An excellent pub, and a good day's boating

Last night's meal in the Anchor at Hartshill was the best yet. Both for atmosphere and quality of cooking, it came top of the list. Furthermore, we had no trouble with lads on the towpath, although just one pair went sauntering past in the early evening, flicking something at the boat.

Today we were up even earlier than usual for our flying start. Although still cloudy, the weather was much milder with no sign of the fog that made yesterday tedious. By eight we were into the Atherstone flight. We crossed with a boat below lock 2; they'd spent the night on the long pound between five and six, so we had a clear run down that far. After that it was a mixed picture. There had been nobody down since the boat we passed had come up, but a couple of the locks had drained down overnight.

Nonetheless, we made it to the bottom before ten, so averaged about ten minutes a lock. I'm very fond of the Atherstone flight; although the locks can be frustratingly slow to fill, it's a great mixture of urban surrounding at first, becoming more and more rural as you go down.

Below the locks, we shared the steering to Alvecote, where we've stopped for the night. We plan to eat in the Samuel Barlow tonight; we'd been doing this pub an injustice, assuming that it was a chain pub, but a satisfied customer of Sheila's, Stephen Ayres, has just been over for natter. He tells us that it's another genuine home cooked food place, and very popular, so I'll report back on that tomorrow.