The plan had been to go directly to Mulhouse from here but as it was a long trip with 22 locks to navigate, so we decided to break the journey and moor on what Crew calls a ‘country mooring’ with no facilities. We planned on an evening barbecue as there are no facilities to be had. To this end we had bought some prawns in the supermarket yesterday.
We had arranged with the lock keeper to be at the first lock at 9.30 - everything going smoothly until we caught up with a very slow going ex- restaurant barge. The entire local fleet of the VNF were accompanying us this morning......four vans, a motorbike and around 6 men!
We caught up with the slow moving barge just three locks from our mooring spot and had the frustration of having to wait almost half an hour for him to lock through and for the lock to refill. Even though we cruised very slowly, we still caught him up for the next lock and of course by now, it was lunchtime! So frustrating!! However the nice lock keeper said he would see us through our last lock and have a late lunch, so we arrived at the mooring around 1.30 p.m.
We got settled as soon as possible as it was easily 30c by then and not much breeze so we were all sweltering! Cold beers and lunch followed.
After a siesta and cold showers, Henk came over with the prawns and we set about marinating them in garlic, herbs and oil. Served with couscous, remoulade and salad, they went down very well. A little while after dinner, the wind got up and we retired below.
10 km 12 locks 4 hours
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