A much cooler morning, but it was a false respite. By 11am it had started to warm up again as the early morning haze was burnt off. After some morning shopping, we were finally ready to leave, but too late to avoid the lunch break at the lock. So we prepared for a 1.30pm start, but at 1.29pm the first boat of the day passed us on the way to the lock. So we settled back down to wait for them to go through. But then another boat arrived from upstream. At 2.30pm we left our mooring to go wait for both boats to clear the lock, but then the lock-keeper had to clear a large tree from the lock by flushing it from upstream.

Finally, at 3.00pm, we entered the lock. Cruised upstream, making beautiful patterns on the millpond water of the Lot.

When we arrived at Hauterive, we found that the barge “Careless Love” had left that mooring, so we pulled in there. Lovely spot, even though it didn’t have water or electricity.

Nearly everyone went swimming in the river, but found it a bit difficult to get in and out of the water. We had talked about getting a proper bathing ladder for the side of the barge, but for the moment I just rigged one up with our deck ladder and some bungee cords. Seemed to work OK as a stopgap measure.

Quiet drinks on the side of the mooring, during which the water police arrived to take pictures of people fishing on the other side of the river. During dinner, the police boat arrived to physically check out the people living (and fishing) on the other side of the river – all seemed to be in order. It seems that checking fishing licences is a major activity for the police in this area (or maybe they just like riding in the police boat). Full moon rose over the river, giving some good opportunities for trying to take full moon pictures (one of the best I've managed so far with my iPhone).