Sunday 28 August - through the five-locks to Montech


After a late breakfast, we continued further south, heading for Montech. Along the way we got to put into practice what Tam Murrell had taught us about passing large peniches, when we saw La Hoya heading our way. Luckily the canal was fairly wide at that point, so we both had plenty of room to stay to our own sides.

Montech is well-known in barging circles for its Water Slope, a motorised system for large barges which enables them to bypass the 5 parallel locks, cutting the time of passage from 60 to 20 minutes. It was opened in 1974, but has unfortunately recently closed. We thus didn't get to see it in operation. When we arrived at the lower end of the diversion channel to the Water Slope, the eclusier informed us that we should moor up and give way to the tourist barge that was just returning from a trip to the water slope.

We did this and then waited our turn to enter the lock. While we were waiting, the 3 Aussies caught up with us in "Mathilda". When we entered the first of the five locks, they came in behind us. Unfortunately, they did not secure their ropes properly and got pushed to the back of the lock by the incoming water, and then caught the back of their deck under a ledge on the rear lock gate. This could have been potentially serious, but luckily it did not submerge their stern too much. After we had left the lock, the eclusier closed the front gates again and lowered the water level in the lock, thereby freeing their stern. From then on, we negotiated the locks separately.

We continued on to Montech and, finding no room in the port, we continued on a little and then moored alongside a park area next to an old friend, Henri. Henri was the big blue barge that played a part in the pageant at Valence d'Agen a few weeks earlier. It had now returned to its less glamorous life as an ordinary barge.

That evening we visited "Mathilda" and sat on the deck having a couple of beers with the 3 Aussies, and learning of how they came to meet up together. While they seemed to be old friends, we learned that they had only known each other for a couple of weeks. We arranged to catch up for breakfast on Kanumbra at 9am in the morning, before we headed off in our different directions.