Although, technically, boats could have been coming through the lock at 0700h, we slept till about 0900h, when we were awoken by a knock on the door of the wheelhouse. When we got up to investiagte, we saw a VNF van outside, and thought we were in trouble for mooring at the waiting pontoon. But it turned out to be our VNF friend Gerome from a few weeks ago, who confirmed that the rest of his family were ready for their little cruise today, but that he couldn't come because he was on duty.  So we stayed up and had breakfast and finally departed from the waiting pontoon about 0940h, with no other boats being sighted. As we went through Clerval we confirmed one of the reasons why we stayed at the waiting pontoon last night, when we saw the Clerval moorings. Officially, the mooring has space for two boats, but the Guide Fluviale shows a sandbar just downstream of the mooring. Obviously the sandbar has moved since the Guide was last updated, with the sandbar now being directly under one end of the pontoon, making it totally unusable. Guide Fluviale, take note!!

At Ecluse 36 we stopped and picked up VNF mum and the three kids to take them to Baume les Dames (where they live). They seemed to enjoy the trip immensely, especially mum who works for VNF but had never been on a boat on the river/canal. She learned many more things about her job by being able to see it from the boater's perspective. I can't believe that VNF don't include some boating activity as part of their training program. As we did the last stretch up the canal to Baume les Dames, everyone was happy sitting up the front looking at various birds and fish along the canalside.

After our guests had left the boat, Rita and I stayed in the port at Baume les Dames for a while to have a relaxed lunch. We felt we were entitled to this, given that we paid for an unused night a few weeks ago. About an hour later we headed off. Along the way, we passed through the tiny village of la Grange Vuillotey on the left bank, with some very contented cows on the right bank.  Could have been a scene from a hundred years ago!

After hovering mid-stream for Rita's traditional swim with her noodle, we continued on to Ecluse 42 at Ougney-les-Champs, where the VNF eclusier, who swapped our zapper a few weeks ago, lived with her family of goats.

As we passed through Ecluse 35 (l'Ermite), with its mountainous views both upsteam and downstream, Rita and I both agreed that this was a place where we could easily spend a night at the waiting pontoon, if it fitted into our timetable of cruising. But it was still early morning, and we had lots of other things to do today, so we continued on.

A few locks later, we arrived at the town of Laissey where, a few weeks ago, Rita had added Kanumbra's name and date of passing to the collection of names already on the bridge support structure. So this time, it was my turn to add the date of our return trip. The second photo should be titled "Caught in the Act", or similar.

As we cruised along, parallel to the train line, we saw a scene which had now become commonplace.

As the day was drawing to a close, we had to think of where we would moor for the night. While we were trying to use different places on our return trip, the lure of Deluz proved too much as we approached in the afternoon sun.

Instead of being joined by sparrows, as we were last time in Deluz, this time we were greeted by a beautiful red butterfly.

And, as always, we were treated to a great aerial display by the swallows as sunset approached.