The beginning

We live on the smallest continent on earth.

While we were growing up, it was also known as the largest island, but of late someone in their wisdom has decided that one can't be both a continent and an island, so despite being surrounded by ocean, Australia it seems is now merely a continent with very damp edges.

Like almost all of the population of this, the driest continent on earth we live and have always lived around the wet bits, within shouting distance of the ocean, so it stands to reason that swimming, surfing, sailing and generally everything to do with water borne activity came naturally to us.

We love the inland for all it's desolation and remoteness and indescribably vastness and even it's complete lack of humidity, but when all is said and done we are always drawn back to the water, where  one could gaze at the horizon and wonder what lay beyond, and dream of sailing off to explore whatever lay there.

Sadly, "one" and "we" are mutually exclusive terms, and while "we" are fond of travel and exploration, and for that matter even delight in the times we have spent touring our coast on small boats, "we" expressly ruled out the concept of crossing oceans in them.

But there are other ways of seeing the world, and "one" remained unperturbed, and still dreaming of those far off lands, began a quest to travel through them.

We had heard of the European Canal network, and in 1982 while poking around in Amsterdam, we saw converted barges being lived in for the first time, igniting a spark which has remained glowing ever since.