Another hot and sticky night. Hot and sunny day with a thunderstorm later. Said au’voir to P and moved down to Beziers lock, descended 4.24m, on our own, chatting to two nice ladies who tried to give us religious pamphlets. 4 kms to the next. The canal out of Beziers is sheltered by a double row of plane trees but has a very busy road on the left bank which spoils the tranquility somewhat. Ten minutes later we came to halt when confronted with red lights for the railway lift bridge which leads into the works of Cameron France, (drilling systems, it said on a large board) I made a cuppa while we waited. Took photos of the bridge and a shunter. Two police officers on bicycles went past on the towpath heading out of town. We’d just slung a rope around a post when the bridge started lifting. Typical. A dead ex-Locaboat was moored above Ariège lock. We settled into the curved section of the lock chamber on the right and the keeper asked us to move forward a bit. Couldn’t see why he did that as there was plenty of room for a péniche width vessel to get into the lock. Then a hotel boat (another one registered at Road Harbour) came into the lock and caught his fenders on the right hand gates as he came in. (Now we know why the keeper asked us to move forward – to keep out of his way! His reputation must have preceded him!) The guy steering told us it wasn’t his boat, he was ferrying it to the yard on the Herault at Agde for them to fix its forward bow thruster. He told us that they were stopping at Vias too. We could see a small boat coming down the pound, but the keeper closed the gates and let us down. 1.3 kms to Villeneuve. A dead, shortened péniche was moored above the lock. A hireboat came up and we went into the lock. The keeper closed the gates behind us, looked up the pound and reopened the gates to let the small cruiser in with us. The top end of the chamber (behind us) had been lengthened with a parallel section; the cruiser came into the lock then two crew members jumped off with ropes (the forward one was entwined in bicycles) and heaved the boat to a stop, lifting the bikes a few inches from the deck. We wondered if its reverse gear didn’t work? We dropped down and we went first out of the lock. There were masses of boats below Villeneuve, including a narrowboat (stern doors open but no one about). There was a very long line of houseboats, mostly péniches but a few Dutch Barges, extending along the left bank. There were less boats on the right than when we came through in 2007 as we remembered mooring at the end by the first of the houses and that side was clear of boats for at least 500m.
The two boats behind us started overtaking as we reached the next line of houseboats. The cruiser must have been going flat out to get past the hotel boat as well, he was making wash that moved the old péniche houseboats! A woman fishing from one houseboat was looking on in disgust but said nothing to them. We ran down to Portiranges; another hireboat came up and we went in behind the cruiser who had tied in the curved bit (the additional straight section was at the tail end this time) and there was only just enough room for us to get in and miss the cill without hitting the back of the cruiser. A smiling lady keeper worked the lock. We thought she’d gone back inside but we spotted her sheltering from the sun under the bridge below her lock so we said our usual merci, au’voir et bon appetit, as it was midday as we left her lock. The other two had gone out first and had scooted off into the distance. I made us a cold drink as it was getting hotter and the shade trees were getting less and less. Port Cassafieres was stuffed full with LeBoat hireboats and a long line of private boats, and stacks of ex-Connoisseur hireboats were moored along the canal on the right beyond the basin. We passed a Dutch Barge skippered by an American couple. Spotted the first Camargue horses grazing in the field on the left bank. A hireboat came out of the basin and overtook us before we got to the end of the moorings. It was 12.40 p.m. The hotel boat we’d locked with was moored just after the funfair and road bridge. They said they were lucky, someone came to catch a rope for them as the bank was rough and they couldn’t get off without using their gangway. We stooged down the moorings (there must have been two dozen boats there, Mike said there were only three boats there when he brought the car) winded at the end and went back to tie between the last boat and the hotel boat. A Yorkshire couple on a cruiser said hello as we went past and the skipper came to pass my bow rope around the railing on the (dry) spill weir. Mike powered the stern end in as the wind started blowing us off and then we knocked some stakes in. We set the dish up on the bank beyond the path by passing the coax cable under one of the arches of the spill weir. After we’d finished watching TV we switched off and brought the dish in as there had been a bunch of kids hanging about on the path over the spill weir who seemed to be getting up to no good, throwing sticks at the ducks, etc. The funfair started up at 8.00 p.m. and was noisy but far enough away as not to be too intrusive. There were fireworks later.
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