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.