Reached Castlenaudry

Had a good day today, did 28 km and 9 locks of which 3 were doubles and
one was a triple. A Dutch barge had set of before us from our over
night stop of Gardouch which meant we lost first go at the first lock,
but we found that after that there was no hold up. This was in contrast
to the previous day when we ended up going through the locks with 2
novices in a large cabin cruiser, they took ages getting in and out of
the locks and in one lock lost control of their bow line and would have
swung round on to us if the lock had been 3 inches wider! The lock
keepers have been helpful and friendly which has also been a big help.
We are now going down the locks which is a big relief as the locks are
narrow to get in and out of (being oval they are actually quite wide
inside) and it is much easier going down than up, on our penultimate
'up' lock I got caught by a side current in the entrance which moved the
boat about 6-12 inches which was enough for us to go in to the lock
wall, fortunately without doing any major damage. Because the locks are
oval the trickiest manoeuvre now is when we are in a series of locks (a
staircase) as the person on the helm has to angle the boat across from
the entrance to the side of the lock and there is only about 6 inches
either side to play with.
We reached the summit of the canal by lunchtime and hoped to stop at
Port Lauragais for lunch and to see the Canal du Midi exhibition there,
unfortunately the exhibition closes for winter and we'd missed it by 3
days.
Yesterday morning we had some cloud and this evening it has clouded over
again and we had a brief shower, other than that it has been wall to
wall blue skies and temperatures in the 20s or low 30's.

Some general canal photos

Waiting pontoon for a lock, they are not all as good!

Trees at the begging of october

Waiting for the lock to fill, bucket has the laundry in to soak!

Agen and Moissac

Garrone from the aqueduct at Agen

Agen Aqueduct over the Garrone

 

Helen steering Mango over the Garrone

Agen public moorings, we decided to give it a miss!

Channel in to Moissac, pleased nothing was coming the other way!

The port at Moissac

The abbey church at Moissac, the tympaneum is very impressive

Cloisters in the abbey church at Moissac

Towing, Marmande and Mas d'Agenais Pictures

Towing the hardway, 2 lines keep her parallel to the bank

Towing the easy way

Street in Marmande old quarter with Bromptons

Marmande, patterns of bricks filling in between the wood

Bridge at Mas d'Agenais

In Toulouse

Got through the locks in Toulouse this morning and are now moored safely
in the City and hope to get a WiFi connection to upload pics.
Transiting the locks was very scarey as they are fully automatic, no
green button to press to say you are ready, and were a different layout
to the ones we have used to date so we were desperately tying on warps
as the gates closed. The mitigation was that the water was let in
gently so it was OK, but we did not know that at the time! Three people
would make transiting the next canals easier as you have to let someone
off to open the gates whereas on the locks we have done to date you
twist a pole hanging from a switch as you pass it on the water.
We have until the end of the month to get through the canals, if we
don't we are stuck were ever we end up until next March!

In Toulouse at the end of the Canal Lateral de Garonne

Got to Toulouse today and moored in the Port de l'Embouchure which is a
basin where the canals joined each other. The basin is surrounded by
busy roads and it is the first time we have been subject to traffic
fumes for a long time.
We have had consistently hot and sunny days since leaving Pont de Sables
with what we suspect is a thermally driven wind getting up during the
course of the day, though only one day has it been strong.
We have enjoyed short stops at several towns on the way but the best was
Moissac which has a fascinating church and interesting architecture as
well as a market and good shops (though the market was way short of the
standard set by Rochefort).
Getting here has not been as relaxing as we had hoped as the combination
of our width plus strong side currents from the sluices near each lock
entrance has made getting into the locks a fraught procedure but exiting
has been easier; as a result we are a bit concerned about how we will
get on with the Canal du Midi locks which are 40cm narrower (5.6m as
opposed to 6m). The frequency of locks and narrow bridges means that we
have not had much time to do jobs unless they are quick to complete or
can be left off when a bridge or lock hoves into view.
The other downside I have found is that you are travelling slowly
through very similar countryside most of the time with little to catch
your eye, which gets very monotonous unless you focus on the detail of
what is happening on the canal banks and in the canal.

Back on the move

Saturday was a cool (18 degrees) and wet day so not much got done once
we were back in Pont de Sables. In contrast Sunday dawned with mist
which burnt off by mid morning to give clear skies and by the afternoon
the temperature was 29 degrees. We took advantage of the fine weather to
cycle to Marmande and then in the afternoon we cycled to Mas d'Agenais
making use of the cool shade along the tow path.
Marmande looked like the main town of the area with lots of shops. The
town is situated on a bend of the Garonne and looked to have been a
major port on the river. We enjoyed going round it as it had retained a
lot of its early architecture and was very picturesque. The cycle ride
to Marmande was a bit tedious as we were just pedalling along a cycle
way parallel to the main road, but again it was a good cycle way deviod
of the glass and potholes that characterise most English cycle ways,
when they exist.
Mas d'Agenais is a much smaller town but equally picturesque and worth
the visit. We bumped into a Australian couple who we had met on
Saturday when we were towing Mango and they pulled in to Caumont in
their camper van just after we had stopped their for lunch. In some
ways it was a mistake leaving Caumont as it had free water and
electricity, but we were better off being convenient for the mechanic
and also there were showers and toilets at Pont de Sables (not many of
the stops on the canal have had toilets to date).
Whilst we were in Pont de Sables we met a couple who had just left the
Med and we got from them a second hand chart and pilot which cover the
Gulf du Lion and give us enough info to allow us to work out what we
will do when we get to the other end of the canal. In exchange we pass
on what we had found out in our pottering around the the Ile de Re, Ile
de Oleron, Charente and Gironde.
The good news on Monday morning was that the problem on the engine was
the carburettor gaskets, was easily fixed and the spare parts would
arrive on Tuesday morning which they duly did and we had a fully
functioning engine back in the boat by lunch time and we were off again
under clear skies and in a warm breeze.
Got to Buzet by evening and managed to find somewhere to tie up for the
night.