Up early to watch the last home-and-away game of the season for the Hawks, when they took on the Collingwood Magpies. After the Magpies had lead for the first three quarters, the Hawks played strongly in the last quarter to take the lead, only for the Pies to kick a goal in time-on to take the lead again. The new Hawks ruckman then kicked a long-range goal on the run to tie the game up, and then we scored a point with less than one minute to go to win 112-111. Phew! This completed an amazing series of close wins this year, when the Hawks won all their matches decided by a goal or less. For those who don’t like Collingwood (they are traditionally everyone’s least favourite team), it’s said that the best thing is beating the Pies by a point with a kick after the siren. I guess today was just the second best thing.

On the can2mers online forum (for bargees on the Midi or Garonne canals) there has been a debate raging about long-term mooring at Serignac, just to the east of Agen. I have already noted on this website that for the past few years (until this year) it has been virtually impossible to find a mooring spot in the Agen Basin, because VNF has given long-term mooring rights to a few large barges, which then block all the space, preventing those who actually move about on the canals from finding a space for one or a couple of nights. The same thing happens at Serignac, which is an even smaller port. In the 6 years that we have been on the Garonne Canal, we have only ever been able to stop at Serignac once, because of a lack of space due to long-term moorers. We now don’t even bother to think about stopping at Serignac, because of the low chance of finding a mooring space, and plan out trips accordingly. I often wonder how the shops in Serignac feel about the passing trade they are missing?

With only a few days to go, we spent time packing the barge (with things we don’t want to leave on deck), and I also took the opportunity to clean the bed base of years of accumulated mould and grime. Not a pleasant job, but at least we can look forward to a clean bed base when we arrive next year (must remember that we need to buy a mattress before we can sleep on the barge).

In the late afternoon, we went to a concert in the church at St Nicolas de la Grave. It was an interesting combination with a Flamenco duo interchanging with an accapella choir. The acoustics in the church were great, although the wooden benches did become a bit hard after a while.

When we got home, we saw that more roses were blooming in the garden, especially the pink and yellow varieties near the canal fence.