Today was the day! My first walk along the Canal du Nivernais! I went alone as Bob refers to my walks as 'photo shoots' and he quickly gets bored of waiting on me. Can't blame him really.

I walked back towards the last lock that we had come through on the 2nd. It is 80F (30C) today with lots of sunshine, but yet there is a lovely, soft breeze. I was gone 2 hours and walked 5 miles.

Looking back towards the boat, I could see her in the distance on our mooring and she looked small compared to those boats moored around us. Nevermind!

I saw two fishermen sitting along the bank of the canal, with poles about 10-feet in length. I walked up to them, as you do, and asked them if they were fishing for trout (truite). They weren't, as it happens, but one of them said 'sharks'. We all laughed together. They then pulled out one of the fish and it turns out (after researching on Google upon my return) that they were catching baby Barbel. These fish look exactly like a baby bullhead that we used to catch as kids on Fernan Lake!

My conversation then turned to whether or not they eat them, and they said that they do but would need more to make a meal. I asked if they tasted good and they said yes. So, I bid them 'bonne chance' and 'au revoir' and continued my walk, leaving them in peace to put their lines back in the water.

The water is clear enough that you can see fish swimming about. So far, I have seen trout, carp, and perch. In the evenings, the water comes alive with them surfacing and ducking (ducking to not get scooped up by the birds). A Kingfisher visited us, took a quick look and then skittered back across the water to the woods.