Monday 15th June 2009 Grisolles to below Lacourtensourt lock2.

Grey and overcast, a few sunny spells and a couple of heavy showers. Winded by the quay and ran the 4kms up to the next lock, 9 Emballens. A Locaboat and a yacht had moored overnight next to the wooden piled bank upstream of the winding hole. The lock was full so I turned the pole and got off on the bank to walk up to press the button. Mike took photos of the old mill alongside the lock.

The next three locks (which were still keeper operated in 2008) were now fully automatic, no keeper and a modern aluminium post for the green and red buttons. 3 kms to lock 8 Castelnau. A Locaboat was coming down in the lock. Turned the pole and went in the lock. I missed getting off on the stone step below the lock so Mike reversed to it to let me off. He shouldn’t have done that as I would have gone up the ladder but he was irritated that I didn’t “just step off”, so we had inadvertently activated the entry sensors again, a fact we didn’t realise until after we had left the lock. The lock automatics now thought there were two boats in the chamber! A French cruiser was coming downhill; we passed it by the turn pole on the short pound leading up to L’Hers lock 7. This time I went up the ladder to press the button. The cruiser was stuck above lock 8 with the gates open and a red light as the lock waited for the “second boat” (US!) to exit the lock. A VNF van went down the towpath but didn’t stop at lock 8! Sorry! Hope they didn’t have a long wait! Crossed the aqueduct of the little river L’Hers and started on the 3.7 kms pound to St Jory lock 6. A machine was stripping off the top surface of the towpath/cycle path; the workmen laughed and struck poses as I photographed their machine which was spitting the minced up top layer into a lorry that was driving slowly up the towpath in front of it. More lorries and machines were parked on the car park by the  low piling below St Jory lock. I stepped off on the piling below the lock and walked up, taking pictures of the machinery, etc.

2 kms to lock 5, Bordeneuve. I stepped off at the wooden landing place and walked up again taking the camera to take photos. 2 kms to lock 4, Lespinasse. A French yacht was coming down. I made a cuppa soup as lunch would be late. I went up the ladder in lock 4 as a short shower of heavy rain started. That was quite refreshing. 3.7 kms to lock, Fenouillet. The lock ladder had dried out by the time we arrived to go up the shallower lock. At 2.20 p.m. we moored next to the piling and a steeply sloping grassy bank below lock 2 Lacourtensourt. A large American cruiser came down the lock and tried to wash us off the bank so we put an extra line out; now we had four ropes, two at each end. At least the water was deep. Two boats came down the lock and the gates didn’t close behind them. The lock didn’t reset and the lights eventually went off.