Sunday 15th September - Breisach to Kembs

We agreed to try and start at 8 a.m. as we had a long day ahead but it was 8.30 a.m. in the end on another lovely sunny morning.  Our first lock was not far and when we got back on the river, we came across two barges making for the lock too.  Luckily the second barge went alongside the first one, so there was plenty of room for us to tie off behind them.  These big locks are run by the French company EDF and we now have floating bollards to take us up the lock, meaning that we just have to tie off and let the bollard do the work.  We sat in the lock waiting for what seemed like an age before it started filling.  There was another big barge in the smaller lock going downriver so we think the keeper was juggling the water levels.

I am incorrectly calling this a river, as its’ proper name is the Grand canal d’Alsace and indeed it is like a canal, only much wider.  There is no scenery to speak of - no villages even to break the monotony......not so good for such a long days’ cruising!
The commercial barges went ahead of us fairly quickly so we were surprised that they waited for us in our second lock.  We tucked in behind them as before.  Not such luck for our next lock - one of the barges had stopped for unloading so the other one went on without us, so we hung around for quite a long time.  When, eventually we got into the lock, we waited more until a fast speed boat came racing up to join us......still we waited!!  So this lock took one and a quarter hours to go up - and no floating bollards on this one!
Our final lock of the day was much smaller, then three slow km to the little port of Kembs, arriving around 4.30 p.m......a very long hot day!!
As it was so late, we didn’t bother with lunch but just had a couple of beers and arranged to meet up for a drink before dinner.  Skip phoned the restaurant, Petit Kemps, at six o’clock and booked us a table for 7.30.  We had a very good meal, if a little expensive, on our way downriver, so we’re looking forward to it, even though we were all very tired.
And indeed, it was excellent - we all had the menu du jour at €45 for three courses, then back to the boats for an early night.

45 km 4 locks 8 hours