Saturday 2nd June - Digoin to Dompierre sur Besbre

We left at 9a.m. as we had a five or six hour cruise ahead of us.  Our first lock was just after the aqueduct which worked well as a boat was just coming out as we approached.  With a morning mist over the water, it promised to be a lovely day and sure enough, quite soon the sun appeared burning the mist off.  We then caught up with another boat waiting at the next lock.
These locks are manned and manual so not quite as speedy as the automatic ones. We passed through two locks with the French foursome, and in the second, one of the ladies (with glass in hand!) asked if we would like to overtake, which we did, thinking they would stop for an early lunch.  As we approached the next lock there was no sign of them and, having passed a very nice looking restaurant, assumed that we were right.  Wrong - as we were going down in the lock they appeared.......ooops!!
The lunchtime closure was from 12 till 1 p.m. and we really thought we would get through our penultimate lock at 11.45 but no.....so we tied up in the lock to wait until one o’clock.  Then just after midday, the lock keeper turned up and operated the lock for us!  A very strange day!  He told us to be at our last lock of the day not before one o’clock, so we ambled slowly through the pretty countryside and arrived just before one.  In the end we didn’t lock through until after 2 p.m.as the lock keeper was busy and the lock was against us.  Having thought that we had made very good progress, our arrival time was now well behind schedule!
We arrived at 2.30 finally, immediately plugged in and filled with water - hopefully we can stay in the spaces reserved for the Locaboat base.  There is an alternative spot across the canal, also with power, so it wouldn’t be disastrous in any event.
Skip went into town for some shopping and to look for likely restaurants for dinner.  He came back saying that none of them were remarkable but all looked reasonable.  The TV reception was good so Skip was able to watch a friendly football match between England and Nigeria before leaving for dinner.  The French crew that we shared a couple of locks with earlier had arrived in port and Crew stopped to apologise to them for not waiting for them earlier......they were not at all upset and were very gracious.  We went for a very nice looking Italian restaurant with a lovely terrace but were turned away as the only table left was reserved and crossed the road to a very small cafe which served us with very good steaks and homemade chips.  There was a lot of noise going on nearby and after a while, lots of people started to emerge from a side street opposite us......they all made for the canal side and were performing tricks on some strange floating boats which were set in a circular structure. Not seen that before!!
On our way back to Aphrodite we were waylaid by the French foursome who were still in party mood and invited us aboard to join them.  Although their English was not brilliant and Crews’ French leaves a lot to be desired, we all got on famously and before we knew it, the clock had reached midnight!  A thoroughly good evening!

27 km. 6 locks. 5 1/2 hours