Another cooler night meant a good night's sleep, with only some rain in the night forcing me to close the dogbox windows again. Overcast and a bit rainy in the morning so we took the opportunity to catch up on outstanding emails and other business. Barge Kevin joined us in Villeneuve-sur-Lot just before we were ready to cast off and head downstream. With only one lock to negotiate on the way to Clairac, we made very good time taking only 4 hours to cover the 40kms from Villeneuve-sur-Lot  On the way, we passed our kayak friend who we helped through the lock at Lustrac a few days ago.

Then for the last 10km to Clairac, we were chased by a young guy in a single scull. He could have passed us at any time, but he seemed to enjoy just cruising along in our wake, or surfing bow waves made by Kanumbra.

We arrived in Clairac to find just one space large enough for us at the quai. We hoped all the others are heading upstream, or else it could be a mad rush for the downstream lock in the morning to get to the head of the queue for the crossing of the Garonne from Aiguillon.

While getting Rita’s bike down for her to make a trip to the other side of the river for some shopping, the “kayak man” arrived and asked if we could let him through this lock as we had at Lustrac. Since Rita was heading across the river anyway, we agreed, and then had to stop him paddling off over the barrage to find the lock! Later in the evening , Eric Marion (the kayak man) came up from his campsite to have a chat and a drink and tell us about his kayak trip. He started at the very top of the Lot near Decazeville 17 days ago, with the intention of reaching the Garonne. Since he still has about 7 days up his sleeve before he must return to work in Paris as a professional film-maker, he is now thinking of going down the Garonne to Bordeaux!! He has documented many of his previous adventures on his blog, and will add the Lot kayak trip to it in a few weeks time. Next year he plans to go by motorcycle to Mozambique and do some snorkelling!

Looking at his blog later we found that we featured twice; once at Lustrac and once at Clairac. It's interesting to see ourselves from a different perspective. The (Google) translation of the words pertaining to us at Lustrac are (something like) "Got to the lock but didn't have a keytag pass. On looking below the lock, I saw a barge. Rita and Tony, Swiss and Australian, accompanied me back to the lock, where they used their keytag to let me through".

The entry for Clairac said something like "A little before Clairac, the barge Kanumbra overtook me and I received greetings from Rita and Tony. I camped just after the ecluse. Arriving at Clairac, Rita took her bike to open the lock with her keytag. After I finished setting up camp, I returned to the barge for an aperitif (Shirley Peters Painting - www.kanumbra.com)".