There’s one; there’s another one!

Today we glided down La Grande Saône at 8.5kms ph from Chalon to Tournus.  As we wended our way down, we basked in 25C sunshine – not bad for the end of October!

Our first ever visit to Tournus was with Colin and Carol after they’d joined us in Chalon in 2002 when we took Armanda to the Med.  Our second visit was in 2003 on our return from the Med and on on both occasions we enjoyed the location of the halte and the town.  This time we can’t help but feel things have taken a turn for the worse.  The whole place has an uncared-for feel and there are one too many winos wandering around looking like they’re waiting for an opportunity to score more booze.

It is even more unfortunate that Brody leapt onto the jetty as soon as we arrived and picked up some fishing line.  With the line trailing from his mouth and all attempts to see whether there was a hook on the other end failing we called the nearest vet for advice.  Keep an eye on him, check he eats and performs his business normally and if we have any concerns at all call them any time 24/7 – there is always someone on duty.  Reassured to some degree we await the reappearance of the fishing line and pray there was never a hook attached to it.

in the meantime we encountered some of the mighty vessels that earn their keep shifting passengers and goods up and down this impressive river.

There’s one……

There’s another one……

There’s another one……

To top the day off, the local Starlings began to gather over the town, ready to roost for the night and as we walked the dogs just before dusk I was “lucky” enough to be shit on from a great height.  The ol’ poem came to mind:

One day whilst sitting under a tree; a bird flew over and shit on me; as I looked up and wiped my eye; I said “thank goodness cows can’t fly”!  Well, it was something like that anyway!!

The flip side was the amazing murmurations we were treated to as they vied for a place to spend the night among the trees separating the town from the river.  I’ll share a video taken from the pontoon.  Really beautiful.