My first task was to pick up the bread and croissants from the restaurant- which I enjoyed by walking down the wall between the canal and the lake and going into the small village. The weather was looking promising – without the rain that had been predicted.

We quickly got ready for our 10am departure into the ‘Amazon’, followed by 3 tunnels and then 24 locks.

The Amazon and the tunnels section is only 1 boat wide so there are red and green lights at either end to tell you if you can’t enter as a boat had already entered from the other end.

The Amazon has steep sides where no one can get to without a boat – so it’s very overgrown and dark. You feel like you are a million miles away from anywhere.

We then came to the first and longest tunnel – Tunnel de la Collancelle at 758m long. There is light at the end of the tunnel as you enter!

Coming out is lovely to see the green again.

We went through another 2 shorter tunnels. They would have been pitch black to the early boaters. We had good lights.

We continued through the Amazon checking out the walls and features that had all been built by hand – it’s amazing!

We came out of the Amazon to our first lock and were told there were 2 boats coming from the other direction so we had to wait for 40 minutes. We moored up and went for a walk in the small village of Port Brûle.

We soon got going again but after 2 locks it was lunchtime and we had to stop again. However there was a quirky cottage beside a lock a very short distance away where we could have crepes and drinks.

There is loud 60s music and quirky furniture all over the place. Even the lock is painted pink. The crepes came out in a stack and then there was a basket of sugar, jams and honey to add. The tea was delicious leaf tea in quirky small tea pots.

We were all dancing to Michael Jackson as we left.

We walked back up to the boat and soon we were off again – now with loud dancing music to help us get through the 22 remaining locks.We got very efficient at getting through them quickly.

Glenn took it all lying down.

And then back in action.

It became very rainy towards the end and we were able to come inside and let the captain do all the work keeping the boat steady in the locks against the wall. It’s ok to do this when going down in the locks- there isn’t water gushing about – only a gentle flow.

As we were going through the final lock to enter the locaboat port sun came out and there was a rainbow – a fitting end to the trip.

We moored up and had a sigh of relief that we had done it!

We had some nonalcoholic beer and chips to celebrate.

We then started tidying and packing up – with many trips loading the van.

Dinner was simple – pesto pasta and leftovers before going to bed early.