The rain continued overnight and into the morning, so we got away to a delayed 1020h start, as we headed towards Carcassonne. This morning we found ourselves double-locking with a German quartet who, as Rita found out later, had hired boats for a few years now. I thought they seemed to know what they were doing.

As we went through Bram, we were surprised to find the port almost empty, even though some people were sitting in the cafe for lunch. We continued through and stopped for lunch at the next lock at Beteille at 1230h. Across the canal I saw a barge with a solar panel installation over their dogbox, very much like what I was considering for Kanumbra.

Over lunch, I caught up on the scores in the AFL Semi-Final between Melbourne and Geelong, and was somewhat surprised to see the Demons run out easy winners 75-46. So, Hawthorn will face Melbourne in the Elimination Final next week.

You see some strange things on hire-boats on the Midi, but today’s was one of the “best” when a hire-boat came round on the inside of a corner at high speed, and then halfway around the bend the crazy hireboat driver took his hands off the wheel to take some photos. I don’t often use the horn on Kanumbra but, as he drifted over to my side of the canal, I thought I should make an exception this time. Luckily, it caught his attention and he returned to the job in time to get back to his own side of the canal.

As we rounded a bend near PK88, I saw some Haflinger horses standing in a paddock at exactly the same place as we had seen then going to and from Carcassonne last year. This time, it was 3rd time lucky, and I had my camera ready to capture the moment as we straightened up and cruised past them. Lovely looking horses!

Despite the late start, we had made good time and possibly could have reached Carcassonne tonight if we tried. But I didn’t want to risk getting caught short and unable to reach our mooring on the other side of the Marengo Ecluse. So we settled for an early halt to cruising near Pont St Rocle (at PK96), south pf the town of Pezens. This was a delightful semi-shaded spot near a bridge and two sharp bends (which nicely slowed any passing hire-boats), so we were very happy to tie up here. During the day we had lost a balloon fender from the front starboard side (luckily it was already flat), so I replaced it with a knotted rope fender, until Serge delivers our new balloon fenders while we are in Carcassonne.

While Rita jumped on her bike to go find a local post office, I went for a walk down the canal to "pencil pine corner” (more on that tomorrow). I have been surprised on the Midi that, unlike the Canel de Garonne where the towpath is wide and bitumen sealed for it’s entire length, the towpaths along the Midi are generally unsealed and often quite narrow, pot-holed and covered with tree roots. This photo shows the towpath/cyclepath on the left, even though there is ample space for a proper sealed towpath on the right. One would think that a proper investment in a sealed towpath along the Midi would pay for itself relatively quickly in terms of increased cycle tourism and the money they would spend in towns along the way.

When I got back to the barge, I decided that the sun was just too nice to go to waste. So I hauled out the deck-chair and spent the next couple of hours sitting on deck with a cold beer (actually the beer didn’t last that long).