From molly_mockford@my-dejanews.com Sat Sep 25 17:18:03 1999 Date: Sun, 06 Sep 1998 15:08:42 GMT From: molly_mockford@my-dejanews.com Reply-To: canals@blacksheep.org To: canals@blacksheep.org Subject: Molly's Holi's - Trip Report, Section 1 This is the first section of the trip report of our holiday on the Canals du Midi and Rhone a Sete. Please let me know if it is too wordy, in which case I will truncate the next sections. The log ran to 95 handwritten pages! As requested by certain persons, it is unbowdlerised, but I have edited it here and there where I think that accounts of meals, time not spent on canals, etc. would not be of interest. Saturday 15th August 1998 Arrived at Port Cassafiere at 3:15. Boat not ready for us (well, they had said 4pm). Waited until 4:15, swigging Perrier. (How much water have we got through already? Badoit is the best.) Then we were conducted to our boat (which we had already identified ^Ö Capri 2) by an Englishwoman (Sheffield?). Loaded luggage (mucho sweato) and started to unpack. As always in a boat, there is never enough room for half the stuff. Then somehow you find places for everything in the end. Then the engineer arrived for our statutory lesson ^Ö he must have been her husband. Out for a little spin around. Gin palaces never steer in reverse. He showed us how to hack it. The loo discharges direct into the canal. Degueulasse (French for revolting)! But ^Ö no pumpouts! So off we went at 5:45 (having stowed bits of the boat we didn^Òt need in the car). Through Vias with its barrage dam for river flood water. Loads of horseriders on banks (Western style). Fish rising and swallows swooping. There are not many locks in the direction we are going, so there is not much movement of water. As I said, the loo discharges direct into the water. I don^Òt think I want to eat any fish from the canal. But some people do. Some anglers, some house-boaters with shrimp-nets. On to Agde, where we had to moor beside a reedy, weedy bank. This was my first acquaintance with the bow rope. What a tangle! During the run to here I had been making beds and putting things away, so had no chance to check it out. Nice man on bank caught the rope, but I didn^Òt dare jump (I suffer from vertigo which makes me freeze in the most embarrassing situations ^Ö it was only about eighteen inches out and eighteen inches down!) Yelled to Paul to come and jump, which he did. Stern was swinging out, so I took the controls and brought it in again. Felt better. Threw stern rope, two mooring pegs, hammer (all without hitting anyone) and left it up to Paul. Woman-handled gangplank into position. So, we are neatly and sweetly tied up. Now, shower and hairwash. (So where did the engineer say the pump buttons were?) (Account of dinner and evening cut out.) Sunday 16th August Woke around 7:30. The lock at Agde opens at 8:00, and the first traffic was in the other direction. Around 8:30 the gates opened, and we cast off, following another boat towards the lock. Then the light went red and the gates closed and we had to moor again (the other boat hovered). It is a round, three-way lock, and a boat was coming up the side entrance from the sea, then going in out direction. Eventually we were allowed in (after Paul had fun and games with an overgrown puppy which wanted to play with the mooring rope. Taught him to say ^ÓNon! Mechant!^Ô) Into the lock (no ladders) and had to manoeuvre carefully to reverse beside the wall to the left, Paul throwing the stern rope over a bollard. Things are a little harder when there are only two pairs of hands, compared to six! Out of the lock, and along a tree-lined stretch of canal, through a permanently open lock (except, presumably, when the river is in spate) and into another lock just as I was in the loo. Finished hurriedly, and got on deck just in time to jump ashore with the rope. (This was a down lock, whereas at Agde it was up.) Got talking to a French jogger, a local, who told me there was a bomb last night in Ireland which killed 28 people. Forgot to mention Paul^Òs fun and games in the loo with a great big jobbie which wouldn^Òt go away. I had to go and cut a stick for him to prod it with. Cut a couple of spares, just in case. On to the Etang de Thau, and onto open water. Masses of oyster beds. Day unfortunately rather hazy, visibility limited. Maximum revs on boat 20,000 which is about 8 kph, the maximum on the canals, so it took a long time to get to our intended lunchtime stop, Metz. Harbour difficult to identify and even harder to moor in. Started off moored starboard side on to the quay, then realised that we were supposed to moor stern-on with the bow attached to a pole in the water. Difficult manoeuvre, with a helpful boat-owner from the Thames and I handling the stern lines while Paul tried to fasten the bow rope to the pole using the boathook, which was broken. Not easy, especially since the water was full of jellyfish, which is enough to make anyone nervous. He dropped the boathook, but the next boat in picked it up for us. Walked around the harbour and selected a café. They all offered huge assorted shellfish platters. By now I was feeling pretty ill from the heat and humidity and dehydration, so as soon as we sat down I ordered Badoit and bread, which made me feel better. Paul had a fish chowder, with a sauce which seemed to be a mixture of aioli and herissa, and of course grated cheese and toast. Then we each had a dozen oysters, opened before our very eyes. Then icecreams. And a bottle of wine. And two more half-litres of Badoit. The oysters were only FF50 per dozen! On from Metz across l^ÒEtang de Thau to Sete, where we had some trouble identifying the canal mouth ^Ö first we found the harbour, and had to backtrack. We had a book with a photo in it to guide us, but all the landmark buildings had changed! On along the canal to Frontignan. The approach is surrounded by huge cylindrical oil tanks, all numbered ^Ö the highest I spotted was 312. Saw our first flamingoes. In Frontignan is a crazy bridge ^Ö the railway crosses at a reasonable height, but below it is the road bridge, which not even a kayak could get under. We arrived at 4:30 and discovered it was due to be opened at 5pm. ^Å As the bridge rose, we pulled out into mid-channel and hovered to let another boat out. Then it all turned to bedlam! Boats were casting off everywhere; one large one from the other bank forgot to start its engine and ended up athwart the canal; one smaller one escaped by inches being pinched between the bows of the drifter and those of another boat; the drivers of at least three of the boats seemed to be drunk. And, of course, boats were also coming the under way under the bridge into all this mayhem. I thought that everyone would at least get themselves sorted out within the next five minutes, as the convoy chugged along the canal, but they still kept wandering all over the channel, panicking when they saw a red or green marker buoy, etc. I finally overtook a couple of the more dangerously-driven ones and things got a little easier. Passed a huge working barge (one or two of the boats in front seemed inclined to climb the bank to get away from it). More flamingoes. Continued on. The canal runs through several etangs (shallow salt lakes) but, unlike on the Thau, is banked on both sides. Tamarisk bushes everywhere. Eventually we arrived as Palavas-les-Flots, where there is a crossroad (crosswaters?) with the river Lez. (Quiet at the back there, Paterson!) We turned right onto the river and, after a mistake or two, found where to tie up. Very pleasant and helpful harbour-master. I am sure he said FF58 per night, but when I went into the office he charged me FF104. But for that we have our own personal jetty, our own watering point, mains electricity if we could use it (which we can^Òt), use of bogs and showers, and the place is supervised at night. The other side of the river bank there is the Etang du Grec, covered in flamingoes and other waterfowl. Still desperately hot, but after sunset a good breeze sprang up from the east and cooled us a little bit. Dined off bread, cheese, pate. Gin and tonics WITH ICE ^Ö it took this long for the ice to freeze. Plus plenty of Badoit. Finished with Kahlua and armagnac. Instead of closing the cabin door, we lowered the tarpaulin stern cover, so as to have maximum ventilation inside the boat. Rigged mosquito net for Paul (there are a lot of mosquitoes here) but decided to try without, myself. Monday 17th August (Day spent at Palavas ^Ö log mostly cut where unlikely to be of interest) At the edge of the river, especially under the gangways, are masses of grey crabs. I assume that they especially like the boats which discharge directly into the water. The beach (on the Mediterranean) was very sandy, very strange because of the lack of tides ^Ö the dry sand gave way to the water in the space of about six feet. Also very, very crowded. Water very clear, full of crabs and little fishes and people trying to catch them. Had a siesta, during which I was annoyed by a fly ^Ö not even a mosquito! Afterwards Paul went for a shower, during which the helicopter came looking for him. There has been one each day, expect one when it was replaced by a jet fighter. Also, each evening at Palavas a pair of biplanes flies overhead. Not to mention the flamingoes. (The significance of this, if any, is that on any boating holidays we have had, and frequently even during country walks, helicopters appear, and some friends of our decided long ago that they are looking for Paul. But they have never located him yet!) At night, walked down to between the beach and the harbour. Everything is lit up ^Ö even the church was outlined in neon, understandably afraid that it would get overlooked. Saw three or four fishing boats to a strange design ^Ö raked mast, and yard and sail set at an angle ^Ö which we afterwards discovered were Mediterranean dories. The decks sloped up steeply from the sides to the middle, I suppose to allow drainage. ........ Any comments before I hit you with the next bit? -- Molly -----== Posted via Deja News, The Leader in Internet Discussion ==----- http://www.dejanews.com/rg_mkgrp.xp Create Your Own Free Member Forum