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Thursday 25 July - Sarah&Albon depart, 13m lock, Chateau Roge, speedboats
Sarah and Albon and the kids rose early to start the long drive back to Bern. Today promises to be a hot one, but at least they will have a/c in the car. After they left, I ducked across the river to get a good shot of the barge and the background in the early morning sun.
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At the top of the stairway in front of Kanumbra was a communal laundry basin, very similar in design to the small laundry tub on the back verandah on the house in Moissac - just a bit larger!
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We headed off out of the sun later in the morning, and went through the 13m deep lock next to the hydro plant. Relatively straight-forward, except for a tricky entrance to the lock from the river, with a couple of tight bends – best to negotiate them at dead-slow speed.
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The lock looked very deep from the bottom, and also from the top, but again the floating bollards made it easy to use.
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We then cruised upstream (while Erika followed in her car) to find a shady spot to moor up for the day. Eventually stopped at Chateau Roge, a beautiful spot with shade, a chateau, riding school, camping area and other facilities used by school camps.
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Thought I’d found an Aussie Rules ground as well, until I realised that all the poles were the same height and were actually flagpoles.
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The only problem was the water-skiing club, who delighted in seeing which boat and skier could come closest to the barge to make it rock most vigorously. Putting a tyre between barge and dock seemed to dampen the worst of the rocking.
Rita and Erika went to a nearby Roman archeological dig and museum in the afternoon, which was very interesting to Erika given her interest in all things Roman. Once the skiers stopped for dinner and a few drinks, we enjoyed a quiet night on the rear deck until darkness fell.