Canal de Calais and the River Aa: Calais to Watten

Inside a lock while departing Calais

Once we had Wanderlust safely tucked into the Calais’ Port de Plaisance we had a number of things to do. Our dog Gigi needed to be liberated from her foster parents in Canterbury England. Once a convenience, our leased car had become a burden and had to be retrieved from Caversham and returned to Charles de Gaulle Airport. Inside the barge, our preparations for the crossing had to be unraveled to recapture the living space. And importantly, the heavy layer of salt that we picked up crossing the Channel needed to be removed from the outside surfaces of the barge. Steel boats and seawater are always a challenging combination. We held at the port in Calais for four nights doing the things we had to do. All the time we lusted for a taste of the waterways before us.