Last Sunday, Roy’s sister Lyndsay Clemmow and her husband, John, brought their mother, Leila Titchmarsh (93), to have lunch with us on Karanja. Marianne and Phil came down from Welford-on-Avon, too.
Though we’d been keeping Leila up-to-date with our barging exploits and shown her all the photos, it’s never the same as actually seeing it for yourself, is it? In the end, though we’d been unsure about how difficult boarding the boat might be, it was no problem.
Marianne, Phil and Roy
Leila, Lyndsay and John arriving
Lyndsay a-cruising
Stripes all round
Colour-coded crew
Did they get the dress-code memo?
The weather could have been warmer, but it was good enough to allow for a short cruise up and down the Thames.
It’s a single, honest!
Not missing a single thing
Not only did Leila stand up next to Roy at the wheel for a better view, but after lunch she also managed to negotiate the fairly steep steps from the wheelhouse into the saloon. Thank you, everyone, for a lovely and most satisfactory day – especially the appointed (press-ganged?) drivers, John and Phil, who forwent champagne in favour of coffee. Nespresso, yes, but still.
Born and raised in Durban, South African Verne is a writer and editor. She and Roy met in Durban in 1992, got married four years later, and moved briefly to London in 2000 and then to Singapore a year later. After their 15 or 16 years on that amazing island, Roy retired in May 2016 from a long career in shipping.
That's when I started Travels with Verne and Roy (travelswithverneandroy.com). For several summers, we explored the waterways of France on our beautiful new Piper Boats barge, Karanja. The rest of the year was shared between Singapore, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and other wonderful places.
After covid restrictions locked us down with family in Perth, Western Australia, we sold our Karanja. That was a bit of a wrench, but it did free us up for different adventures - road trips, ocean cruises and more all over the world.
Now based in the lovely new home that we built here in Burns Beach, WA, we continue to address the joint bucket list while also revisiting our favourite destinations. Do come along for the ride!
Read articles by Verne Maree
What a truly lovely afternoon Just the kind of stuff wonderful memories are made of .. Thank you both xxx Lynt