"Orright," says a woman with a pram, cheerily waving as she too strolls past the boat. It might be time to give the throttle a nudge. Only a small one, mind. This is not a race. The idea is that we take things slowly on this trip, that we see the north of England at a leisurely pace, enjoying the beautiful countryside and the friendly people while standing at the back of the boat, cup of tea in one hand, tiller in the other, smiling at the world.

This is narrowboating the way it should be. You're given a long, ungainly  boat decked out with a bed, a kitchen and a little lounge area, shown how to navigate through the large system of canals that runs through the lovely county of Yorkshire, and set free. Told to enjoy yourself. Take things slowly. Moor your boat. Go for a walk. Call into a pub. The way it should be.

Our journey begins in Sowerby Bridge, a market town in West Yorkshire that has recently found fame as the location of the British cop drama, Happy Valley. The town is nice, but the surrounding countryside is idyllic.

The challenge, however, is getting to it.

My friend Emma and I pick up our narrowboat in the town centre, at a canal basin in a system of waterways that was built to connect Sowerby Bridge with Manchester in the late 1700s. It's a 50-kilometre journey through 91 locks to get to England's third largest city – fortunately, we're not going all that way, because we're about to find that locks, while charmingly old-fashioned and perfectly suited to this style of travel, take a long time to get through.

We have three to negotiate before we're out of Sowerby Bridge and onto the Rochdale Canal. An employee from Shire Cruisers walks along the riverbank, easily keeping pace with our boat, as we approach the first one, its gates already open, ready for me to putter in.

He yells something at me in a broad Yorkshire accent. I have no idea what it is. I manage, however, to stop the boat, tie it up and climb the steel ladder up to the top to learn all about getting through a lock.

I won't go all the way through it now. You'll learn yourself. But it involves swinging closed wooden gates that have been there for centuries. It involves opening floodgates and letting water pour into the lock. It involves opening the front gates once the water level has risen and puttering out onto the canal's higher level.

There's something deeply romantic about operating a lock. It's a throwback from years gone by, a tradition that is maintained in England by volunteer lock-keepers to this day. And it's very much a part of a gentle, beautiful narrowboating holiday in the north.

With the first three locks cleared, we're ready to taste sweet freedom. We're out on Rochdale Canal, into the rolling green Yorkshire countryside, and I'm loving life. Emma is down in the kitchen boiling the kettle. I've pushed the throttle up from "gentle shuffle" to "brisk stroll". Sowerby Bridge is fading slowly into the distance behind us.

Up ahead is our mooring for the night, Luddenden Foot. It's about five kilometres away. At this pace we should be there in an hour or so. And then we'll go to the pub.

Two things frequently punctuate a narrowboating trip through Yorkshire: locks, and pubs. All of them are old, charming and time-consuming. The locks take time by their pure mechanics. The pubs chew into your holiday by being so friendly, cosy and fun that you never want to leave.

The pub in Luddenden Foot is all of those things. Emma and I tie up the boat and head in for a few pints and a counter meal. We talk about tomorrow's journey: eight kilometres, seven locks, and probably three or four pubs. And then there will be the return leg back to Sowerby Bridge the day after, which will inevitably become a lock-and-pub greatest hits tour.

It will be a slow day. Dog walkers will be able to carry on entire conversations with us. Mums with prams will overtake. But that's the way it should be.

TRIP NOTES

MORE INFORMATION

visitbritain.com; shirecruisers.co.uk

GETTING THERE

Emirates flies daily from the east coast of Australia to Manchester, via Dubai. For bookings go to emirates.com/au, or call 1300 303 777. 

CRUISING THERE

Shire Cruisers offers narrowboating packages that range from short three-day breaks to itineraries of several weeks, from  $700 for three nights. All of the company's boats include comfortable beds, kitchenettes, a small saloon, and bathrooms. See website above for more details.

Ben Groundwater travelled as a guest of Visit Britain.