For most people holidays take months of planning, not to mention the packing and travelling. For Lizzie Austin, all she has to do is cast off from her mooring and head off for adventure.

“It’s a cheap holiday and cruising has been absolutely lovely,” said Lizzie, who has spent 20 years living afloat on the Oxford Canal.

It’s probably that sense of freedom which has kept her returning to her mooring, although she now has plans to move back on to dry land.

“It’s utterly amazing I have been here so long,” said the narrowboat dweller.

For while she’s been more than happy doing so, she doesn’t usually stay put for so long.

“It’s the longest I have lived anywhere. It had been three or four years all my life before,” said Lizzie.

Her father was in the Army and when she was a child the family spent time abroad, including in Singapore, Germany and Ghana. Later Lizzie travelled with her former husband Chris, a calligrapher and teacher, and the couple’s homes included living on the slopes of Mount Olympus, the Greek islands and Rome.

It’s taken somewhere special for her to stay put – a mooring off Hythe Bridge Street.

“Living here now, in the summer, is amazing,” said Lizzie. “You are surrounded by greenery and wildlife. It’s close to nature, which is very important to me.”

Not only is it close to nature – it’s also a short stroll to the centre of Oxford and convenient for Lizzie’s work as a homeopath and reiki practitioner.

And as she has a residential mooring, she can plug into mains electricity and landline telephone and has a designated parking space.

There are shared washing and drying facilities on land, and aboard she has a bedroom, bathroom with shower-over bath, small kitchen and front room with stove, as well as a study at the stern with the engine room behind it.

It’s the second narrowboat Lizzie has owned since moving on to the canal.

The first was a 47ft craft called Artemis. Lizzie upgraded to her current 60ft Golden Dancer about 10 years ago. “I wanted more space for a study . . . and I was sick of emptying my own poo,” she said.

Now she has a pump-out loo. Every four weeks she reverses her boat (“there’s not enough room to turn it round”) to Jericho to get it emptied out at a cost of £20.

There are about a dozen residential boats on Lizzie’s part of the canal. “It’s a nice community. We all help each other out. When I first got here I was helped to learn to drive. I have an enormous knowledge now,” said Lizzie.

That wasn’t always the case. She knew very little when she bought the boat after separating from her husband.

“Part of me wanted to give up everything and go hitch-hiking around but then I pulled myself together,” said Lizzie, who was starting to build up her business at the time.

So she opted for an adventure of a different kind. “I just like things being different and quirky,” said Lizzie. “I will be very nostalgic when I leave. I have some very good memories.”

For now Lizzie has decided to head back to dry land. She thoroughly recommends canal living . . . apart from having to be a slave to the stove in winter. And although Golden Dancer is on the market , Lizzie is finding it difficult to find dry land homes to measure up.

“It may never happen,” she admits.

If you are interested in buying Lizzie’s boat contact her at goldendancer8@yahoo.co.uk Lizzie’s business website is at www.homeopathyoxford.com/