Did you see a recent I news article about a culinary star enjoying a belated 80th away from it all in the Highlands which included a week on board the Puffer?
We were absolutely delighted to host Prue Leith and company for a week steaming on the Caledonian Canal at the end of the season and overjoyed to hear she had such a good time and loved her descriptions of time aboard the boat!
We have included some quotes from the article below alongside some photographs from the week we have had kind permission to share –
‘One of the charms of the Puffer is the relaxed attitude of the crew. You can climb down the ladder into the engine room to watch the magic of the lovingly polished pistons beating fast and rhythmically. Or try your hand at shovelling coal (or rather its more environmentally acceptable substitute) into the fire.
You can, under instructions from the first mate, throw a line to the lockkeeper, or jump off the boat to loop ropes round bollards. You can climb up to the bridge and steer the ship, or help the cook, Bumble, somehow produce delicious meals in a galley no bigger than a coat cupboard.
‘The cabins are a design triumph. […] I loved it, it was like playing house as a child, organising things all neat and tidy.’
‘Unlike a steam train the Puffer is almost silent except when a second steam engine lifts or drops the anchor which makes the whole boat tremble. […]
Once or twice a steam train bearing tourists would pass above us on a bridge, or beside us on a bank, and the two steam machines would toot and blast at each other, relics of a by-gone time celebrating their continuing existence. We’d all wave madly, like children.’
Join us to for your own Puffer holiday – Booking is live for 2023 and filling up fast!
