Sunny with white clouds. A chilly start, fleeces on. We set off at 9.10 a.m. The quay at Le Ségala was almost full, although it was supposed to be reserved for Rive de France hireboats. A white-bearded English chap said he would follow us down to the lock as we passed his smart little Dutch Pedro cruiser. Méditerranée was empty with bottom gates open when we arrived. As we threw ropes around the wooden stumps above the lock, to wait for whatever was coming uphill, the keeper refilled the lock. There was a traffic light at the top end of the lock (which are usually only on automatic locks). On the lockside was a post with green and red buttons for use on automatic, but a young keeper in designer sunglasses with an ice cream tray round his neck worked the lock for us. Poser! A short pound took us to Roc two-rise.
The usual resident dark-haired and moustachioed keeper was there to greet us and have a chat. We were soon through and on to the next pound. We passed a Dutch cruiser heading uphill; it had an SSR (British Small Ships Registration) number and Dordrecht (large town in the Netherlands) as its home port. On the 1.2 kms pound to Laurens three-rise I made a cuppa. Drank it while dropping down the locks to the amusement of the lady on the cruiser alongside who thought it was very laid back to drink coffee while holding a bit of string! (Takes all sorts).
The young man working the lock (again with ice cream tray controls) did so from the upper storey window of the almost derelict lock house. I had to agree with Mike that he wasn’t in full control from up there, although he had a good view of all three chambers. At eleven o’clock we stopped at an old stone quay with rings about halfway between the bottom of Laurens and the next lock, La Domergue. A fat narrowboat was moored at the downhill end (where the rings were) so we tied bows to bows.
The people on it returned in their car and Mike had a chat with the skipper. He had photoelectric panels on his roof which he said provided 50Amps when the sun was shining and was producing 7.5 Amps as they were talking - as the sun was going down. He also had a heat exchanger system of pipework on his roof which heated water by the action of sunlight and asked Mike if he knew what would be the best method of automatically turning his circulation pump on and off. His partner, a Dutch lady, also came out to chat. She lived in Amsterdam and went back to visit her family using cheap air flights for 10€ or less, sourced via the Internet.
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