Date: 21 June 2015
Subject: THE LAST LOCK

Yesterday, Friday 19th was a very significant day. In his boating life, Fred has been through more than 900 locks, and Grete about 700. Since they left Holland about 12 months ago, on this particular adventure, they have done 488 locks. Including my previous visit in September in France, I have been on board for 187 of those. These vary from quaint, tiny manually operated locks on narrow French canals, to these massive commercial locks on the Danube. Regardless, F and G swear they will never have to "lock" again and they are delighted. (Their plan for the next 9 years or so, is to cruise around the Mediterranean for a while, before crossing the Atlantic, visiting Cuba, etc, then maybe sailing North up the Inland Passage on the East coast of the US. (I wondered if they might strike a lock or two there, but Fred says NO!)

We had to moor in this somewhat desolate spot on Thursday night to wait for a barge to lock with, the next day. Fred is proudly showing off his Roumanian "courtesy". In the background is the border police. This guy spoke English and was really nice and helpful.

Following massive barge "Falcon" into the Last Lock, on Friday morning.

Grete's last lock will be remembered because she got a "sticky" schwim-pole, ie in these big locks, we can tie to a bollard that goes down (or up) as we do....much easier than having to constantly re-rope to slimy ladders. However, this one did not travel smoothly and Grete jumped every time it dropped suddenly.

Yes, yet another pic of dinner. This time in a nice Bulgarian restaurant in the city of Vidin, kilometre 790. This delicious, mostly vegetarian meal, with beers and wine ( and a deadly local "brandy" called rakia) came to Bulgarian lewa 110=55€=A$85 for 3.
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