City traffic noises woke us early, but we still stayed in bed till about 9am, since neither of us was exactly looking forward to barging today, with manual locks, a badly steering bathtub, and a good chance of more rain. So Rita cycled up to the local supermarket to get some supplies that we had forgotten to bring, while I went for a walk through the tunnel at the end of the dock and up through the Secret Garden into the old part of town. Port Bullier is really a nice location, and we figured we could stay here all week, since Cahors is such an interesting town – but I guess we won’t!

So, around midday, we headed upstream in the direction of Vers. I tried steering from the inside wheel at the front of the boat to leave the dock, but it was even worse than the upstairs external wheel. At least up top you could see the front and back of the boat, but downstairs you had no idea where the back of the boat was, and I had troubles turning away from the dock to do the 180degree turn needed to head up-river (given the rocks and tree trunks that were just underwater and ahead of us at the dock).

Five minutes after leaving Port Bullier, Rita spotted the piscine next to the next mooring site and wanted to stop! But we continued on. We took it very easy and tried to learn the handling characteristics of the boat, if that is what they are called. I was very glad I was learning this on a river, and not in the narrow confines of a canal. We reached the first lock at Lacombe and learned the full procedures for operating the lock manually. During the week we double-locked every time, except for the very last lock we did on the final morning, where we were the only ones mobile on the river early in the morning. At Lacombe, we double-locked with two Spanish couples on a boat that we would see many times during the week. One of the problems on the Upper Lot is that everyone is in hire boats, and so this brings a mixture of absolute novices, some intermediates like us, and very few experienced boaters – and you never know which is which until you try locking with them!!

The procedure for the manual locking process for a 2-person crew, assuming that you are going upstream and the downstream gates are closed when you arrive, is something like this:

1. Check that one of the several tourist boats operating on the river is not right behind you or approaching from the other direction, since they have priority on the river and at the locks, and will let you know with very loud and embarrassing horn sounds if you jump in ahead of them. If they are coming through the lock from the other direction, it’s not too bad because that means that they will do all the locking work and leave the gate open for you to enter once they have finished.

2. Assuming there are no tourist boats around, moor at the downstream pontoon and tie the boat up securely.

3. Both of you then get off at the pontoon and walk up to the lock.

4. Go to the upstream end of the lock and close the gates. You do this by winding the handles on the dockside, after stepping on the red pedal to unlock the winding mechanism (shown at left below).

5. Once the gates are closed, there is often a gap of about 10cm once the winding has finished but this will disappear later. Walk onto the closed upstream gate and wind down the flap to close off the water flow into the lock from upstream (shown at right above).

6. Walk to the downstream end of the lock and open the flaps by using the winders on the gates until all the water has emptied from the lock and the water level inside and outside the lock is the same.

7. Then open the downstream gates using the winders on the dockside.

8. The captain then returns to the boat, un-moors from the pontoon and brings the boat into the lock, while the crew member stays at the lock to take the ropes thrown ashore by the skipper once the boat has been stopped at the appropriate place within the lock.

9. After the boat is secured in the lock, and the downstream gates have been closed, the crew opens the flaps on the upstream gates to fill the lock. This should be done relatively slowly to minimise turbulence within the lock. Unfortunately, many of the novice crew from other boats like to demonstrate their “manliness” by opening the flaps as quickly as possible, not realising the effect this will have on the boats inside, especially the boat at the front of the lock (we were always very generous where possible and allowed other boats to go into the lock first!). This is compounded by the novice crew left on the boat, who have often not moored correctly (e.g. no stern rope) and are then at the mercy of their own crew member. We saw many boats crash into the front gates in rising locks.

10. Once the lock has filled (and the water level inside the lock and upstream are the same), the front gates can be opened using the dockside winders, and the red pedal. If possible, the crew member can then climb down the lock steps (which are usually in the middle of the lock on the upper Lot) and onto their boat. Otherwise, they can walk to the upstream pontoon and re-board the boat after it has left the lock.

11. Proceed to the next lock for more fun and adventure with, possibly, a different novice crew on the other boat!

After doing a few locks manually, you start to realise how spoiled one is on canals like the Garonne, where you twist a pole to prepare the lock and then push a green button to exit the lock!

After leaving the Lacombe lock, the Spanish boat pulled over into the town of Laroque-des-Arcs, which featured a small chapel perched precariously on top of a high rock outcrop. We started to get the impression that, despite the badly handling boat and the manual locks, the beauty of the upper Lot would more than compensate for these minor difficulties.

We continued upstream until we saw the tourist boat coming into the lock at Arcambal from the other direction. Since they had priority we waited until they cleared the lock, by which time another boat had approached from upstream and began locking preparations. So we helped them while our boat was moored at the downstream pontoon. By the time it was our turn, another boat had arrived from downstream, so we entered first followed by them. One of their crew helped Rita with the paddles, but was over-enthusiastic and we got tossed around a bit, despite my glaring looks in his direction. As we left, we let them overtake so that we wouldn’t be at the front when we entered the next lock. We then followed them up-river.

After Arcambal, the river banks became higher and rocky, although we would later realise that these cliffs were relatively tame by comparison with some of those further upstream.

Our final lock for the day was at Vers (a full 30cm rise – why do they bother?), where we moored early for the day at 3.30pm, and used the pique-nique table in the adjacent park for the first beer of the day.

By 7pm, when the locks were officially closing, the docks were overflowing, showing the value of looking for a mooring place in the mid-afternoon. We decided to treat ourselves to a meal out that night, so we walked into Vers and were well rewarded when we dined at La Tuitte Dorée, including finding a good dry white wine (blanc sec) from Domaine Dols in nearby St Gery.