Very hot, sunny with white clouds. We could hear distant noises like a tannoy system so we got moving early thinking it might be a trip boat or that large slow boat again. Heaved the ropes in and set off at 9.30 a.m. There was a long, long line of dead boats before Ventenac; nothing moored on their nice stone stepped quay (sign said it cost 1.8 million Francs). A Dutch Barge was moored downhill of the bridge in the shade. Said hello to the lady of the vessel as we passed. Another British Dutch Barge was moored just beyond them. A hire boat had to wait for us to come through the “narrow” arched bridge before Le Someil as we had to get the exact middle for the mast to fit under. The Nichols base on the left before the main bridge was almost full, its boats moored sterns to the bank. A wide narrowboat was moored by the towpath and another one was moored on the opposite side among the dead boats. The péniche grocery shop was still moored just before the bridge. There were loads of boats moored in Le Someil; lots of dead boats and quite a few of them were ex-hireboats, but there were a few gaps on the quay (right hand side) before Minervois cruisers hireboats (pleased to see they still had a few narrow boats for hire). A British cruiser was moored among the dead men on the left. A long row of old Dutch Barges stretched out along the left side under the trees, some lived on but most dead, a long way down the canal. At the end SB was moored, a British narrowboat we’d seen several times, locked up and left for a while. Just after the end of the moored boats we met a klipper - a French flagged hotel boat – plodding slowly uphill. The shop selling regional products, bread, etc, just before the aqueduct over the Cesse, was closed - looked like it was closed for good.
Took photos of the boats packing the mooring in Port La Robine. It was getting hotter and hotter. The Germans we locked with the day before were moored just before Argeliers, their two little boys were jumping off the boat into the canal for a swim. Several more large Dutch Barges were moored on the bend. One was lived on and a smaller one was being repainted in patches of multicoloured paint. The Brits we locked with the day before were walking back to their boat from Argeliers, it was moored beyond the arched bridge at the Chat Qui Pêche restaurant. A small Dutch Barge with a big dent in the back was moored there too, it had been renamed. Another hotel boat went plodding past at KP173. 
A cicada sat on the roof. I thought it had expired until it flew off at great speed. A very battered blue darter dragonfly sat for ages on our radio aerial, half of both its right wings were gone but it still flew very well. I spotted several large birds flying that looked distinctly blue, I thought they were rollers. Then we saw one swoop across a field to land on the electricity wires and I could see it well through binoculars and identify it as a roller - big powerful insect eaters who sometimes eat lizards too. It certainly had a plentiful supply of dragonflies and butterflies, there were lots of white admirals about again today. Two big boats were moored by the last bridge before Capestang, a tjalk and a cut down péniche with 39m still on its coamings and an owners name in Rotterdam. The bends wound a further 8kms into Capestang. We started looking for somewhere to tie up in the shade with a space to put the satellite dish. Moored at KP184, tied to the roots at 1.50 p.m. and had some lunch. I gave Mike a hand to unload the moped down the plank and he went to move the car from Homps to Vias.
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