Shangri La - back to blogging

Shangri La – April 2026 – K and A Canal

I have not posted anything here for ages! Mainly because we have not been going anywhere.

Shangri La, our 58 x 11 ft widebeam barge, has been moored up here on the Foxhangers private moorings since August 2021, while my wife Karen is doing carework …

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Shangri La Drydocking 2023

Shangri La at Semington

Shangri La Drydocking 2023. So in August we made the huge trip from Foxhangers down to Semington to give her a much needed drydocking.

5 Swing Bridges and 6 locks. We set out on the Sunday late morning, and arrived there mid afternoon.

Overnighted aboard, and th…

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Into Dry Dock

On the Midland Waterways

Normally my posts are about trips on our own boat, but recently I did a boat moving trip, mostly on the midland waterways, from Eynsham to Tardebigge. Purpose of the trip was repositioning some hire boats – so a bit of a free holiday.

The 2 boats we moved

The route took us down the Thames, v…

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The Three Magpies

Why a trip to The Three Magpies?

Several reason for the trip to The Three Magpies: Since I moved the boat to our mooring here at Foxhangers near Devizes, (Read about that trip here) the boat has hardly moved, other than across to the pump out. Since we bought the boat, Karen has done very little…

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Newbury to Devizes - Part 4 - The Caen Hill Flight

View from the bottom of the Caen Hill Flight!

The title of this post is probably a bit incorrect, as we had already past the actual town of Devizes, but the Foxhangers moorings at the bottom of the Caen Hill Flight is still technically in Devizes.

The team

My friends Wyn and Donna continue…

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Newbury to Devizes - Part 3

This part of the journey from Newbury to Devizes takes us from Pewsey, along about 10 miles of canal with no locks, but many narrow and overgrown sections, till we reach Devizes and start the descent of Caen Hill. We did the first three locks going down and moored up at the Black Horse pub – a brea…

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“There is nothing – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.” … as the Water Rat said to the Mole in “Wind in the Willows”. And how right he was! I hope I can share the pleasures of boating by recording the trips myself and my wife Karen have taken on the journey to actually buying our boat, and now on our very own Dutch Steel Motor Cruiser, Shangri-La 2.

This blog is an online journal of my various boating activities that have happened over the last few years, from the numerous boating holidays we have taken, some interesting work related events and the journey to buying our own boat

Latest Adventures

Netherlands waterways cruise – Sojourn in Steenwijk

Netherlands waterways cruise – Sojourn in Steenwijk

Netherlands waterway cruise - Steenwijk Steenwijk - visitor mooring in town The best thing about having one's own boat, as opposed to chartering a boat, is you can stop wherever you are as long as you want.In 2011 when we were here on our hired boat, we rather rushed...

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Zwartsluis to Steenwijk – first outing of the year.

Zwartsluis to Steenwijk – first outing of the year.

Deck crew ready for action It actually didn't matter where we were heading - it was just so wonderful to be back on the water!! As I mentioned in the previous post, various circumstances dictated that we simply didn't have time to get to Amsterdam and back, so opted...

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Finally afloat and shipshape!

Finally afloat and shipshape!

Shangri La heading to the water - Karen looking on. It's been another couple of frustrating days, but we are finally back in the water with nearly everything back working properly. Monday started off with Eric, the mechanic from de Kranerweerd coming aboard to start...

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Aboard – but not yet afloat!

Aboard – but not yet afloat!

Back aboard Shangri La 2 At last the 2014 cruising year has started. Mixed feelings at the moment - thrilled to be back on board, but most disappointed that not much of the work that had been promised would be done is even started, let alone finished. So we flew into...

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Planning for our 2014 Netherlands cruising on Shangri-La

Planning for our 2014 Netherlands cruising on Shangri-La

2013 - wonderful memories Time flies! Already nearly time for us to head north again, and get Shangri-La 2 back in the water for this year's cruising. Before we left the her at the end of last year, I gave a whole long job list to Wim at de Kranerweerd. Hopefully he...

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North Netherlands cruise Part 9 – Urk to Kampen

North Netherlands cruise Part 9 – Urk to Kampen

Old time sail trainer on the Ketelmeer To see part 8 click here To go to part 1 of the trip click here The next stage took us from Urk, out onto the Ijsselmeer for a short while, under Ketelbrug and into the Ketelmeer, along Keteldiep and the Ijssel River...

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North Netherlands cruise Part 7 – Sneek to Lemmer

North Netherlands cruise Part 7 – Sneek to Lemmer

Busy canal in Sneek To go to previous part click here or to go back to the beginning of the trip click here After 5 days in Sneek, we were glad to get moving again. When we first arrived in Sneek, we grabbed the first mooring available, which was to the...

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Trips by Date

About Me

My love of boats goes back to my early years when I went on holiday with my parents to Knysna in the Cape. We stayed at a hotel on stilts, and I played in rowing boats and little motor boats on the lagoon.

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