We were ready for the first lock at 9, but
had to wait a bit for a barge to come down.
Then it was just a short run, including this canal bridge
over the river Orb, to the foot of the seven lock staircase.
As anticipated, there was an excellent view of the cathedral
from the canal. At the waiting spot, we found two boats ahead of us who had
evidently spent the night there to be sure of being first in the queue. But, of
course, commerce comes first, and when the first upward cycle started at about 10, there
were two passenger-carrying barges that had priority.
As we waited, we contemplated the disused inclined plane, or
boat lift. This was built in the 1960s to bypass the staircase of locks, but never worked properly and was
later abandoned.
In the staircase of seven linked locks, you go immediately from one lock to the next. Each boat has to put a crew member ashore to
help with the ropes. It was quite a tight fit with two hire boats ahead of
us.
It is an impressive engineering feat, but difficult to
photograph one-handed while pulling ropes at the same time. Lots of spectators on the
shore.
We emerged a bit after 11, with no more locks in prospect
for the day. The canal was peaceful, though there was quite a lot of traffic,
mostly hire boats going the other way.
We caught up with one of the slow-moving passenger barges, the Vent du
Sud, who kindly beckoned us to overtake, which we did.
Colombière looked an interesting place, which we may visit on our
way back.
As we went through the narrow bridge on the edge of town,
a hire boat coming the other way had a panic attack: ran backwards into one
bank, then forwards into the other, then apparently became stuck across the canal. But
eventually they sorted themselves out.
The canal has one tunnel. It is small and short compared with some of the very long ones we have negotiated in the north, but
this was the 17th century after all.
Whole stretches of the canal are now without tree cover, and
pretty hot in consequence. But it was good to see the new trees that have been
planted – many hundreds of them.
Tasks are, of course, shared on board – here is the relief helm about to
tackle a narrow bridge …
And here we are at Le Somail, a pretty, but very touristy
little village. It, rather surprisingly, boasts a very well-stocked secondhand bookshop. But we have been before, and tend to be digital these days.
Tomorrow we will get back into the lock routine: a couple of
days up to Carcassonne, which is probably as far as we will go this year.
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