Wednesday 21st August
After a rest day yesterday, with the Mistral behind us, and the fact that good moorings are limited, we decided to make an early break for Avignon, some 75km and 3 locks to the south. So a windy start, probably F6 gusting F7, towards the first lock, the Bollene Ecluse, with the largest drop in France at 75 feet. Like earlier Rhone locks, this was 190m long by 12m wide, dropping its 23m of water in about 10 mins, which according to our calculations as we peacefully dropped is a water flow rate of nearly 100 tonnes of water going somewhere every second. As all the Rhone locks have associated hydroelectric power stations, we can only assume it helps power France. After an hour delay at the second lock, we eventually rafted up, just past the famous Pont d’Avignon against another British couple from Southampton. A long day, so another rest day tomorrow.
