Monday 7th July 2008 Le Segala to abv Nègra C. du Midi

Grey clouds, occasional glimpses of sun but much cooler. We said Au’ voir to Bill and Fanny as they set off downhill eastwards and we did likewise, downhill but heading westwards. It was chilly enough for us both to need fleeces on! Ocean lock was empty, but a toot on the hooter brought our chatty resident keeper out to fill it for us. We chatted as the lock emptied. At Emborrel the young lad let us into the lock then said we must wait for another boat, and soon a small German cruiser appeared. He must have been exceeding the speed limit of 8 kph to have refilled the lock, descended, and then caught up over the 4.2 kms pound! Below the lock a hire boat from Caminav (an ex-Connoisseur) was pirouetting to get next to the wooden landing stage. As the cruiser overtook us leaving the lock, the skipper asked if we would swap sides (he later explained that the mini motorcycle on his left bow was in danger of catching on the oval lock wall) we said OK and we took the left hand side for the rest of the locks. There was an uphill boat in Encassen two rise’s top chamber. The German cruiser tied to the wooden landing above the lock, so we stooged around in the middle until a large, wide French boat cleared the lock. A lady on the bows was talking to the steerer using a portable radio. As we dropped down the staircase the resident lock keeper spent all his time chatting to a guy on the bank. Two ladies on the lock side took photos, as did the German skipper of the cruiser. Mike chatted with him in a strange mix of French, English and German. We followed them along the 2.8 kms pound to Renneville, where there was a middle aged bloke on duty. There were loads of cyclists on the towpath. I took the mast off to get under the low bridge below the lock. Past the tripper Surcouf whose crew were getting ready for passengers and followed the cruiser 4 kms down to Gardouch. I made us a cuppa soup as it was still chilly. We met an unconverted Dutch barge called Tourmente (nice stern end) heading uphill at the aqueduct over the river Hers and had to back off to let him through. The skipper asked if we were loaded – Mike replied only half?? (I wondered what both of them meant and not until much later did I find out that the barge skipper was a pioneer in bringing back commercial traffic to the Canal du Midi) Bill phoned at midday having just arrived at Castelnaudary. We were just approaching Gardouch lock and Mike had just said if the German cruiser had gone on without us we would stop on the quay and he would go to the boulangerie for some bread, but the cruiser was in the lock waiting for us so we dropped down the lock together. Mike said to the residential lady keeper that we would stay for about half an hour below her lock while he went to get some bread. She told him that the boulangerie was closed as it was Monday! Scrub that then, we’re off down to the next lock! It was only 1.5 kms down to Laval, but we were too late to go down before lunch, so we tied up at 12.35 p.m. on the wooden landing, the German cruiser was tied to the bank by the lock. A relief keeper in a van arrived to work the two-rise, the blonde lady and her son Spiderman must be having a day off. The skipper of the German cruiser told us he was going to Montgiscard, then Port Sud, where he would turn around to head back to Germany. We wished them a good holiday. We stopped at 2.20 p.m. before the next lock, Nègra, at the old quay by the bridge at KP35.