Wednesday 16th July 2008 Moissac to Valence d’Agen C.de Garonne

Hot and sunny; lovely cool and breezy start to the morning. Set off around nine to get to the first lock just after opening time. To our great surprise the hire boat we’d shared locks with the day before was moored only 500m  further down the cut! Only one crew member was on deck so Mike said Güten Tag! to the large elderly bearded bloke (who kept threading half a mile of rope round the vertical sliders from their stern the day before) – he said “Good Morning” in reply! We carried on down to lock 26, Espagnette, passing a pilgrim - shell on his knapsack, rosary in hand, striding down the towpath following the Grand Randonée which is also the route to St Jacques de Compostella in northern Spain. No one around at the lock house, and no sign of the hire boat, so I pressed the green button and we dropped down ropeless, comme normal. We overtook the pilgrim again on the 3.8 kms pound. His route crossed over the canal and continued up the hill to Boudou (a village with a superb vantage point to look out over the junction of the Tarn and Garonne). We ran down to Petit Bézy, lock 27, with glimpses of the Tarn through the trees to our left and dropped down the lock as before. The next pound was a long one, 6 kms, past Malause where Steve and Kit’s Dutch Barge Vrouwe Jeanette was still moored, plus two more replica Dutch barges and a British cruiser. An old Bermuda cruiser went past heading uphill. We went down lock 28, Braguel, leaving the bottom at 11.00 a.m. A short pound of 1.5 kms down to the next lock, Pommevic 29. A cruiser we’d just passed started untying. A Locaboat was coming up in the lock so we had to wait and it took them ages to get through the lock, over twenty minutes. A woman on board the hire boat was taking off her white gloves as they passed by. The cruiser made no signs of following us into the lock, so I pressed the green button and we carried on down. They followed down to the turn pole as we left the lock. 1.9 kms down to Valence lock 30. A private cruiser was coming up in the lock so we waited, stooging around above the lock. Mike spotted there was a young girl in the lock office alongside the lock house, she came out as I pressed the button and scowled as she went across the lock gates to the VNF yard on the other side. The scowl may have been because perhaps I did her job, pressing the button, or not having two ropes on (I dropped the centre rope round a bollard) or possibly the fact that there was a cruiser following us - she wasn’t to know that they had declined to lock with us. At least the VNF staff couldn’t insist that we locked together due to water shortages, water had been pouring over lock gates and weirs all the way down the canal as usual as it’s fed by the Garonne in Toulouse. We carried on into Valence and tied in the space where Rosy had been moore all winter. Mike missed the space first, the flow and flush from the lock carried him slightly too far and he had to run back a bit and turn in from down hill to get into the gap. Roy (the Canadian-Dutchman half of the Odd Couple) came over to help tie up, except he grabbed the bow rope and pulled on it which squashed and burst a nearly new side fender. It was midday so Mike hopped off and went to get some bread for lunch before the boulangerie closed while I put ropes on where I wanted - not where Roy had put them! When Mike returned he decided that mooring next to a rotting hulk was not such a good idea and we moved back to the space next to it, where we’d been moored all winter. Tied the bows tight and then slung our long green rope over the top of the hulk and a British guy on an ex-Connoisseur moored in the next bay gave us a hand to get the rope around the stern of the hulk and I tied it on the bar at the end of the next finger pontoon between his boat and the hulk. I made some sandwiches for lunch while Mike changed the plug on the end of the electricity cable and plugged in. We put the satellite dish up - it refused to work, I tried turning it but also got no signal; then Mike remembered he’d altered the elevation the night before, he altered it back and then it worked OK. He went up into town again to order two new alternator drive belts from the auto shop, (they would be there the following day). Work was going on apace by Valence council workers erecting the stage props on the far bank of the canal and the seating on our side. It was hot; we both had a siesta.

Tuesday 15th July 2008 Lacourt-St-Pierre to Moissac Canal de Garonne.

 Sunny and hot again; nice cool breezy start to the day. We set off at 9.30 a.m. winded and ran back down the arm towards Montech. The campsite by the junction was almost empty, just a few campervans and tents. Turned right and ran into Montech lock 11, which was full with the gates open. We’d only been there a couple of minutes when a guy on a moped arrived with a big box under his arm - surveys - he gave us one to fill in and hand back to the VNF, or post back to Toulouse. He emptied the lock and, as was becoming normal on keeper operated locks here, we sat for five minutes with the gates “cracked” before he pressed the button to open them. On down the short pound to lock 12 Peyrets, filling in the questionnaire. The man on a moped worked the lock for us. A very young lady worked Pellaborle 13 and rode down to 14 Escudiès on her bike. The old chap came down on his moped to help as the gate wasn’t shutting properly and she kept opening and shutting it. He went on down to the bottom lock and back while we were dropping down Escudiès. Into the last lock, 15, Pommiès, and another young girl worked the lock for us. We left the bottom at 11.05 a.m. the five locks having taken just an hour. 2.7 kms to Escatalens 16, the first of three automated locks. Mike had noticed first thing that the alternator drive belt was falling to bits, several of the “teeth” had fallen off, so he had to change it. We moored above lock 16 while he did it, meanwhile I cleaned the ventilator fans and cooked some bacon for lunch. Péniche hotel boat Zambezi went past heading downhill and a little later a British (and Dutch) flagged cruiser also went downhill. We let them clear the lock then followed on down Escatalens at 12.50 p.m. The cruiser had moored just below the lock and a hire boat (a Nautic from Agde) was moored a further 200m down the canal, but pointing uphill. We carried on down to lock 17, St Martin, then 3.4 kms to lock 18, Prades. A Locaboat came up, we went down and into Castelsarrasin. A large cruiser was being hoisted by his bows by the crane at the boatyard. Zambezi was moored alongside several cruisers before the port, which was half empty. A large Connoisseur hire boat from Castelmoron on the Lot, flying an Austrian flag, appeared from nowhere and went into lock 19, Castelsarrasin, and we followed it. A young man pressed the buttons to work the lock. The lad cycled down to lock 20 St Jean-des-Vignes to work it for us. Lock 21 Verriès was full with gates open, the keeper returned on his bike as we arrived - an older guy in his 20s - he had to get the hire boat to move further down the lock chamber so we could get in (and miss the cill when he emptied the lock). They didn’t seem to be very keen on going further forward, but there was plenty of space in front of them and another bollard for their bow rope. A short pound to lock 22 Artel and the same keeper cycled down to work the lock for us. The bollards were better spaced again so we didn’t have to move the hire boat. 2.4 kms down into Moissac. We crossed the aqueduct over the Tarn and into lock 23 Cacor. Another very young lady worked the lock and kept opening and shutting the gates and trying to force the gates together before opening the bottom end paddles - Mike told her the water would fully close them! We have seen people in Britain crossing back and forth across the lock several times in order to try to get both gates fully closed. As the one gate shuts it opens the other a little so over to the other side to close the one that’s just opened and so on! The girl cycled down to lock 24 Gregonne and we followed the hire boat into the lock. The last of the manned locks was 25 Moissac. Another old chap was on the lock side with another box full of survey forms; thanks, but we had already got one from Montech! Another little girl worked the lock. A hire boat was waiting below to go up the lock so we had to wait until she’d locked him uphill before she cycled through the town to open the swing bridge for us. We waited in the shade under the main road bridge, the Austrians sat in the full sun between the baking hot high brick walls that enclose the canal through Moissac. We were surprised that they hadn’t tied up in the port de plaisance. The mooring I said I had seen alongside the road was just beyond a cement works next to the road. We stopped at 5.00 p.m. and the hire boat carried on. Perhaps they were carrying on to Valence, we thought. There were three blokes on the seats at the top of the bank by the road, but they looked harmless enough and there were no bottles of booze in sight. It was deep enough, we only had to knock a peg in for the bows as there was a bollard for the stern and then cut down some long strands of briar. The three men who had been sitting on the benches under the trees at the top of the bank went away around 6.30 p.m.