The rain continued overnight and it was still raining in the morning, so we decided to stay another day, and take advantage of the washer-dryer at the Capitainerie. While the washing was drying, I took the opportunity to follow the AFL Semi-Final between the Hawks and the Richmond Tigers (last year’s premiers). The Hawks stayed in contention for half the game, but the Tigers eventually ran over them 95-64. Oh well, we have another chance next week!

In the early afternoon, the sun appeared, and we considered whether we should leave after all. But when Rita went to check the dryer, she found that even though she had paid for 2 hours, she had to push a button every 10 minutes to keep the dryer going. So for the past hour, nothing had been happening!! Eventually the washing was close enough to dry, so we changed our minds, and made a 1515h departure. It was too late to get a refund of the mooring fee we had paid for the day, but we didn’t care too much.

Starting with the four locks at Castelnaudary, we had a lot of locks scheduled for the afternoon - it turned out we went through 15 locks that afternoon, before we stopped for the evening near Villepinte.

As we were going through Lock 28 at Guerre, I noticed a date (1734) on a stone block in the lock wall, which made me realise just how old the canal was - and this probably wasn’t even an original block, since much of the canal was built in the 1680’s.

As the afternoon progressed, the storm clouds developed, so we decided to call it a day at a wild mooring near Villepinte at 1845h.

Given that we still had plenty of sunlight left in the day, I decided to make a protective cap for my new grab handle before the rain arrived.

This wild mooring turned out to be a blissful spot for dinner, shared with just one other boat; and then the real rain arriveth!