From molly_mockford@my-dejanews.com Sat Sep 25 17:18:23 1999 Date: Tue, 08 Sep 1998 12:36:18 GMT From: molly_mockford@my-dejanews.com Reply-To: canals@blacksheep.org To: canals@blacksheep.org Subject: Molly's Holi's Part 4 - Trip Report Thursday 20th August A good, mosquito-free night. Thank heavens for mosquito nets! Why doesn't someone invent a wearable one, along the lines of an extended bee-keeper's veil? Then I wouldn't get bitten when out for dinner. Left the entire boat open for ventilation and awoke around 7am, very refreshed. Noisy work had started on demolishing a floating pontoon at the end of the quay. Light breakfast, then swabbed decks and left them to dry as we went into town. (Snipped lengthy account of Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer and four-hour jeep safari in the Camargue, reduced to one paragraph.) The Camargue was so vast, flat and empty but teeming with wildlife - bulls, horses, millions of dragonflies of all colours and hundreds of flamingos. Lots of bamboo and bulrushes. Also some hornet-like things called gendarmes which dangle their legs as they fly, and are liable to sting. Saw some Camargue cowboys herding the black cattle, riding western-style. In response to various requests, dinner: Fruits de mer gratinees, then squid, then bull kebab (extraordinarily tough meat!) with green salad for Paul; Baltic salad (with smoked salmon), then coq au vin with frites for me. Then both had chocolate mousse, and followed our first bottle of wine with a couple of glasses of Muscat. Enormous portions. Amusing patron, who reminded us of the host of a favourite Italian restaurant here at home - even had the same joke. "If you don't like the wine, you don't drink it - I drink it. You just pay for it." The bill purported to include a surcharge of FF1000 for "troublesome guests". Staggered back to boat around 1am, beset by owls everywhere. Friday 21st August. Woke around 7 am, a little bleary. Ankles so swollen from the heat I could hardly get my deckshoes on. I look like a piano teacher. (Also, we are suffering from assorted bumps, bruises, grazes and bites - par for the course for a boating holiday - at least, for us it is.) Set off for Beaucaire. Saw lots of birds - grey herons, a purple heron, coots, kestrels. Passed through Bellegarde; according to all the books there's nothing much here, but they have recently done it up and it is now very attractive, with nice moorings and what looks like a shower block. And a Coke machine! On to the lock at Nourriguier, which is four metres deep. A boat ahead of us nipped in and went up without waiting for us, although we were only a quarter of a mile behind them, if that. Moored, and wandered up to see how the lock worked. It is automatic, controlled by push-buttons in a cabin. On our return to the boat we found we had a guest aboard - a little blue Burmese cat, very friendly. Eventually, it was our turn to lock. There is a long flight of steps to either side of the lower gate. I hovered there while Paul took the bow rope up. Then I moved in, took position and threw up the stern rope. It's all so different with only two people! At Beaucaire we mistakenly selected a private mooring at a pontoon, but a pleasant chap (Belgian? Multi-lingual, anyway) semi-permanently moored at the same pontoon begged us to be his guests. Beaucaire a very strange little old town, easy to get lost in. Very hard to find a café that was open, then we found four all in the same tree-shaded square. Ate crepes. Back to the boat and left, turning on the port sternline. Back at the lock, we went down without any problems, despite sharing with two other boats. I cleared the bow rope quickly and nipped back to take the stern rope from Paul, who went to the wheel. Smooth operation. Back at St Gilles, G&Ts on deck, with great flocks of swifts overhead. Dinner at the same place as last night. I had prawns with a mayonnaise dip to start, then cod ball fishcakes with a lethal chilli dip which they fortunately warned me about in advance, then rabbit chasseur, and apple tart. Paul had sea snails with aioli (cooked, not raw, this time), then red bream in cider sauce, the coq au vin and apple tart. The patron gave me a large glass of something he swore was a local Camarguais liqueur, and even showed me the bottle to prove it; but it tasted exactly like Grand Marnier, and I haven't seen any orange groves lately. Saturday 22nd August Woke 7:15 with an excruciating cramp in my right calf. Paul had to help me to escape from my mosquito net. The day is much cooler, with cloud cover. (Snipped lengthy account of bull-running in the streets of St Gilles.) Back to Aigues-Mortes. An uneventful journey - even the swing bridge was already open for us. Strong wind blowing from the west (which had made manoeuvring for diesel and water at St Gilles a bit tricky). Arrived to find only two moorings left. Nipped smartly stern-on into one of them, very grateful that the two craft ahead of us had chosen not to stop here! The town was absolutely heaving because it was their festival weekend, and we spent what seemed like several days waiting to be served ices and drinks at a cafe - we had to order three times before we got anything. Everywhere were musicians, actors, jugglers, stilt-walkers etc., all in mediaeval costume. The whole thing just got too oppressive for us after the peace of the canal. Back to the boat (buying bread, pate, patisseries on the way); adjusted ropes again in view of the very strong wind, and also those of our neighbours to port (the crew being absent) so that the bows couldn't bump together. (Snipped account of son et lumiere and firework display.) Not much more to come, folks! -- Molly -----== Posted via Deja News, The Leader in Internet Discussion ==----- http://www.dejanews.com/rg_mkgrp.xp Create Your Own Free Member Forum