WE'RE UNLOCKED

Stuart and Naila Laundy discover post-lockdown life and freedom

- Stuart and Naila Laundy

Having already lost one trip to the Covid-19 crisis, we struck it lucky when restrictions on hire boats were lifted just a week before we were due to head to Cheshire.

So how did we find post-lockdown life on the canals?

Top of the pre-holiday shopping list for our latest adventure along the canals was sanitiser, anti-bacterial wipes and those uncomfortable vinyl gloves that make your hands sweat within a minute of putting them on.

A word of introduction. My wife and I have been cruising the cut for a good number of years even though we live in the now-famous Barnard Castle (more of which later) and are a good distance from the nearest waterways.

In a normal year, we would book an early few days on the Leeds-Liverpool out of Skipton before heading further afield later in the summer to explore a new part of the network.

This is no normal year, of course, and our annual excursion into the Yorkshire Dales was an early casualty of theCovid-19 emergency and is now rescheduled for October.

We had fully expected our July trip, which had been booked back in January, to go the same way. I had even contacted the hire company to assure them we would reschedule and not cancel.

Then, low and behold, Boris gave the green light for the network in England to open up again to enthusiasts such as us the week before we were due to go. Happy days.

Both of us are key workers and, having carried on throughout the previous three months or so, it’s fair to say we were ready for the break.