Saturday 16th August 2008 Damazan

Grey clouds, a few sunny spells and showers, much cooler. We went back to Agen Sud in the car to do some shopping at Carrefour as Mike needed some new oil filters for the car (5€ each there, cheaper than elsewhere). The store was busy and the petrol station had queues as they had reduced the diesel price to 1,25.9€ per litre with a 3€ reduction on shopping if you bought over 30 litres; Mike had taken the jerry cans for petrol and a large can for boat diesel so he filled the latter and added some extra to the car’s tank. We had to queue again to buy petrol as you can’t use the pump again until the last amount had been paid at the cashier’s kiosk. They had no yoghurt at Carrrefour so we called at a new Hyper Casino in Le Passage and I bought a pack, plus a boule and a book of Sudoku games. Home for a late lunch. Mike went to change the oil and filter on the ZX while I got the camera and found maps to go and look at the locks on the Lot. Once he’d changed the oil we set off across the Garonne into Aiguillon, then north through the town to Nicole where there was a canal off the Garonne which leads on to the Lot. We found it, parked the car and walked through a tunnel under the railway to get to Nicole lock. 

The water level was much too far down for navigation, only about 20 cms over the cill. Mike took a few photos and we went to look at the third lock on the river, which is at Clairac (there are only four in use yet, the other is at Castelmoron, as the river has yet to be restored beyond Villeneuve-sur-Lot). We diverted up the hill to the viewpoint at la Croix du Perch de Berre, where a 15m high cross was erected in 1897 on Easter Monday. Took a few photos and went on to Clairac, crossed the river and went to look at the lock. The wide weir had no water running over it but the hydro-electric plant on the far side was running and was using a fair drop of water. Back home for a salad for dinner while we watched the news. Team GB won four gold medals at the Bejing Olympics, the most for a hundred years. 

Friday 15th August 2008 Damazan

Warm and sunny with occasional showers. Mike went to buy a loaf before going on the moped to collect the car from Valence. Gave him a hand to get the bike off the roof down the plank. While he was away I cleaned the roof off (again) as there was tree debris and masses of insects (loads of grey froghoppers and little scale bugs) and sticky sap all over it. The French woman on Mongenster, a little Luxe moored opposite, had just finished cleaning her boat down using a hosepipe. Mike had said quite loudly that there were signs on the water taps in the port that drinking water must not be used for washing boats! I had used canal water with bucket and string. It started to rain before I’d finished but I carried on to get all the mess off. Mike called at 1.00 p.m. to say he was at Valence and was setting off in the car. He said Roy had told him that Shebah-Mike had gone off on his holidays with his family on board; the couple who owned the yacht we moored next to had come to their boat, took the sheets off it and the woman got stung as there were wasps on the boat so they’d gone away again; the people who owned the cruiser Cathy had also been and taken their boat out – they went up to Moissac and out on to the Tarn without a chart, got stuck on some rocks and had to call the pompiers and divers out! We missed all the fun! Our space had been taken by a wide beamed narrowboat owned by Belgians, who had left their boat and gone on holiday and the Swiss couple who had the little Luxe Bon Aventure had moved it into the gap next to Charles’s pénichette and gone home. We had an afternoon siesta. Mike mixed up some acid solution to decalcify the loo pipes as the cap for the tank was accessible while the moped was off the roof. We left it to fizz. (10% HCl solution and it effervesced. Ed ). Once it had done its job we put the bike back on the roof. We watched the BBC news, still rumblings in Georgia as the Russians basically told the USA to mind their own business. 

Thursday 14th August 2008 Auvignon to Damazan

Cold night, sunny spells but mainly grey clouds. Only 16°C when we set off at 9.40 a.m. Before we left Mike cleaned part of the roof using the mop as it was running with condensation. We dropped down Auvignon’s shallow lock, it was automatic and back to the new press button system. No one around so we dropped down ropeless. I carried on cleaning the roof off as it was filthy from tree sap and leaves, etc. I sat out with a cuppa to steer while Mike went in the cabin to check that the new section of pipe in the loo had stopped the leak. It had. The autoroute was close by the canal, traffic making a din and the cyclists had woken up and were bombing up and down the towpath. There were no boats about for the first couple of hours which was nice after the madness of the rushing hordes of the previous evening. 

The first boat we met was a large Loca going so slowly we couldn’t decide if it was tied up or not. A VNF van went flying past us down the towpath as we approached the first of the two locks after the aqueduct over the Baïse. Two hire boats were coming up in 39 Baïse. I turned the pole and hopped off on the aqueduct to take photos of the Baïse. There were two boats on the river, a little day boat from Buzet and a hire boat. Mike took the boat into the lock and I walked down the path to turn the lever (back to the old system again!) waited until the paddles went up, turned the lever again then stepped back on the boat. There were more boats coming up in lock 40 Larderet, which was a very short distance below 39. A France Fluvial and Locaboat went past and we went into lock 39. I turned the lever and waited just a little too long – 

all four paddles had gone up at once and the boat had gone down too far for me to step on the gunwale so I went down the nicely equipped stairs at the tail end of the lock and got back on board as the boat came out. A big blue Moissac hire boat was heading for lock 40, which still had a red light. Mike asked if they’d turned the pole, the American crew said yes, but when Mike said did you get a flashing orange light they said no (which meant they hadn’t turned it hard enough to make it click) he said we’d turn the pole again for them, which we did - that saved them reversing back to it. The light immediately changed from red to green. Back into the jungle. There was a steep 30 foot high bank on the left and so overgrown the towpath looked impassable; the Baïse was close to the right of the canal. 

The cycle path must be at the top of the bank or beyond the trees. Ten minutes later we passed a large French cruiser called Fitzcaraldo from Martigues, we’d seen that one before but ages ago. We almost collected the rods of two fishermen who were well hidden in the herbage on the right bank. There was a road back of the trees, so the canal wasn’t as isolated as we’d thought. I took photos of the lock on to the Baïse as we came to Buzet. There was a hire boat coming into the empty lock to come up off the river. The moorings at Buzet were mostly full, no spaces our size anyway. The quay by the restaurant was also pretty well full - we could have squeezed on to the end in front of River Holme (a big British cruiser) with our bows overhanging the grassy bank, but didn’t feel so inclined. 

The old wooden landing we tied to last time we were there was double moored on both sides by permanently moored private boats. A shortened houseboat péniche called Jeremy was moored (permanently by the look of the quant poles and electricity meter) a bit beyond the basins where a double line of plane trees started. No TV if we’d stayed there. It started to rain. Brolly up and I closed the doors. At 12.15 p.m. I made a cup of soup to warm us up as it was getting damp and decidedly chilly. At 1.00 p.m. we winded and tied on the quay at Damazan at the Nautic hire base (surprised there was enough space). A few minutes later a Loca almost crashed into our bows as it came in to fill the gap. The guy in charge returned from a liquid lunch (breathing fumes to knock you over) and said, very pleasantly, that we had to moor stern to the bank. We said we couldn’t do that as the stern was round and the boat was too long to do that without having something to tie to (there were no pontoons) so we said we’d moor on the far bank. Hotel boat Mirabelle was moored for lunch on the opposite bank, plugged into a special electricity supply in the wall. They guy at the port was very pleasant and asked if we needed water, nope not yet thanks. We tied to the tree roots opposite the private boats at the end of the quay. I cooked some hamburgers and onions for lunch. Mike decided the weather was too grim for a ride on the moped, he’d fetch the car the following day and went up into the town to find the boulangerie and take some photos, then came back for some money and went again to buy a loaf! Two British wide beamed narrowboats moored on the stumps behind us, which had notices saying that they were for the use of the hotel boat Mirabelle only (it had only just left) and any boats found moored there would be fined! French TV was non existent without resorting to putting our other satellite dish up. Later Mike set our gennie up so we could both use our PCs. 

Wednesday 13th August 2008 Bon Encontre to abv Auvignon lock.

Cooler overnight. Grey clouds first thing, brightening up to sunshine and white clouds. Mike took a few photos of the mooring before we left. A cruiser called Bon Vivant went uphill as we were getting ready and a hire boat went past heading downhill (like us) just as we were untying the ropes. The towpath/ cycle piste was heaving with walkers and cyclists even before we got out of bed, we could see shadows on the bedroom curtains. Set off at 10.10 a.m. A little further down the canal towards Agen a large tree was down on the left bank (must have been in last Tuesday’s hurricane) it looked like a rotten carrot the way it had snapped off at the base. On into Agen. In the big basin there were still a few hire boats moored on Crown Blue Line’s  pontoons and there were several boats moored on the grassy bank alongside the road and houses on the right hand bank; wide boat Sainte Margaux among them. 

A few resident Dutch barges were moored a little further on, right next to the railway, by the bridge that leads to the city centre, a mere five minutes walk. We had a red light at the start of the aqueduct so I turned the hanging pole (another short one, I could only just reach by standing on the gunwales) and nothing happened. Through binoculars Mike could see the boat in front descending. As the gates closed behind him I turned the pole again, this time it worked and we got a red/green. The lock was filling so we went on across the aqueduct. The gates opened and we got a green but before we were halfway across the aqueduct the gates closed and the lock emptied! Someone stole our lock! I didn’t think they could do that! 

We hovered at the end of the aqueduct to wait for the three boats to come up and out. They took ages. Ropes flying everywhere. Then they took forever to leave the lock. There were crowds of gongoozlers around the lock including a whole class of kids on bikes on the tail end bridge. Into lock 34 Agen as soon as the hire boats had gone. It was midday. Expecting there had been VNF intervention in the last uphill lockful, I got off with the centre rope as we were on the right hand side of the lock chamber and Mike got off and went over to the cabin (which were now on the left, we hadn’t spotted that) to turn the lever (they’d still got the same levers for activating the automatic sequence as when we were there last time, ie 1994) and got back on the boat, 

then a VNF man turned up and reminded us that you had to turn the lever twice. Once to raise the paddles and again to open the gates. In theory this means that there has to be a member of crew that remains on the lock side. What do single handed boaters do? He turned the lever for us to open the gates and let us out of the empty lock. Two more hire boats were coming uphill in lock 35 Marianettes. They came out and we went in, on the left side this time next to the old lock cabin and the lever, I dropped the rope on a bollard and turned the lever twice. The gates shut but the paddles didn’t open. The VNF man returned in his flatbed van and went to the control box down by the bottom end gates (which was already open and buzzing loudly) fiddled with the controls and came to tell us to turn the lever once, 

the gates close and paddles go up open THEN turn the lever again and get back on the boat (it’s a very old system and can’t cope with two commands at once!) We dropped down and went on our way to lock 36 Chabrières, where yet another hire boat was coming uphill. A young couple on board,  videoing us as we passed. It was the first hire boat we’d seen this year towing a covered “swimming pool” (just big enough for two people to sprawl in) behind them. This time we got the sequence right, after the fourth paddle had fully opened Mike turned the lever again and got back on the boat. The lock emptied and the gates opened! Hooray, got it right! No signs of the VNF now. In fact, when we got to the bottom lock of the flight of four, 37 Rosette, it was completely deserted – no hire boats, cyclists, walkers, picnickers, etc. 

The lock worked perfectly, we dropped down ropeless and the gate opened with no problems. It was 12.35 p.m. lunchtime as we left the bottom. A short section of canal lead on to the old route down to the Garonne, now blocked off by bricking up the arch of the road bridge, and there we met the next hire boat turning the pole for the lock on the apex of the 90° bend. The Spanish crew yelled “Wonderful boat!” in English as they took photos as we passed. The canal below the flight was totally different in character to the one above the locks. Above there were roads and houses and people, down here was jungle on both sides in a shallow cutting with a passable-only-on-foot towpath – the cycle path was somewhere up top of the bank beyond the trees. 

I made sandwiches for our lunch on the move. The canal widened out briefly by the village of Columbe, where there was an old silo and picnic tables, now in use by fishermen. We dived back into the cool green Amazon. At KP116 an old tjalk was moored among the herbage by an old house and behind it was a little tug called Teal from Skipton, we hadn’t seen that boat for a while. No one on board, it looked left for the duration. The moorings at Sèrignac were completely full. We couldn’t have stopped anyway as there was only one possibility of getting satellite TV - right on the end of the mooring - due to the trees. One of the boats that had been moored at Sèrignac, a large British cruiser called River Holme, set off and overtook us. We stopped before we got to lock 38 Auvignon on a long straight and tied next to overgrown old piling where it was deep enough to get right next to the bank. Cyclists went whizzing past level with the tops of our windows. It was 2.50 p.m. Mike had spotted that one of the flexible pipes in the loo was cracked and leaking slightly, so he cut a new length of reinforced tubing to replace it and hacked (carefully removed. Ed). the old piece out while I held the torch so he could see.

Tuesday 12th August 2008 Sauveterre-St-Denis bridge to Bon Encontre

Grey, rain later. We got moving at ten. I cleaned all the leaves and debris (including lots of dead and dying tiny crickets, washed out of the overhanging tree in the torrential rain) which left the roof filthy and very sticky – the price we pay for being in the cool shade under a sappy tree. Less than an hour later we moored just beyond the port de plaisance at Bon Encontre. Three hire boats were moored there, plus two boats which looked like permanent liveaboards (no one home) in the strange basin with a square island. The canal’s summer water level meant the pound was down by about 15 cms, but the floating finger pontoons were sloping at almost 45° - which looked pretty dangerous to us. Mike and I went shopping at the Leclerc hypermarket for essentials like bread and salad. Back for lunchtime, just as it started to rain. We called at the Capitanerie and paid 2,50€ for electricity; we weren’t in the port so we didn’t pay 2,50€ for mooring or 2,50€ for water as we didn’t need any. Moved the boat a bit further away from the port as it was on the bottom, a couple of metres made a difference. Still on 3G. More rain. I did a fragrant beef and chilli stir-fry for dinner washed down with some Buzet red wine we’d just bought.

Monday 11th August 2008

We were woken by the crash bangs of a loud thunderstorm around eight. It poured with rain so we stayed in bed and dozed. Did a few odd jobs. Mike had another look at the Handy Mains he’d replaced components in a few days earlier that was only giving 180v instead of 240v. He decided he wasn’t really in the right mood and put it away. He dismantled his prototype UPS (un-interruptible power supply) and stored the parts (he’d since built two using the casings of a couple of redundant phone chargers).

Sunday 10th August 2008

Still cooler overnight under the acacia! Sunny and hot all day again. Loads of passing traffic, boats in both directions. Mike checked the batteries while I made lunch. The voltage was running low so Mike ran the engine to charge the batteries up.  I woke at 3.30 a.m. - I’d got a bug crawling on my back! I switched the light on to find I’d squished a poor little bush cricket. 

Saturday 9th August 2008 Sauveterre-St-Denis bridge

Much cooler overnight, a very warm sunny day but the cool breeze through the boat and being under the shade from the tree half the day kept the boat cooler. We had a lazy morning. I did some more census searches on Ancestry taking advantage of having the improved 3G service giving faster downloads. Mike did a service on the loo pump and changed its two valves for new ones. He put the front body half back on upside down and only noticed after he’d finished screwing it back in place! It all had to come off again. (It’s my age. Ed). We watched the news, the Russians had sent tanks into Georgia on the first day of the Chinese Olympic Games.

Friday 8th August 2008 Valence d’Agen to Sauveterre-St-Denis bridge

Cooler, sunny with white fluffy clouds. Mike was up first at nine and went to get bread, La Poste for cash, Casino for petrol and then Tourist Info Office to pay for three weeks mooring at 15€ per week. Set off at 11.05 a.m. The lady off little Luxe Bon Aventure came and say goodbye; she said everyone was going downhill; then Shebah-Mike came out of his cabin to say au’voir. A British owned ex-hireboat had just set off also heading downhill as we were untying. There were four boats tied up at Golfech, including Linde, who was there for the summer (because it’s free!). The first lock, 31 Lamagistère, was empty, so we had to wait for it to refill after we’d turned the pole. The lock was automatic, the house lived in but was shuttered (probably on holiday). We descended ropeless as usual. 

I cleaned out the starboard side handrails which were stuffed full of chaff after the hurricane on Tuesday night, then I made some sandwiches for lunch which we ate on the 6.6 km pound down to 32 Noble. A big blue Moissac hire boat was coming uphill in the lock when we arrived. Again we dropped down ropeless. We were going to tie up at what we thought was a mooring at St Jean-de-Thurac (we’d driven past it loads of times), which turned out to be a parking area for camper vans with no provision for mooring as the bank edge was shallow at least a metre from the grass. We attempted to moor above the next lock but again it was too shallow by the landing for the lock, as was the piling on the other bank. We dropped down St Christophe. The lock house was closed and uninhabited. Just beyond the bridge with the road that lead over the "clackety" river bridge (wooden decking!) to Sauveterre-St-Denis there was a piled edge. 

It looked deeper as there was no weed growth, so we managed to get right next to the bank with the fore end sheltered from the sun under an overhanging acacia tree. It was 2.20 p.m. The wind was blowing straight down the canal and through our front doors. I found some right angled hooks and screwed them into the panel under the front door to anchor the bottom edge of the door curtain and stop it flying up in the breeze as there were lots of house flies about. Not long after we’d tied up there was a splashing and commotion outside so Mike went out to have a look. A big black dog had gone in the canal after a stick and couldn’t get out as the piling was too high. Neither Mike nor his owner could lift him so they had to encourage  him to swim back towards the bridge. A lovely old black dog, he was even bigger than our Rowsy was and just as daft! I cooked some pork chops for dinner. Nice to have a cooked meal after all the recent salad and it was cooler so the heat from cooking didn’t turn us into dripping zombies. 

Thursday 7th August 2008

18.5°C Grey skies, occasional sunny spells, cooler after the overnight storm. Mike said the show was on again tonight so we’d watch it and then set off next day. He started work on a Handy Mains inverter which needed a repair. We had words when he brought a filthy old towel which stank of diesel to put on the table as he would be doing some soldering. (It wasn’t that dirty and it had only a slight smell of eau d’diesel. It does live in the engine room after all.Ed). I found him an old clean skirt out of the rag bag to use instead. We watched the French weather forecast (no rain). We sat out on the back deck at 9.45 p.m. to watch the show “Au Fil de l’Eau – Une Histoire”. The singer was warming up the audience, the juggler was juggling and the place was packed. The whole show went off without a hitch as it was only slightly windy. A hundred years of history told by a storyteller and acted out by a cast of 350 volunteers. It was magical and we had seats in the wings. Though the view from the stalls would have been better! We worked out later that there were almost 2,500 seats and at 18€ per seat each performance was netting over 44,500€! There were six performances. Not a bad money spinner for the town! It finished at midnight and we retreated indoors. 

Wednesday 6th August 2008

17.5°C Min Overnight! Hotter and hotter. Sunny all day. I was on my third cup of coffee when Mike got up. . Too hot to do anything but vegetate in front of a fan with the blinds shut. Around five we livened up a bit. Mike gave up on his Rubik’s cube and tidied up the engine room (we’d shoved everything down there when we dashed inside the night before) then helped me do the chores. Much later a storm started, flashes of lightening and great peals of thunder then rain. Cooled the outside temperature down, but didn’t do much for the temperature in the cabin.