CANAL holiday with a difference features in Anglia TV's Great Little Breaks programme at 7.30pm tonight as Sophie Allisstone rolls up her sleeves to help restore a Suffolk waterway.
CANAL holiday with a difference features in Anglia TV's Great Little Breaks programme at 7.30pm tonight as Sophie Allisstone rolls up her sleeves to help restore a Suffolk waterway.
She joins enthusiastic volunteers on a working holiday at Creeting Lock, part of the long-term restoration project for the Ipswich and Stowmarket Navigation, built in the 18th century but disused since the 1930s.
Keep-fit enthusiast Sophie spent a day with the Waterway Recovery Group which offers people from 17 to 70 the chance to take part in canal camps up and down the country.
"You might find yourself clearing vegetation, demolishing old brick and stonework, mixing concrete or helping to stabilise the walls of and old lock," said the presenter. "Enthusiasm and willingness to muck in are essential."
Sophie enjoyed her day's work, especially a stint at the controls of an excavator, but did not stay to sample the overnight accommodation – a sleeping bag on the floor of Somersham Village Hall!
After all that hard work and fresh air, though, most of the volunteers find they sleep like a log.
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