Cruising the Cut

David begins his journey this year by getting a diesel leak fixed in the engine bay and then heads off towards the heart of the canal network - Braunston - before continuing towards the Leicester Arm of the Grand Union Canal. He also meets up with some new friends, also narrowboaters.

David's narrowboat voyage continues up the Leicester line of the Grand Union Canal as he fixes a potentially disastrous leak in the weed hatch and meets some friends who join him in convoy on their boat as he tackles the terrifying (not really) River Soar.

David continues his cruise north along the River Soar, wears a funny hat because it's cold, and turns from the Soar onto the River Trent rather briefly, before joining the Trent & Mersey canal to head east across the UK.

In which David leaves his travelling companions behind and continues solo along the beautiful Trent & Mersey canal. He speeds through a very tight bridge, does some laundry, and comes to a legendary canal junction at Fradley.

It's nonstop action in this episode as David continues along the lovely, tranquil Trent & Mersey canal in search of a haircut. He takes the narrowboat through a very tight squeeze outside Rugeley, changes the engine oil, and admires some flowers by the canalside.

A terrifying ordeal awaits our hero as he continues north up the Trent & Mersey canal: The "Scarecastle" Tunnel, a very long, dark, damp tunnel which has sagged in the middle over the many decades since it was built, making it very, very low indeed in some parts. Will David make it through? (hint: yes). Plus, how to buy a boat if you can't afford a whole one.

Having survived the terror of Harecastle Tunnel, David now has the small matter of Heartbreak Hill, a very long series of canal locks to descend. The weather's sunny, then rainy, then sunny again and the boat gets hung up on a ledge at one point. Plus: can you buy a narrowboat in the UK if you're from overseas?

A very special trip on the narrowboat as David reaches the Anderton Boat Lift, an amazing feat of Industrial Revolution engineering, restored some 15 years ago. This giant iron structure lifts boats from the Trent & Mersey canal down to the River Weaver below, and vice versa. After that, a beautiful few days of cruising along the Middlewich branch of the Shopshire Union Canal is in store.

In which David travels south along the wonderfully green and lush Shropshire Union canal and admires several delightful old bridges along the way plus he gets admonished for going too fast. He is a naughty boater.

After leaving the Shropshire Union Canal, David turns his narrowboat onto the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal, a journey that does not begin with good omens as he immediately picks up something large and soggy around his propeller.

Braving another substantial river like the courageous soul he is, David takes his narrowboat from Stourport onto the Severn and pops back to his home town of Droitwich along the way before returning to the river and continuing south to Tewkesbury where he begins what would become his most enjoyable journey yet, up the River Avon.

An episode in which David experiences the most glorious week of narrowboating he's had to date as he travels up the River Avon from Tewkesbury to Stratford-Upon-Avon, including a trip down memory lane to his childhood.

David's amazing week in the sunshine on the River Avon comes to an end as he reaches Stratford, whereupon he returns to the canals with a shock as he remembers just how narrow they are compared to rivers and how low some of their bridges can be.

Good fortune smiles upon David as he travels up the south Stratford canal, with lock after lock being set his way and help being given by random boaters and passers-by. As he reaches the final stage of his 2017 travels, two familiar faces pop up to help with the last strenuous leg down Hatton locks.

In this special bonus end-of-season episode, David goes "behind the scenes" at a narrowboat manufacturer, seeing how huge steel plates are beaten and wrestled into submission to become beautiful canal craft. Plus he visits one of the Canal and River Trust's two workshops that manufacture lock gates out of English Oak, largely by hand.