Ruth had planned to leave early this morning to get to Moissac before us, so that she could go gift-shopping for her old school friend who we were going to visit later today. However, both Rita and I woke early and had the same thought that she should not walk alone from the drydock to the railway station in the dark/dawn. So when Ruth woke, we told her to go back to sleep - she didn’t argue.

Around 0800h, the drydock staff started filling the drydock, and we started unloading all the things we would need off the barge, including luggage and the bikes.

Around 0830h, Serge (boy, he looks different without the longer hair he had at the Moissac Festival!) and his crew started manoeuvring Kanumbra into the drydocks with ropes. This surprised me a bit, since I had assumed that the barges would be driven in at slow speed before ropes were attached for final positioning. However, years of experience has taught them that ropes are the safest and quickest way to get the barges in and secured.

Hodi was also positioned and the drydock start draining by 1000h. Since this process was going to take a while, we decided to leave and were driven to Matabieu Gare by Serge’s assistant, in time to get the 1028h train to Montauban.

We were collected at Montauban station by Phil and his wife Kathy, who had herself arrived at Montauban earlier that day. As we started loading luggage into the boot of the Scenic, Ruth realised she was missing a bag with all her clothes for the trip in it. She then realised that she had left it on the train!

So everyone ran back to the platform while I minded the car which was parked in a loading zone (I should have just turned the emergency flashing lights on!). Luckily the train we took was a terminating train and was still standing at the platform, so in a few minutes Ruth arrived red-faced with her missing bag. We then had a pleasant trip to Moissac, with Ruth still wondering what would have happened if the train had been a continuing train to who knows where...

When we got to Moissac we dropped Phil and Kathy at the Tarn Quai and then Ruth and Rita went shopping in the glassworks shop for her gift, while I went to see Captain Jim and asked him to scan and then forward our ICC Certificates to us at Carcassonne Port when they arrived. We then started to drive to Le Chatelet, on the River Saone near St Jean de Losne. Along the way we passed by Clermont Ferrand, and got a good view of the Puy de Dome volcanic region.

We didn’t arrive at Le Chatelet until about 1800h, but the drive was worth it when we saw the reaction of Ruth and Elizabeth as they embraced. They were school friends, and have kept in touch over the years (lately with Facebook), but have not seen each other for a few years. I think they have a bit of catching up to do.

When Ruth had earlier told us that Elizabeth’s hotel was “on the Saone”, we thought she was saying this in a very generic way. But it really is "right on the Saone”, as shown by this photo from the window outside our bedroom for the night.  

The view in the other direction from the “beer garden” is just as spectacular and shows the private mooring they have on the Saone.

We were treated to a private dinner with Elizabeth and partner David at the hotel, after which Ruth went home with them to check out the hedgehogs in their garden - anything for a photo!

In checking the news on the internet that night, I saw that there was ongoing speculation about the fate of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. There was even talk of Peter “Potatohead” Dutton as the next Prime Minister. Surely, they jest!