Homps to Agde

We left Homps and moored up at Ventenac, a lovely mooring quay with Cave directly accessible!  Shortly afterwards an interesting barge called PISGAH went past and we hailed the owner, who came for an apéro later in the evening.  Jules Whitaker’s father had owned BEECLIFFE, another Sheffield barge which had been in France some 20 years ago, and a photograph of it is in our copy of David Edwards-May’s book ‘Barging in France’.  We have often wondered about BEECLIFFE and suddenly the son of the owner was having drinks with us.  What a treat!  He remembered the boat well and said that it was now back in the UK – renamed.  He also, true to his word, emailed later that night with details of a company which will deliver fuel to the canal side.

We had fun watching two hotel barges turning round just beyond the bridge in front of us and as the second one was doing his turn, a hire boat went through the bridge, not realising that he was going to be entirely in the way.  He then proceeded to fiddle about getting in the way even more, rather than just turning round and coming back through the bridge to wait for the peniche to finish his manoeuvre.

Oh and yes - we also managed to buy another 5 litres of red and rosé ‘en vrac’ at the nearby cave!

A couple of days later we were at Sallèles D’Aude on the Jonction Canal which links the Canal du Midi with the Canal de Robine and Port la Nouvelle on the Mediterranean coast.  Sadly, our draft is too deep to go beyond Sallèles d’Aude so we caught the bus to Narbonne and then the train out to Port la Nouvelle – a typical end of the world seaside port.  But the train journey is fascinating – through the very middle of the étang (seawater lake) much of the time alongside the canal.

The whole area is sometimes affected by the floodwaters of the Robine river, so there are levées and floodgates protecting the town and on one notable occasion the whole town was flooded to a considerable depth – witness the photo of the mark on the side of a house!

We had met Sandra and Graham Coates on a boat called HODI when they came up from Port La Nouvelle and moored next to us in Sallèles.  They had been moored up for 2 or 3 days at P la N and a péniche close to them had mysteriously ‘sunk’ overnight after the VNF had told it to move on!  When we got there, there it was, still sitting on the bottom!

We also popped into Sallèles town and managed to arrange for red and while diesel to be delivered via the local BP garage about 100 metres from the port.  Thanks to Peter and Nicci of AURIGNY for that tip. And we bought another 5 litres of red and rosé from the local cave!

At La Croisade we had promised ourselves a really nice meal in the restaurant close to the moorings, so when we arrived and all were full, we were at first disappointed and then determined that we would manage to moor, somehow.  So initially we tried to moor between a 15m cruiser with one Frenchman on board and COLIBRI the hotel barge with a whole host of guests on board.  This failed due to the wind and nobody to take a rope!  So we moved ahead of COLIBRI and a couple of kind Australian guests took our ropes and we managed to get moored up, but not very adequately as we realised the concrete structure sticking out from the bank was going to rub against our hull every time a boat went past, despite the usual measures – tyres etc. so we decided after much thought, and many passing boats that we would have to move – yet again.  Later in the evening COLIBRI had herself moved on, so with some difficulty and help from a hire-boater and a passing Frenchman we moved back past the little sail boat MARY LOU and into the spot where COLIBRI had been.  We chatted to the Frenchman and his wife, who pressed upon us their address and telephone number for when we are in Avignon, with strict instructions to call them and arrange a meeting!

We had an excellent supper in the restaurant that night and realised that one of the other guests was the newly-arrived owner of the MARY LOU, having supper with his two young children.

The next day it was time for us to leave.  The sail boat owner came over to us to say that he wanted to move his boat as he was aware he was moored in the ‘Passenger Boat’ moorings and asked were we leaving?  He had, however, just started breakfast, so we said we were going, but we would manage to get around MARY LOU OK.

Well!  We pushed the bows well out with the barge pole and started forward, expecting to be able to make a gentle move away from the shore.  But it was one of those occasions when things conspire against you.  In theory the wind should have helped us to get further out and the angle looked good but as soon as we started to move forwards the bows swung towards the sail boat.  Louise went to drop a fender between us and the sail boat but the owner said. “No!  She’s very delicate” and tried to push us away – all 75 tons!  Alex put the rudder hard over to keep the stern away from his boat, which largely succeeded in keeping us clear (despite putting the bows hard into the bank in front of him) but he was not a happy man and even said we had scuffed his paintwork which he had just spent €11,000 having re-done!  Alex apologised profusely and the boat owner rather surprisingly had the grace to admit that it was only a boat after all.  But it did leave a rather sour (if guilty) taste in the mouth.  We can only think that there must have been an underwater ridge which forced Riccall back into the side because the way the angles and wind were, there should have been no problem.  Our only other consolation is that MARY LOU was moored on the ‘Reservé pour Bateaux de Passagers’ section, and had been effectively abandoned there for some time!

We spent a night at the eastern end of the Malpas tunnel having unwittingly arrived at about 2pm when the tide of trip boats from Béziers was at its height!  Rather unnerving at the time, but the night was quiet and peaceful and we then set off with some misgivings for the Béziers flight (of 6 locks).  This went without trouble: the éclusier from hell (female) was not on duty – we rather hope she has been sacked since we passed through in September 2010 - we had plenty of help from the bystanders and we were descending, which is always much easier anyway.  So into the port of Béziers where we spent a few nights and ‘did’ the usual little tourist train round the town.

Béziers port is actually very big and rather pleasant, but when you have a good look at the signage, you realise that most of the perfect stone quay is now reserved for hotel barges or trip boats, or otherwise restricted.  There is barely any room at all for ‘normal’ boats and it’s certainly very poor for barges of our size: added to which, there are now no services at all, where once there had been both water and electricity.  All the bournes have been disconnected and probably later vandalised.

However, it was nice to meet Roger and Linda from a boat called GEEP which had fascinated us: a Dutch pilot boat built about 1920 with twin Gardner 8 cylinder engines.  What a boat!  Totally seaworthy with a top speed of about 13 knots.  We had them over for drinks (of course) and were offered the guided tour which we gladly accepted.  GEEP was up for sale and the prospective buyer was coming to view and the boat, which had been unoccupied for several weeks needed a full going-over, so we kept our visit short.  But it was fascinating.

At Villeneuve-les-Beziers we were staggered to see the change in what had been one of our favourite places.  Instead of the typical Canal du Midi tree-lined vista, all that’s left are sandy banks where the trees once were.  Yes, re-planting will begin next year, but the devastation is just terrible.

We came across IBAIA moored a little way along the left bank, just at the end of the moorings belonging to the campsite.  Don and Di had managed, with a very long lead, to get electricity.  We moored alongside them for a few minutes while we sussed out the scene.  They very kindly moved back a couple of metres and we slipped in in front.  Naturally they had drinks with us and we had drinks with them over the next couple of days and very convivial it was too.  We also managed to piggyback for electricity through their supply which was very helpful in our constant battle with the batteries.  But, and we have a question here!  Why is it that the disco at the campsite started at midnight and finished, eventually, at 5.30am!!!

We were also amused to see a very long bicycle cavalcade along the good towpath on the opposite side from us: it must have included the whole of the local junior school with 8-12 year olds on a variety of bikes, with the cycling teachers shepherding them all at intervals along the procession. 

At Vias - our next port of call - there was amazingly enough, a space for us near to the only working bourne for electricity, but only a few metres longer than our 19m  - always a cause for some consternation, at least on Louise’s part.  However, we nosed in and Louise started to prepare a rope from our middle bollard to the post on shore as the spacing was such that this would give us a nice controlled entry.  At this point, a man appeared from his boat SANITY at our rear end and kindly dropped the rope over the post for us.  So far so good.  BUT Geoff, as we later discovered he was called, then proceeded to give Alex instructions as to how he should go about mooring Riccall! at one point even with the words, “DID YOU HEAR WHAT I SAID?” when Alex ignored him and did what he always does when mooring this way.  Just unbelievable, and he has just a little 12m cruiser too!  He must have thought we had just bought Riccall yesterday!  Alex doesn’t often get cross and shows it even less, but here was an occasion when if he hadn’t been busy getting moored up in a tight spot, he might have felt like resorting to violence!

However, that wasn’t our only problem at Vias.  We had picked up another unwanted something on the propeller at the previous lock and although it wasn’t affecting performance too much, it was clanking away as the propeller turned.  So once we had the mooring ropes on good and tight, it was out with the boarding plank and winch, to try and remove what turned out to be a length of electric cable and some fencing wire from the prop.  This time it only took an hour!

We also had a visit from Barry of BALESTRA who was moored at Vias also – just after the bridge before the port proper started. 

That first night being a Friday, we had rather expected some noise from the camp site alongside – perhaps a disco like at Villeneuve or here the last time we were at Vias in 2010, and we did get some noise but not what we expected.  All was quiet until about 2am when we were woken by the sound of much shouting and banging.  Eventually Alex went up to investigate (surreptitiously).  What he saw was a bare-chested man of about 35 kicking the hell out of a car parked outside the camp site.  At the same time he was shouting all sorts of obscenities and several ‘Ca va’s.  Alex watched for a while and the man eventually moved off down the road still yelling and hitting whatever happened to be within reach – rubbish bins, telephone kiosk!   This went on for a further hour then things calmed down.

We later learned that the man had had a bust-up with his wife and although the police had been called early on in the fracas, it had taken them an hour to arrive and take the chap away.

A couple of days later we set off again and moored on the Hérault river at Agde, just round the corner from the famous round lock.  We knew that Ced and Suzie in PEABODY were also in Agde but we weren’t quite sure just where.  Poor Ced: while single-handing PEABODY in rather windy conditions several days before, the boat had been caught by a gust of wind at one of the arched bridges and went off-line, causing the wheelhouse roof to hit the bridge and be all but removed.  By luck John and Linda of LIBERTY were in the vicinity and together with several other boaters, they had all managed to cobble the roof back into a reasonable position.  Now Ced and Suzie were at Allemand’s in Grau d’Agde about to have PEABIODY lifted out of the water and a complete new wheelhouse constructed.   We cycled down from our moorings and watched and took ropes where appropriate as PEABODY was lifted out and placed in the boatyard on suitable supports.  We offered them ‘respite’ after a very stressful day – a meal and overnight stay on RICCALL which we all enjoyed and they crept out at 7am ready for a day of jet washing the hull! 

They have been incredibly lucky to find a slot in this very capable boatyard for the work at such short notice, so are taking the opportunity to clean off the hull, have a survey and re-paint and can also leave the boat there while they return to UK for their planned month’s visit in July.  We considered trying for the same opportunity, as we still need our survey and hull re-paint, but although the lift is said to be able to handle 100 tons, we were more than a little doubtful that it could handle RICCALL, and anyway, with PEABODY there they would be hard pushed to fit us in as well!

We were just about to leave RICCALL on another sortie on our bikes when we saw a boat called SIRIUS passing.  We knew Walt and Gail of LES VIEUX PAPILLONS, our mooring neighbours at Buzet, were helping to bring SIRIUS down to the Midi from the north, so there was some frantic waving between us and we jumped on the bikes to catch up with them at the round lock.  Much chatting, photos, exchange of news etc. followed.  Good to see Walt and Gail again.

So now we have travelled 6kms up the river Hérault to a restaurant with mooring pontoon and electricity for just €6 per night.  We will stay here for a few days before setting off for the crossing of the Etang du Thau and our onward journey but one thing we have done while here is to cycle to the head of navigation where there are the remains of a Roman bridge and an old watermill.

Gardouch to Homps

At last the rain stopped and although there wasn’t much sun at least it was high, unthreatening cloud.  We left Gardouch for an uneventful trip to Port Lauragais.  We nosed into the basin which had been constructed at the same time as the A62 motorway, which runs alongside, and the Aire de Lauragais service area.  The facilities are shared by both boaters and drivers so it’s a busy place.

The gap between a cruiser and a couple of small breasted-up sailing dinghies was about 19m and we are a bit more when the rudder is included so as the wind blew us sideways toward the quay Louise shouted to a couple of lads working on the quay to ask if they would move the dinghies along a bit which they did, thank goodness! giving us just enough space to come alongside.

We cycled up to Ricquet’s Monument again, which is only about 5kms from this mooring, and this time Alex was determined to get inside the surrounding wall and gate.  The spikes on the top of the gate looked more daunting than last time but we did a tour of the perimeter wall and three quarters of the way round discovered a large subsidence crack in the wall where one or two stones had fallen out.  This was climbable, so a break-in by Alex was quickly achieved.  Louise passed the camera through the bars of the gate and sat down to act as lookout while Alex mounted the steps to the monument itself and get some pictures.  Amazingly no tourists came while he was ‘inside’ and we were able to saunter away looking pretty innocent of breaking and entering.

The next day was warm and sunny and we arrived at Castelnaudary, where we discovered Sally and Mike on AILSA, so we invited them for supper – another put-it-together meal, which went down pretty well.  Also in the port was a barge called SIRIUS, which we had not seen since ‘Nervous Nev’ owned her at Methley Bridge in Castleford.  It was now under new ownership.

The other good thing we found was that the lock automation had not got further than the lock before Lock 17 ‘Ocean’ – the last ‘uphill’ lock.

The method by which this automation works is different from any other elsewhere in France.  The system is that you put your crew member off at the lock mooring point (difficult for us because of our depth and height above the pontoon) and he/she goes to the lock and presses the appropriate button on a podium to set the lock the right way for the gates to open and allow the boat to enter.  This means that as the driver you have nobody on board to confirm that you are coming straight into the lock, neither to one side or the other, and that verbal confirmation is very useful.  Then the person on the side of the lock presses the start button and has to control their rope from the shore instead of from the boat. This may be OK for light hire boats but is more difficult, more dangerous, and more likely to snag when dealing with heavy boats like ours.

The automation in the rest of France always allows remote setting up for the lock and usually allows the start of the operation to be done from the boat as well.

So we are glad to be ahead of the installation of this new system in this more easterly area, even if some of the still-employed lock keepers on these ‘downhill’ locks are a bit surly!

We were approaching a double lock after Castelnaudary and some way off Alex decided we really needed to slow down a bit.  Putting the boat into reverse there was a screaming noise from the prop and we were not slowing down much at all.  Lots more throttle in reverse and more noises aft and eventually we did manage to come to a halt more or less, and then line up and enter the lock.  We got through the two locks OK but there was obviously something caught on the prop, so we stopped on the lock mooring and as we often do if we have a problem, had lunch.

After lunch Alex got the boathook and prodding about the prop felt something rather rubbery.  Oh no – a tyre!

So we got the boarding plank and suspended one end just above the water from the back of the boat with the other end on the shore.  With Alex lying flat out on it he could just get his hands down far enough to feel . . . yes, a tyre, well wrapped round the prop.

Alex got the chain winch and hung that from the back of the boat.  Then with Louise pulling on the tyre with the boathook he was able to slip the chain-hook round the tyre and hook it back onto itself.  Then we could operate the winch and get half a ton of tension on the tyre.  THEN Alex could start sawing!  He had to use a ‘hardpoint’ wood saw as we discovered that we don’t have a full-sized hacksaw (can’t believe it) but after much sweat, swearing and a final heave on the block and tackle the type came apart and off the prop.  All in all about 2 hours hard graft and Alex had to lie down on the mooring quay to recover.  He’s not as young as he once was!  By the way, it was an old Michelin X and still had some tread on it, so Louise gave it to the eclusier saying, “Un cadeau pour vous, Monsieur!!”

We were very glad to get to the peaceful mooring at Villepoint which we had noted in our book on the way west and it was thankfully empty.  (Six sturdy posts beside the canal.)  But the next day Alex felt bruised from head to toe after his tyre-ing time.

We stopped at Port de Bram and cycled to the nearby village to see if we could do a little shopping.  Riding right through the village on the main road we saw a rather appealing little café/restaurant offering lunch and decided to declare a holiday and treat ourselves!  The ‘formule’ menu of three courses was salad, moules frites and dessert, to include a quarter litre each of local wine for €12.50.  The patronne was quite happy to serve just the moules frites and wine plus coffee at the end and it was the best moules frites we’ve ever had.  Just enough for a light lunch and the total bill €19.  Marvellous.  We have rarely come upon this kind of offering that people talk so much about in France so it was lovely to have such a delicious lunch.

But when she came to lay the table the patronne put out paper table mats which had an aerial photograph of the village on them and we saw that the village was built in a perfect circle round its church.  We had just ridden a tangent on our bikes and completely missed Bram’s main claim to fame!

So after lunch we started at the church in the middle and rode three concentric ring round the village, each one a circular ring of houses bigger than the one before.  Fascinating.

When we got to Carcassonne at 3pm Stephanie the capitaine came running out to say the mooring below the lock which we had booked, had been taken by a couple of hire boats, despite her RESERVÉ signs, and we should moor temporarily on the trip boat mooring pontoon above the lock. So we did that and 45 minutes later we noticed the hire boat people coming back to their boats and making to set off.

Louise telephoned Stephanie just to let her know that we would be able to move onto the reserved mooring now. And then she was out of the office and running across to the hire boats like a gazelle.  The reserved sign was quite clear and she had put notices on both boats asking their crew to report to the office when they returned.  They were just trying to do a runner, but we learned afterwards that Stephanie had got to them in time and made them pay.  Good for her!

So we spent three nights on the mooring, met one set of the new owners of AMAROK, lent them a portable fridge because they had broken theirs defrosting it (don’t ask!), met the owners Peter and Marie-Michelle of a beautiful looking barge called PHOENICIAN and watched the antics of a tramp who has taken up residence during the day on the benches near the mooring.

And another excitement with divers!  Phoenician had picked up something on the prop which was causing vibration and poor performance.  Marie-Michelle, French Canadian so fluent in French, had chatted to one of the female lockkeepers a day or two before and had invited her and her partner (also employed by VNF) for supper on PHOENICIAN.    This turned out to be a good move because the boyfriend organised the Sapeurs Pompiers (firemen) to provide a diver to investigate their prop problem.

The diver duly arrived and came up after a fairly short time with some old bits of rag which were on the prop and part of the problem, but also with the bad news that one of the blades was bent out of line.  It’s a rather special 5-bladed prop which Peter had specially designed for his boat and as he is hoping to return up the Rhone this year, he will have to find a dry dock and get it sorted.

At Trèbes, where we spent a peaceful night just before the town, Alex managed to find the local wine cave and get some good red and rosé wine in his 5-litre containers from the pistolet supply at €1 and €1.15 per litre!

But when we arrived at the first set of locks in the morning (a triple) there was quite a queue.  We were 5th in line, behind 4 hire boats.  The first three went down after an hour, by which time there was a hire boat behind us and behind that David appeared with CARMEN.

We helped him moor up – no easy task in the strong wind - and then discussed the wait.  Nobody else was going got get down the locks before the 12.30 – 1.30 lunch break.  At that moment a French woman from yet another hire boat, behind CARMEN, appeared and said she was a Le Boat employee delivering a boat.  Alex and David tried to explain to her that Alex was minded to let the 3 hire boats go down together and forfeit his place in the queue.  But she was so full of hell because of the delay that she refused to listen and stalked off.  So we thought, “Sod you! We will take our place in the queue anyway” and at 1.25 she was back trying to persuade the lockkeeper to let her through ahead but David, bless his socks, was there too, arguing against her.  So I’m afraid she ended up with her just desserts.

We were making our way towards Homps when suddenly we spied a tortoise on a floating log, also making its way towards Homps!  For once we managed to overtake something!

We are now at Homps where we arrived on Saturday afternoon after the Capitainerie had shut.  (High season, Saturday lunchtime and what do they do?  Shut down till Monday morning!!!)  The down side is that you need a special 32 amp plug adapter which we don’t have, to plug in for electricity, which normally you borrow on deposit from the Capitainerie, but the upside is that the mooring will be free till Monday.

And Alex, never one to be daunted, has managed to make a 32 amp adapter out of three of the pins from a 5-pin 3-phase plug which he had in stock, some circles of 1/2" MDF which he machined with the router and the blue plastic cap from an aerosol can.  At a brief glance, it looks pretty authentic, and works beautifully, so free electricity too!