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.