Today was our D-Day for leaving the port, so we were up early to fill the water tank, load the bikes onto the deck and then go pay at the H2O office for the remainder of our invoices. However, when we tried paying by card at the office, Credit Agricole refused to allow the payment (of 3300euro). So I went back to the boat to try to pay online, but got the same result. Even trying to pay just 2000euro got the same result. Then I remembered that I still had a few cheques left in my French cheque book, and H20 were quite happy to accept a cheque as payment, especially after I showed them the amount in our account.

So having sorted out the payments, we were back to the boat and away by our intended departure time of 1100h. On leaving the port, we turned north up the Saone and within half an hour arrived at Saint Symporien, the start of the Canal de Rhone au Rhin, well before the scheduled lunchtime of the VNF staff at 1230h. We hovered outside the entrance to the lock for a little while until the VNF staff saw us and gave us the green light to enter the lock. As we waited, another cruiser with a German flag arrived and followed us into the lock. We rose without incident to be greeted by the VNF guy who asked to see our Vignette, then presented us with a box containing our Zapper with which we would control all the other locks on the Canal de Rhone au Rhin to Mulhouse. He explained the operations to us, which was what we had already read in the Guide Fluviale, and sent us on our way. We very quickly began to refer to our Zapper as "Frank", which was rather appropriate because our box was number 717, and Frank Zappa was rated number 71 in the Top 100 Rock Stars by Rolling Stone in 2000!

It took a while approaching the ecluses to get used to the range at which the zapper would be detected, but after a few locks, everything seemed to be working OK, until we got to Ecluse 70, near Tavaux. Here, there was another boat in the lock going up before us, and no amount of pushing Frank's buttons could get it to even recognise us. So Rita phoned the VNF emergency number, and they said that they had already had a call from someone else and were on their way. When they got there, they reset something and the boat ahead left the lock, to be replaced by another boat coming down, and then we were allowed in. When Rita asked the VNF guy what the problem had been, he said it was our fault because we pressed the DOWN button 2 instead of the UP button 1. Both Rita and I thought this was BS, since she had been careful and I had been watching over her shoulder and saw she only pressed the UP button 1. We suspect he had to blame someone for an unexplained technical glitch.  So while this problem had trapped us in the Solvay Chemical Plant area for 30 minutes (at least the red lights hadn't started flashing), we were soon on our way to greener pastures.

We had hoped to stop at Choissey where Peter and Judy had moored a couple of weeks ago, but when we got there, all the mooring spaces were taken, so we continued on to Dole. When we got there, we encountered some tricky manoeuvres at the final lock, which is hidden around a bend, and so you can't see if it is occupied until you've gone around the bend. Of course, it was occupied by a boat coming down the canal, so we had to reverse out of the narrow entrance to leave them space to get out of the lock. When we got into port, we saw that the spaces under the pedestrian bridge, that Phil had mentioned to us, were filled. So we decided to moor behind them, and in front of the restaurant barge. But as we were manoeuvring to do so, the skipper of one of the moored boats (Risico) came back and advised us that that space was reserved for another hotel barge. However, he said there was enough space ahead of his boat for us, and then helped us to tie up on the sloping quai. Much appreciated.

After about an hour, we had gone further in the barge than we had while riding our bikes up the canal in the past few weeks, and entered the area surrounded by the Solvay Chemical plant. The maze of pipes and tanks was strangely mesmorising.

After our travels on the Rhone and Saone, it was good to be back in the land of small locks again.

Some areas of the canal were pretty weedy, but in this section we were at least guided by marker buoys.

The seriousness of the place, however, was brought to our attention by this sign on the side of the canal. Having read this, we wondered how much Solvay had paid for their description in the Guide Fluviale, as follows "Here different checmical producs such as caustic soda, bleach, hydrochloric acid and various solvents are produced. These pleasant products are used in ...blah blah blah"

This mooring space was even better and gave us a great view of the Dole Basilica. But it was too far away from the electrical connections (even for our power line with new extension cord), so we resolved to exist on batteries and generator while we were here.

While we were preparing dinner, we had a visitor in the form of Judy Lynne, who had just returned from Ansere in Switzerland (where she and Peter had been hiding from the canicule). We chatted for a while and agreed to catch up again tomorrow. After dinner, Rita and I went for a walk around the old town to check out the place and stretch our legs. Old Dole is very attractive, with its narrow, winding, cobbled streets, and looks like a place where you could easily spend a considerable amount of time. We checked out the Basilica close-up, and were impressed by it's size and solidity, but also by the delicate details.

We wandered for a couple of hours, and returned to the canal just as the sun had set behind the Basilica.

Kanumbra looked right at home in the port at Dole.