The last few nights I haven’t slept much so I was happy to wake at 9.30. It did mean however, that I’d missed the morning tide. I quite easily filled the day with eating, stretching, blogging, faffing and going for a walk.

I left at 4 pm when, by my calculations, the tide should’ve been rising, based on the tide times for Bordeaux. The riverbank was too steep at my camp so I portaged to Barsac where there was a slipway.

Either my calculations were wrong, or there isn’t enough tide to back up the flow, as I was fighting against quite a bit of flow. It was only 15km to Castets-en-Dorthe where I’d leave the river and join the Canal latéral à la Garonne, so I pushed on anyway.

The highlight of the paddle was the kingfishers that flew from branch to branch, flashing brilliant blue.

The new challenge on the canal is locks. There are 53 on this canal and 65 on the Canal du Midi. At each, I have to carry my boat around the lock on my trolley. The difficult part is getting in and out, especially when the bank is high and sloped, as it was at the first lock.

At the second lock, I chatted to two cycle tourists who were camping there, and decided to pitch up too. I’m now looking forward to paddling whenever I like, with no constraint from the tide.