Honiton Carers took to the water for a barge trip on the Tiverton Canal on Wednesday, May 4.

The outing was funded by a grant awarded to the group by Honiton Town Council.

The chair of Honiton Carers Support Group, Winnie Cameron, said: “Ross, a gorgeous shire horse, pulled us along the canal for one and a half hours whilst we all chilled out listening to the birds singing and the water gently moving, watching the wildlife and all the beautiful surroundings.

“Our host, who gave us some lovely talks on the way, took us back to when the canal was built and up through the ages to now.

“We even had two minutes’ complete silence when we only heard the birds, the water, the shire horse’s feet plodding along and the beautiful whistling by the young person working the horse.


“Incredible and absolutely sheer relaxation, just what carers needed to enable them to unwind, relax, to be in the now and find their resilience to carry on with their often challenging caring role when they returned home at the end of our lovely day.”

Following the barge trip the group visited the Information Centre to see the map showing how the canal was built. Winnie said: “Fascinating to think that the complete 12-mile stretch was manually dug out many years ago by an army of men with very few tools.”

The carers then had a ‘fabulous’ lunch at the Canal tearooms.

The grant from Honiton Town Council that funded the outing had also paid for a trip to the Beehive last December for the Andre Rieu Christmas show, and a new printer. Winnie said: “We would like to say a huge thank you to Honiton Town Council for awarding us this grant, which has been spent well and very much enjoyed by everyone.”

Honiton Carers next meet on Wednesday, May 11 at The Methodist Church when they will have the first part of a Moving & Handling session with Coldwell Training. The second part of the training will take place on Wednesday 8th June.

Anyone who is a carer and would like to join the group can email Winniekjaer@btinternet.com or call Winnie on 07974 636926.