On our last day on the Tarn we set off up to the disused
lock to give the engine a decent run (at the speed which will be needed on the Rhone ) and also to practice deploying the anchor. We laid out the anchor and chain and sat for
a while with the engine off and the current flowing past the barge at about
2kph. Then Louise could stand it no
longer (not being a fan of anchoring) and Alex wound up the anchor. What an effort! He had to have a reset when it was out of the
water, but not stowed, before he could finish the job!
We motored back down the Tarn
and coming round a corner found a bevy of rowing boats had come up the river
unknown to us. I should think they
wondered where we had come from, as they weren’t about when we went
upstream and we had come from a disused lock!
Our average speed upstream and down for 1150 rpm came out at 10
kph. In extremis we could probably hit
11 or 12kph.
We had met an English couple, Maria and Howell at the
quay-side fish and chip night. Most
people who are going to eat take their
own picnic tables and chairs and gather on the quay for a jolly get-together
beside the travelling fish and chip van – “Cod en Bleue”!!! - and Maria had invited us with Ken and Rhonda
to supper the next day. So after our day
on the river we went to their house in Moissac.
I’m sure they wouldn’t mind my saying that the outside of the house
looked rather unprepossessing like many French houses, but what a fantastic job
they had done on the inside and to the beautiful little enclosed patio garden
at the back. We had a lovely supper with
plenty of convivial chat.
The following day we set off up the double lock from the
Tarn on our return to our eastward travelling direction on the Garonne Lateral
Canal. Mark and Annie of Anna waved us
off and took some nice photos as we emerged from the lock and entered the next
one.
There is a group of 3 locks which operate in sequence a few
kilometres out of Moissac and we knew the middle one had a bridge with very
little airdraft, in addition to being an arched bridge as many are, but we had
got through it before (if close) so knew we could do it, but care would be
needed.
These locks all have a severe bywash current which pushes
the barge over to one side as you approach.
Last time we did this bridge we stopped with the bows of Riccall just in
the entrance, let the current knock us over by 45o then eased
straight with plenty of rudder as we went in, to get the roof bang in the
middle where it has to be to miss touching.
This time Alex decided to do it as per all the other locks with a bit of
speed, to maintain a straight line. The
bows entered fine but as the wheelhouse approached, the stern was being pushed
well off-line by the bywash current. At
the last minute Alex had to apply full rudder and full power to get to the
centre of the bridge. Phew! Missed our
wheelhouse roof by half an inch! (We
still haven’t learned.)
We had another close call just before Grisolles (now there’s
an enchanting name) – a bridge we had been under 3 times before, but perhaps
the water level this time was higher.
Who knows?
Lock 7 l’Hers, was on double red as we approached but, as if
by magic, a VNF van approached and got it going for us as we arrived. We learned later that this lock never
works (some major and irreparable problem obviously) and VNF have to intervene
for each and every boat. How they saw us
we don’t know as there were no VNF vans around that day that we saw. On the topside of the lock was NOORDSTER
moored up so we stopped too and had lunch and a chat with Sam. Sam was single-handing the barge down to the
River Lot for the summer season. Many
English boats like to go onto the River Lot as it is very picturesque – and
although this is certainly not the only reason, mooring, water and
electricity are all free!
When we got to Toulouse, and to the l’Embouchure, a large
wide open port on the outskirts of the city, there was a small ex-hire boat,
JUNIPER, moored where we hoped to moor, behind SANCTANOX - the office peniche
which had made us so welcome last year.
But there was just enough space to moor and Cliff from Juniper helped
with our ropes.
JUNIPER had gone through some shallow water on the other
side of the port and had picked something up on the propeller and Cliff and Deb
had been waiting 3 days for a diver to come and free the obstruction. That afternoon the diver duly arrived with
aqualung and all, and Alex was amused to see him cross himself before he
plunged into the murky water. After much
wrestling with hacksaw and pliers etc he came up with the remains of a very old
tyre which had been firmly attached to the propeller. Alex and Cliff decided there was not enough
tread on it to make it worth keeping!
But José and Camille of Sanctanox had welcomed us with open
arms as we arrived and invited us all for an apéro that evening.
The next day JUNIPER left and Camille said we could plug
into Sanctanox’s electricity supply and gave us the code to tap into their wifi
as well. So kind.
They came to us for drinks the following night at 6pm and 5
bottles later left at 10.30. Alex, who
had snaffled the lions share of the wine was OK the next day (probably still
drunk) but very much the worse for wear the day after: so much so, that we had
to decline José’s generous invitation to lunch with Camille and him at his
business partner’s haute cuisine restaurant.
Oh dear, how very embarrassing!
(Alex promises he will never ever indulge again – till the next time!
No, No!) And we had stayed on two extra
days on the promise of such a special lunch.
The restaurant J’Go sources all its ingredients from local suppliers,
many of them in the adjacent Victor Hugo Marché which is the wonderful covered
market Rick Stein highlighted when he visited Toulouse.
We set off from Toulouse on Saturday in windy but fine
weather and got to the east side of the city and our hoped for mooring between
two ‘stationnement’ peniches at Vic.
Later it started to rain and when we looked at the forecast it said rain
the following morning then light showers for that afternoon, followed by two
days of rain. We decided to make a dash
for Gardouch, so when the rain stopped at 11.30 we dropped the roof and set
off. There were a couple of spots of
rain on our journey, but we reached Gardouch just in time and as we raised the
roof again, the heavens opened! So we are here for two more days till it
stops. Will it ever stop? It’s as bad or worse than being in the UK: maybe
the same as in Wales or the Lake District – or are they still having a drought?
The plus side is that when we were last in Meilhan one of
our close friends (no names given!) gave us the access code for the wifi in the
house opposite this mooring. She had
talked with the charming lady who lives there when they stopped here many
months ago and had been offered and accepted the code. So we have been able to spend our
‘house-bound’ day entirely on the internet catching up with emails and other
essential matters of admin.
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