we can go back and try to find it….🤣

01/08/2026

Ever Seen a Front-Steering Narrowboat? Meet Delta—A Real Head Turner!

I was so excited to stumble across this recently—a front-steering narrowboat! 😳

Meet Delta: a rare exception to canal tradition that features a forward-facing steering wheel right inside the bow cockpit.

At 32 feet long, Delta is an unusual replica of a 19th-century inspection launch. She was built entirely from steel in 1994 by Peter Nicholls—a respected English boat builder famous for custom steel craft. (You might know another of his famous builds, Princess Matilda: the steel Dutch barge commissioned by actor Timothy Spall for his BBC series Timothy Spall at Sea!)

Why is front-steering so rare on the canals?🧐

We often been asked why almost all narrowboats steer from the stern. While front-steering looks great, there are a few big reasons most stick to the back:

Managing "Stern Swing":
Unlike a car—where the front wheels do the turning—a boat steers by pushing its rear end side-to-side. Standing at the back gives the skipper a clear view down the hull, making it much easier to judge how far the stern is swinging toward shallow banks, stone bridges, or lock gates.

Direct Engine & Throttle Control:
Keeping the helm at the stern places the skipper right next to the engine bay, propeller shaft, and gear controls. This keeps the drive setup short, efficient, and simple—without needing long mechanical linkages or cables running the length of the vessel.

Despite these design challenges, Delta makes it work with absolute style. What a wonderful, neat-looking boat—and well worth mastering the extra skills needed to steer her through the locks! 😍

Would you ever try driving a narrowboat from the front, or do you prefer the classic tiller at the stern?
Personally I’m intrigued as to what it’s like steering from the front !🤣

Please press follow to join us on our canal journey
and adventures 😁👋

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