We got away at the Goldilocks hour of 0940h (not too early, not too late, just right!) and headed upstream. As we passed Port Ste Pierre, we noticed that it was totally empty (a rare event), so we could have moored here last night.

Sat 8 July - Ste Pierre empty, Mantoche, Gray ride, Anna & Rob, sunset ride, crickets

But we continued on and around midday we were pulling in to moor at Mantoche, in front of the Chateau Mantoche.

In mid-afternoon, we jumped on our bikes and crossed the river to the east side and rode up to Gray, where we had arranged to meet up with Rob and Anna, who we last saw around this time last year in Montbeliard. We spent a very pleasant afternoon in the sun with them, and then rode back to Mantoche in the setting sun. As we crossed the barrage to get back to the west side of the river, I got a great shot of the setting sun across the River Saone.

When we got home, I checked the scores in the Mens and Womens Ashes cricket played during the day, and saw that the men had had rain in Leeds, which prevented any play until after 1600h. Nonetheless, the Australian were all out before stumps. The Womens game was also affected by rain, and the Australia women lost the game in the last over, on a Duckworth-Lewis adjustment of the scores to account for the lost time.