The weekend has brought out every man and his dog to make the most of the relaxation in the covid rules. The canal was much busier today and we had to wait at several locks before getting through something which has not happened during the week.
As you can see in the photograph above the pub gardens were full, clearly no one was watching the D of E’s funeral on the TV.
Trip Advisor highly rated a canal side pub called the Bridge Inn near Burton on Trent, we did not think we would stand a chance of getting in but as we sailed past at 12.00 we saw empty tables and slammed the anchors on and stopped for lunch, our boat is pictured outside the pub. It is a classic example of what Trip Advisor is good at, it looked like a fairly standard pub but in fact had some excellent home cooked Italian food. You would never think to go there without the tip off. Like a lot of places at the moment they do not allow reservations as this results in “no shows” hence our getting a place. By the time we left it was full.
On last years canal holiday we saw lots of herons, up until today we had not seen any but this one was almost tame. He was right by the lock and did not move until we were 15 feet away.
We are now moored just south of Derby and are expecting an invasion of grandchildren tomorrow, probably accompanied by their parents (Gemma & Jake), we plan to take them on a ride up the canal to a flash Indian restaurant, hopefully no one will fall in the water.