Tuesday 26th May 2009 Moissac to Prades

Grey start, drizzle and showers of rain. Mike didn’t want to spend another night next to the seats, he said the fact that there were dossers a few feet from the boat made him feel uneasy. We set off at 9.15 a.m. There was no one at the swing bridge in Moissac so we waited a few minutes. I searched for the ‘phone number for the VNF sub division and ‘phoned them. The cheery lady who answered said she would call someone to get the bridge opened for us. Within a few minutes a young lady arrived by bicycle, went in the control cabin and swung the bridge open for us. On through the moorings at Moissac, crammed full with boats. I got off and walked up to lock 25 Moissac while it emptied. The young lady bridge-keeper, who had ridden up on her bike, pressed the buttons to work the lock and I held our centre rope round a bar in the wall as the lock filled. Her colleague had the next lock she told us as we left her lock. Another young lady pressed buttons at 24 Gregonne and 23 Cacor. She rode up the towpath on the quietest motor scooter we had ever heard. She told me it was electric. I asked if she had trouble with people on the towpath not hearing it. She laughed and said yes, she had to go beep! beep! and shout “excuse me!” a lot! Across the aqueduct over the Tarn and up the 2.5 kms to lock 22 Artel where an older man worked the lock and cycled the short pound to work lock 21 les Verriés for us. He picked up a baby rabbit to save it from the Siamese cat at the lock house, who sat glaring at him. A short pound to the next lock, 20 St Jean des Vignes, where another young lady took over. It was raining so she was wrapped up well in her waterproofs and hiding behind the control box. She rode her bike up the longer pound (1.3 kms) to Castelsarrassin lock 19. The sun came out as we went up the lock and she was all smiles and chatty as we left. The moorings in Castel were almost completely full. The two duck houses were still anchored in the middle opposite the old people’s home. A pair of barnacle geese busily sent off the ducks as a woman was feeding them bread. Quite a number of boats were on the bank at the boatyard including a short narrowboat that we’d met before. Some people with a boat on the bank came to wave and say hello. The next lock, Prades N°18, was automatic. Turned the pole and the chamber emptied. I was going to get off at the end of the lock chamber, but chickened out. The VNF guy from the lock house came out to look as the boat came into his lock. The wind was blowing hard and the boat came away from the left hand wall. The ladder was green and very slimy, so after Mike had pushed the fore end back over with the boat shaft and I put a rope around the vertical pole he went up the ladder to press the button. When the VNF bloke started chatting on his portable radio Mike told him we were stopping on the pound and would carry on uphill next day – adding, if it wasn’t raining (that always brings a smile). We tied up halfway along the pound next to the tarmac cycle path and a fairly busy road out of town. A converted péniche we’d seen at Malause went past heading uphill and the tripper from Castel went past heading downhill, back to base.