Mamie arrived on schedule and there was much rejoicing. I think she’ll be happy to get home to her bed – it’s occurred to me that she may well think this is our new life now, and returning home may come as a (hopefully welcome) surprise.
When it was time to stop pottering about, we bid goodbye to Colombiers for the short journey to the Fonserannes 7-lock system. These locks operate on a strict timetable alternating between uphill and downhill. We’d expected to arrive leisurely, perhaps be first in the queue for the after-lunch session, saunter to the nearby restaurant before reboarding the boat at the last moment to descend the locks with accompanying fanfares, applause etc.
Not so. There was already a good queue of boats when we arrived at 11am. We did a quick reccy on land and spoke to boat #5 in the queue who’d been stuck here a whole day due to pushy boats sneaking in and a lack of vigilance on his part.
We promptly returned to our boat and shoved up to the first gap i the line we could find. Fortunately the couple in the boat helped moor us up as the space is exactly the length of the boat! We are, I think, #8 in the queue so we should certainly get through this afternoon and Beziers is literally just the other side of the locks. And it’s a nice day, we have lunch on board, so all is well with the world.
Timsformational 