L'Avenir - Cruising Europe's Inland Waterways

Damazan So, it seems I tempted fate once again. The slightly 'smarty pants' tone of my last post might have requested a more appropriate title - something like Pride Comes Before...(you know the rest). To be fair, I was just relieved that the resident engineer seemed to have found a way around a major repair. He clearly had that too good to be true feeling because first thing next morning he said, 'I'm not happy. There's more to it.' He then proceeded to dismantle the gearbox once again - and he was right. I'm a little vague on the technical details but the source of the problem was eventually found and was one of those things which apparently had been on the verge of going wrong for longer than we've had the boat. In short, a welder had had a brain fade - or perhaps a coffee break - exactly halfway through a job and had welded only two of four sides of a small rectangular piece of steel deep in the guts of the gearbox. After 8 plus yea...

  Val de Garonne  'If we wanted, we could be there in a day or so' (my words a week or so ago) Talk about tempting fate. I was referring to our impending arrival in Castets-en-Dorthe the final port of the canal system in the south west of France. From Castets it is possible to lock down onto the tidal river leading to Bordeaux and then the Bay of Biscay. There had been some talk of taking our boat to Bordeaux - a conversation to which my enthusiastic contribution was along the lines of, 'yeah, right.' I was keen to make it as far as Castets though - the end of a long journey from the north of the country to the south. Fontaine de la Font d'Uzas Our plans weren't to be thwarted by fate or mythical water gods but by Spring in full force. I've already posted some pictures of the riotous growth of trees and plants along the canal banks but a similar thing is happening in the underwater world. For some reason the water is particularly clean in t...

Port of Meilhan 2 weeks later. Updating the blog is even slower than our progress along this canal. Not that we are in any hurry. Last year's cruise was a marathon effort so, this season, we are aiming for some balance and relaxation by going nowhere fast. In that respect we're succeeding quite splendidly - although, on second thoughts, perhaps one of us didn't too well with the balance part. His ribs are gradually healing I'm happy to report but sneezing is to be avoided if at all possible. When we arrived at Buzet  a few weeks ago the plane trees lining the canal were just beginning to come into leaf. Now we're surrounded by the brightest and most beautiful greenery. I had forgotten how green Spring in the northern hemisphere can be. The foliage has been helped along by copious rain but then it is April and showers are a feature of the month. There's been plenty of sunshine too and when it does appear it is quite warm. Off come the thermals (in my de...

Port of Buzet - first boat of the season setting off Nearly a week  has passed since the 'unfortunate incident' mentioned in my last post. Canal boating would be fairly low down on anyone's list of dangerous activities but it doesn't pay to be too blasé; a moment's inattention can result in serious injury. Rejoining the boat at the beginning of the cruising season is perhaps a slightly more risky time as it takes a few days to re-familiarise yourself with the numerous stairs, ladders, slippery decks, ropes etc. It's a busy time for both of us unpacking, restocking, cleaning, de-winterising the engine and so on. Working on the engine means the floor hatches are lifted which demands even more care. This year we found we needed to replace another 2 batteries - the start battery from the the engine 'room' and the bow thruster battery from another underfloor  compartment in the forward cabin. These batteries weigh about 50kg each and lifting them out...

Spring flowers - Damazan market Welcome aboard for 2016. April is usually a little early to begin the cruising season but l'Avenir is in the south of France now. Spring arrives earlier there doesn't it? Winter was definitely- and depressingly- still in force on our arrival in Paris a week ago - 6 degrees and pouring rain. There was also a general strike underway which may have had some bearing on the glacial pace of the baggage reclaim - each revolution of the carousel contained about 3 new pieces of luggage. Fortunately, we'd booked a night in an airport hotel and so after waiting for a couple of hours for our bags we didn't then need to contend with a strikebound transport system. Everyone was back to work the following morning and we caught an early TGV from the airport arriving in Bordeaux by lunchtime. Our journey, which began in a fog shrouded landscape of bare trees and dried brown grass, gradually softened and took on a hint of colour as we travelled sout...

Final locks, Canal du Garonne Apologies for the long delay in winding up the blog for the year. We have just arrived back in Australia and these first, foggy days of disorientation are as good a time as any to ponder the past months before looking forward to the summer down-under. The eternal summer of the migrant boater is a hard life. We spent 3 weeks in Scotland en route and so France already seems a slightly hazy memory - or perhaps that's just due to the jet lag. My last post was from Moissac, a vibrant town with a cathedral, an impressive aqueduct, a large market and a beautiful river. It is possible to lock down onto the river here to moor and cruise a few kilometres which would be lovely during summer. This time we just spent a couple of days in the friendly port. River Tarn from the aqueduct  Moissac Moissac Our next stop was Valence d'Agen which was a surprisingly pleasant town with 2 market squares close by each other- I don't know why. The lit...

We are now basking in beautiful autumn sunshine in the town of Moissac (yet another town on the Compostelle Trail-have just been asked if we are pilgrims!!) on the Garonne. Well, to be precise, Moissac is on the River Tarn but, since Toulouse, the canal has been following the River Garonne and the two rivers meet here. The Canal du Midi became much quieter after we left Castelnaudary as the bulk of the hire boats cruise between there, Carcassonne and Buziers. That is the most picturesque section of the Midi but also the most hard work, particularly climbing upwards towards the summit as we were. What a relief to get there - I need new gloves for next year; the ones I've been wearing are now full of holes from hauling on ropes. We spent one night on the summit pound where there is a lovely, shady park with a magnificent avenue of plane trees and an obelisk to commemorate engineer Pierre-Paul Riquet who conceived the idea of a canal linking the Atlantic to the Mediterranean a...