Tuesday 30 August - "Ratty", then back to Moissac on our last day of barging


Next morning we awoke to a bright blue sky. After breakfast on the back deck, we noticed something moving in the grass on the bank. Further inspection showed it to be a little albino rat. He was very friendly and we suspected he may have been a domestic pet that had escaped. He walked up and down the boards at the side of the canal and inspected our ropes. He was quite happy to eat some stale bread we put in the grass, but we thought he was finding it more by sense of touch and smell than by eyesight - perhaps the bright sun was playing havoc with his eyes.

After Mole at Lavardac and Ratty at St Porquier, we wondered when we were going to meet up with Toad and Badger and the rest of the characters from Wind in the Willows?

We figured it was rather apt that we had met up with Ratty, since it was he who said "there is nothing, absolutely nothing, half as much worth doing as simply messing around in boats!". We were starting to agree with him.

Eventually, we tore ourselves away from Ratty and left him to fend for himself on the canal bank. But if we had been staying longer, there is a fair chance that he would have found himself a nice safe home on Kanumbra!

On the way north, we took particular notice of a bridge that Rita had been quite worried about as we came into a lock on the way down. Then, she had been giving me frantic hand signals as I was entering the lock, indicating that I was getting a bit too close for comfort. At the time, I could see no problem, as I had plenty of clearance overhead.

So on the way back, we took a few photos. Initially, it looked like it would be no problem (left) and in the end (below) it wasn't. But on the way down, I had been much closer to the side of the bridge and the corner of the bimini had been too close for comfort. I now understood the meaning of Rita's hand signals.

Eventually, we reached the Cacor Aqueduct over the Tarn on the approaches to Moissac, and noticed a water-skier using the Tarn to good effect.

We now realised that this was out last day out on the canal and that the next lock would be the last before reaching Moissac, so we took a couple of pictures of us looking just a little bit sad )-:

Before we knew it, we were back in the Port of Moissac and tied up once again, but with a special aerial display of contrails for our arrival.