Up early at 6am to listen to the AFL game between the Hawks and Fremantle. A see-sawing game which saw the Hawks run out eventual winners 84-53. Still keeps them in the hunt for a finals berth, and not bad considering they are in the middle of a transitional rebuilding period, from the older premiership players to a new breed of younger players. Consistency has been their problem, and today was the first time this year that they have won two games in a row. Since Rita was coming home tonight, I figured I better do the laundry and have a general clean-up. Then spent a couple of hours catching up on past years for this blog, before decided to take advantage of the cooler weather today and go for a bike ride to Saint Symporien, when the Canal de Rhone au Rhin takes off from the Saone. When the barge is eventually fixed, this is where we'll be heading to go north, up the Doubs. The ride was along a wide smooth bitumen cycle path, which was shared with lots of fisherpeople, who had set up camp along the river for the weekend. As I went through SJDL on the other side of the river, I noticed a big cruise boat was in port. It must have come from the south, because the locks north of SJDL would be too small to handle it.

It was only a 20 minute ride to Saint Symporien, where I took a photo of the lock and the bollard arrangements for future reference. it is here that you receive an electronic control unit to operate all the locks on the Rhone au Rhin and the Doubs as far north as Montbelliard.

I also took a photo of the moorings at Saint Symphorien. This port used to be very busy and a popular spot for over-wintering but seems to have declined in popularity with a change in management, and now has only a part-time capitainerie.

I continued riding up the right bank and soon reached the first lock on the Rhone au Rhin itself. Very picturesque with the old mill in the background. I did note however the overflow water coming in at right angles just below the lock. This could make for a tricky situation when entering the lock from below, but time will tell.

I continued on and was impressed with the ambience of the canal. it was much more tree-lined and attractive than I had expected from looking at the map. At PK1.5, the canel widens considerably on a bend, but the cruising channel is well marked by red and green buoys.

I rode on as far as the Motorway overpass, then turned and rode back to SJDL. All in all, a very pleasant afternoon. As evening approached, I jumped on Rita's bike and rode up to the Gare to collect her from her train from Beziers (via Valance, Lyon and Dijon). She then rode beside me as we took the riverside path back to the barge. Along the way, we saw, and heard, our favourite family of swans busily feeding on weed and algae in a side stream.

When we got back to the barge, we just relaxed and enjoyed the changing face of the sunset (if you didn't like one view, you just had to wait a minute and it took on a totally different complexion; I couldn't choose between the two below as my favourites), while we listened to the growing chorus from all the frogs in the harbour.