We started at 9am for our journey up the canal in convoy with another plastic river cruiser of the type with the sliding roof over the driver.
The first lock was manned but the second was the semi-automatic type. You get in and tied up and pull the blue pole down to start the cycle of filling and opening of the doors.
We were accompanied for the day by a featureless plastic boat of the type that has a sliding canopy.
We were also accompanied by a heron. He’d wait till we passed in the hope we’d stir a fish to the surface. Then he would fly off a couple of hundred metres ahead and wait again for us to pass.
We came to our lunchtime stop and searched hard for the mooring posts below the lock. We eventually spotted one on the far side of the high reeds. We found a spot to come alongside and, with little water and a rocky river bed, gingerly creeped to the bank to stop for lunch.
After lunch completed a few more locks every two kilometres or so and stop in Nemours for the night at a water point.
We took a walk round town and admired the lovely chateau and town cathedral. The chateau was accessed by a small opening in the high street and you walk into a small square in front of the chateau. This was a like a time portal as once you were through, the entire square was about four hundred years old and was steeped in history with lovely features on the windows and doors and flowers everywhere. The only thing breaking the spell was the cars.
We visited the information centre to get some recommendations and I wanted to find an internet café as I wanted to check my bank balance to see if my rent had left properly and a car payment. The guided us to a place down the road but like many things this month, it was closed for the summer break. The walked back and managed to pursuade the lady assistant to let me use her PC to get on the internet. Nice service!
We came back via the superstore Champion to pick up more beer and water and settled down to a quiet night, apart from the damn mopeds using the tow path as a through way
