Lots of people have been asking how my body is coping. So far I haven’t suffered a single rub or blister. I put this down to paddling most days for the last few years, and using great kit from vaikobi. I’ve been careful to look after my body. On the sea, I rubbed coconut oil into my skin and rinsed my clothes to prevent any salt rash. My sit bones became bruised after the first few days but an epic seat pad quickly solved that. My muscles have become quite tight and I need to do more stretching.

I don’t think I’m anywhere near my physical limits for endurance, although I probably should have taken a rest day a few days earlier. I woke up feeling pretty awful because my blood sugars had been high all night. I haven’t been documenting my diabetes management like I want to. It’s been hard enough keeping up with the daily blog. Coming soon!

The canal wiggled its way across a changing landscape, the foothills of the Pyrenees on one side and the Parc naturel régional du Haut-Languedoc on the other. The air had a rich, sweet fragrance and a biplane droned lazily overhead. No one was about other than the odd cyclist, and lock keepers sat under the shade of fig trees, waiting for boats.

Delicious figs were on the menu for lunch again. They kept me going until the outskirts of Carcassonne, where I hid my boat in a field and walked to a hypermarket to buy some gas. Hot meals again!

The canal became litter-filled and grotty as I paddled into Carcassonne. I found a shed for my boat by the marina and ran over to the old walled city to catch the sunset. Alas, I got lost and missed it, but the medieval castle was all lit up and looked amazing.

In the night it rained and I scrambled with my tent into the shed where my boat was. I need to replace the snapped poles as at the moment I’m just using my tent like a bivvy bag. I awoke the next morning and felt sick, my sugars having been high all night again.

I felt overwhelmed and gave up, spending most of the day lying in my hovel. I was fed up with the daily grind of dealing with diabetes, I felt disgustingly dirty, having not washed for 5 days, and my muscles all ached, having not stretched for ages. Add to that my broken equipment, logistics of getting new stuff and the pressure to write a blog, it was all too much. Of course it wasn’t really, but in my tired state, I felt it was.