We had an early 9am start at the first lock so myself and Angela got up at 7am to have showers and then I went to buy bread and croissants.

I was walking with the ducks up the channel on the way into town. Steve’s boat was here – with no life yet.

It was a short round trip walk of 15 minutes. We then had breakfast when I got back to the boat. We then set off for the day on our way to Baye in sunshine. There was still no sign of life at Steve’s boat.

We were the only boat again today. The sky was totally blue but it was still chilly. A heron took off next to us.

The canal ran over the top of the river on a viaduct. This had been a huge engineering job in the 1800s.

The canal was wide and stretched on ahead of us.

In the afternoon Oli got off to get some running done. Here are some action shots.

There were a few multi step locks towards the end of the day. It fills up from the front until it’s deep enough to move forward to the upper section. The middle doors are then closed behind us so we can go up again. There’s a lot of water gushing around as it happens.

Coming into the last lock before Baye there was a large tourist boat coming through the lock for the experience. We tied up at the side and watched them come out of the lock then turn around. The tourists were sitting inside having lunch and drinking wine. We felt a bit like we were on display.

Angela then inched us into the lock after them – there was just enough space.

We had to hold on tight to the ropes as the lock filled up and both boats moved around quite a lot. We then moved on to the marina. The only space was at the exposed entrance to the marina between 2 large boats. We tried tying up front ways in but we got blown around. We then maneuvered around in the small space fending off the boats and the boys trying to pull us in but we still got buffeted around. Angela was still the driver and she did some very tricky driving in a small space to avoid the other boats while being blown sideways. The boys just got back on in time before we motored out of there to the wall between the canal and the lake. We found a good spot attached to bollards. Our only issue now was to conserve electricity- this is where our battery went flat a few days ago.

The boys then went for a shower at the marina while Angela and I had a rest after all that drama.

Later Glenn, Angela and I walked back along the lake wall to the last lock where there are many fruit trees. We took a pole so we could reach the upper branches. There was a tree full of very sweet small plums so we got a lot of those. The larger plums weren’t so good and all the apples were rotten. We then went to check out the motorhome park and then the town. We found the restaurant where we were going tonight and checked out the menu.

We then headed back to the boat – looking like a very mottly crew with our hook. The skies were getting darker as we got back to the boat.

We got ready for the restaurant and made a jug of Aperol spritz for aperitif. It went down well.

We then went off to the restaurant early to make sure we beat the rain. We arrived and we had to sit outside while the tables were being set up. Soon we were inside and admired the bird paintings on the wall.

We all enjoyed our meals – I had an excellent oven cooked slab of cod with a buttery sauce and ratatouille.

The owner who had done all the front of house service in the packed restaurant was a character and told us he works 8 months for 4 months holidays. He is off to the Caribbean and Spain this year.

On the walk back to the boat there was still light coming through the clouds over the lake.

We went straight to bed. We have a big day with 24 locks tomorrow.