Frogman deer and dead rats!

Off at 0820 for the last locks to the summit of the canal. The gps read 346m above sea level at lock no.1. A few km later as we were about to enter the 5km tunnel, a couple started waving at us and trying to tell us that there was a deer in the water just inside the tunnel. Our French wasn't good enough to work that out - they were English. We slowed down a bit but never saw it, and the tunnel wasn't wide enough to squeeze past without knowing, although because the water was so still and there was a mist, it was difficult to see anything. The last 5km tunnel we went through took an hour & a half, being towed by a barge. I thought we were doing about the same speed, but came out the other end after 35 minutes. The sun had gone for the day and we pulled up at the next lock for dinner. The couple who told us about the deer turned up, and said that just as we had entered the tunnel, two vans with blue flashing lights & frogmen turned up to do a search! We did the next 11 locks and 6km in two hours as they were all downhill - about 5m each. The ropes got caught at the top three times as well although a bit of reversing got them unstuck without having to climb to the top again. Unfortunately going down, the ropes end up in the water each time and from the tunnel we must have seen at least sixty dead rats floating - always near where the rope fell. We stopped in a picnic area next to the village of Piepape at 1620. Every other house is an old barn ripe for conversion with fruit trees loaded with fruit hanging over all the walls, although it was so run down that they didn't even have a phone box. Booked in at 0900 tomorrow for the first lock.