For the purposes of a quick explanation, I just looked up “gongoozling” in the Cambridge Dictionary and the first example sentence is this: “Everyone is entitled to have a weird hobby, such as historical re-enactment or gongoozling (standing and staring at canal activity without participating).” Jeez, way to be judgy there, dictionary. While I don’t technically stand there (Australia has a distinct lack of a canal system), I do sit there and watch any sort of documentary or other related show that I can get my hands on. 99% of this is based in Britain, and I know far more than I am willing to admit about its extensive system.
One of my favourite shows is Canal Boat Diaries with Robbie Cumming. It follows his life as a person who lives on his canal boat 100% of the time. You get to see his challenges (oops he fell in) but also the beauty of it all. The pace is slow, the scenery is stunning and his enthusiasm is infectious. He makes clearing out a weed hatch into an interesting activity. Another good resource for canal information is a fantastic documentary series with Dan Jones called Building Britain’s Canals. I may have watched it 3 or 4 times now. The gritty and dirty history of Britain’s canal network during the Industrial Revolution, and its ups and downs as it is then converted to a leisure location, is really fascinating to watch.
The question is, what is the appeal? First off, it’s the history and just how… organised it is. A canal, to me, is a series of lanes all interconnecting in a (mostly) organised manner, with everyone going in a row. I hate driving and have no sense of direction, so it definitely has that appeal. Another reason why canals are appealing came as a complete plot twist when I was catching up with a childhood friend. I grew up in central New Jersey, USA and moved away from my family’s first house when I was about 10 years old. My friend still lives there to this day and casually mentioned going for a walk next to the canal. There is a canal going right nearby where I grew up, and I had no memory of this whatsoever. I had a pretty unappealing childhood but maybe this was some subconscious memory that drew me to it. All of this is starting to seem like some serious navel gazing, so who knows. But either way, if it’s weird to gongoozle, well I’m your weirdo.