Our troubles are not over yet! Nothing like!
We had a good trip over the Etang du Thau arriving in Frontignan some two and a half hours after we set out.
We had, with some difficulty, managed to get our navigation aid ‘PC Navigo’ up and running the previous evening, but after two years of non-use, we had almost forgotten how to use it. However, it gave us the correct course to follow across the Etang which takes away some of the concern over whether you can spot the next set of channel marker posts! Binoculars essential.
While we were in Frontignan we took advantage of our friends' Richard and Julia's car for doing heavy shopping - several trips - and treated ourselves to an afternoon out in Sete - a five minute train ride away, where we had drinks sitting alongside the maritime canal near the commercial docks - in deck chairs!!
Day out over, at this point we were very much in need of fuel but, as it was the weekend with plenty of socialising on the cards, we decided to wait until Monday to start ringing round to get a camion to deliver the 500 litres we needed.
Come Monday, and we went straight to the Mairie to ask for their help in making the necessary phone calls, but the unwilling receptionist, when she eventually made an appearance at her desk some 15 minutes after we had arrived, made a couple of phone calls and informed us (we think) that they couldn’t deliver in the port for ecological reasons (in case of a spill, presumably). We took from this that it would be possible on the canal, out of the port, but she couldn’t help us further.
Right, we thought, Palavas-les-Flots would do and luckily for us, there was room on the mooring opposite the VNF depot. We chatted to the VNF staff but they were unable to help at all apart from suggesting the local Carrefour, which they said had a pump for boats on the Lez river, a short distance away. OK, yes, but only for petrol for all the little boats, of which there are thousands in this area.
A hirer on the same mooring as us, Mark (and Nina) when hearing of our plight, offered to make some calls for us with his fluent French. The fourth one of these seemed to bear fruit, in that they sent a form by email for us to fill in and return. Then we could have a delivery. We filled in this form (most complicated and asking the most tricky questions) and returned it. We heard nothing for 2 days so after two further emails to them Mark gave them another call. ‘Oh, no, we can’t deliver to a boat in this area for ecological reasons’!! So, basically, it seems that you can’t get a delivery at all between Agde and the Petit Rhone and we wonder how many plaisance bargees are aware of this.
However, the pontoon on the Lez at the back of Carrefour was close to the car fuel pumps so the decision was made to take the boat there, moor on the pontoon and use our 3 x 20 litre drums to hand-haul 60 litres at a time into the tank on RICCALL.
In the meantime, Alex took a short walk past the old mooring which we used 12 years ago but now festooned with little day boats, and on the way, he spotted 3 guys with vans saying ‘Climatisation’, the upshot being that one of the young guys agreed to fix our air con. This would make it the second repair in a month: the first one worked for a week and then failed. Let’s hope he gets it right!
Cori did indeed come to refill our air con and reckoned that one of the joints had a small leak, so tightened it up and refilled with gas. But when it came to payment he demanded €200!!! Well! We hadn’t asked how much he was going to charge, assuming that it would be about the same as the last guy (€80) so we just had to pay. He saw us coming of course – desperate and a captive audience. (He had seemed such a nice guy, it was a surprise to find he was a robber.)
We then took RICCALL up the Lez watching the depth closely and managed to moor up on the rather rickety pontoon at the pumps.
The next two hours were spent filling the three 20 litre drums, heaving them onto the boat and emptying them into the tank. All went surprisingly well and we spent the night on the pontoon absolutely exhausted – but with an extra 480 litres in the tank.
Our subsequent crossing of the Camargue meant some lovely moorings and sights to behold:
A couple of days later we were on the Petit Rhone, then the Rhone proper. Now of course, we were against the current and in open water, so using more revs per minute than on the canals. Alex was sure the engine sounds noisier than it used to with a strange rattle which comes and goes. Something else to worry about? Or is he becoming paranoid?
At the first Rhone lock Alex opted to go for the mooring above the lock for the night as the lock was ready for us and another 4 boats were all milling around ready to use the lock. Oh dear! Louise was not happy – the lower pontoon was empty, but who knew if the upstream pontoon would also be empty. No – there were two boats already moored there. But hey! One of them is leaving to use the lock, so a polite request for the other boat to make a bit of room might be considered reasonable. This was met with a rather surly effort to move one metre so we tagged on the end of the pontoon, then discovered they were leaving in one hour (!) after which we had it all to ourselves.
But overnight no fewer than five hotel barges plied their way up and down between midnight and 5 o’clock in the morning: one of them sat for half an hour with his prop engaged waiting for the lock to be ready, causing us huge disturbance. But of course, in this context, might is right!!
We have to admit though that despite the occasional annoyance of these behemoths, they are amazing to watch.
The next day we put into Port 2, l’Ardroise, one of our favourite stops on the Rhone, to wait out the wind for a couple of days and give ourselves a break. Ariane, the harbour-mistress, was her usual cheerful self and came round for aperos with us and a QLR of RICCALL the next evening.
RICCALL seen from the cliffside above Port 2, l'Ardoise
Moving on, we had a long day and finally moored on the lock mooring above Chateauneuf Ecluse. Moorings for our size of boat are almost non-existent on the Rhone, making it a pretty tricky voyage, so using the lock moorings is our only option and to be fair, no-one has ever queried or objected to this. Chateauneuf Ecluse - one of the most beautiful moorings with a 360 degree vista of mountains never fails to lift the spirits with the Alps to the east and the Cevennes, the foothills of the Massif Central to the west.
Alex went for a stroll round to the lock and back and on the way spotted a very large tortoise! He said hello to it but it didn’t seem very friendly and drew its head under its shell. What on earth is a rather interestingly coloured tortoise doing wandering around a place like this? When Alex returned the next morning to take a photo of the tortoise, it was, of course, nowhere to be seen.
That night, as Alex was brushing his teeth, a small cruiser appeared at his very porthole asking if they could come alongside! Yes, of course! So Alex quickly finished his teeth-brushing and went up and helped them moor at the front end of RICCALL. They had just missed the last locking down which would have got them to Port Viviers so were very grateful to be able to come alongside. Only a couple of hotel barges in the night to disturb us and our neighbours were up and off by 7.30 am.
The next night we had salmon steaks for supper but unfortunately, Louise’s portion seemed to come with added --ella! As a result she was ‘ill’ in the night and suffered cramps for several days afterwards. Alex suffered no ill effects, so his bit must have been OK.
On another occasion, we had moored up downstream of the lock (having informed CNR of our intention) and settled down for the night. Then a German boat – ARTUR – appeared and we helped them moor up on us. The lock lights went green for entry and they set off. "Aren’t you coming too?" he asked. "No" we said, "We are spending the night here." "But it is a mooring for waiting for lock operation only." "Yes, well, we are waiting for lock operation - tomorrow morning." "Oh, the typical English sense of humour" he laughed! We had enjoyable encounters with them on a couple of further occasions.
When we finally reached Lyon’s Parc Nautic du Confluent – seven days after setting off from Saint Gilles) – we were met with a frantic and chaotic scene – it was boat carnival weekend!!
We’d decided to spend a couple of nights there for more recovery time. It’s expensive, but then so are all the very few moorings in this area and it is a great spot. The port is fine and once the carnival had ended by 6pm, all was quiet and peaceful. The carnival included sail boats, canoes, swimmers, two sapeurs pompiers safety boats, and two dragon boats complete with drums and teams of amateur rowers.
Any boat over 11 metres moors on the southern quay of the port, with the little boats on finger moorings tucked in close to the Capitainerie. Both ARTUR and OMEGA were moored up on the finger moorings when we arrived. We’d passed through several locks with one or other of them. The Swedish gentleman from OMEGA came round to chat on the second day and told us they had bought their boat, a cruiser, in Slovenia, made their way to the Med, cruised round Venice and the toe of Italy into the Petit Rhone and up to Lyon. Their onward journey was via the Doubs and the Rhine to Stockholm where they live. What a journey! Makes our little trip from Buzet to Belgium seem quite tame!
A few additional pictures to give a sense of where we have been and are.
