Since the locks on the Montech Canal don’t open till 9.30am, we took the opportunity for a bit of a sleep-in, then a short walk into Lacourt St Pierre to get some bread from the Café des Sports, before we headed off around 10.15am, following Hilda May who had left a little earlier.

While we had cycled along the Montech Canal in each of the two previous years, this was to be our first trip along it in the barge. It is a very pretty canal, through rural countryside with trees on both sides. The locks are controlled by remote-control “zappers”, with a button to announce your arrival when travelling upstream, another to announce your arrival when travelling downstream, and a third to start the locking process after tieing up in the lock (there is also a 4th button for emergency situations, but hopefully we won't need to use that one). You pick up your zapper at the first lock, and then drop it off as you leave going in the other direction (given that the Montech Canal is a cul de sac).

In total, there are 9 locks between Lacourt St Pierre and Montauban, some as close together as 250m. However, while this is a lot of locks in a short distance, the cruise is utterly relaxing. The scenery is great, the birds plentiful, while some of the eclusier cottages have been very well maintained (others are not so well maintained, but would be great “projects” if one could get permission to buy and renovate them).

Just beyond Lacourt St Pierre, the hotel barge Saint Louis is moored next to an old cottage that the barge owners also own. They have attached a 3 (kph) speed sign to the side of their barge to remind others (especially barge hirers) of the maximum speed when passing a moored barge. Given our previous problems with speeding hire barges, we may do the same ourselves.

There was not much traffic on the canal, but a few barges coming the other way managed to zap their zapper just before we zapped ours, so they got right of way. No hassles; we were not in a hurry so we just pulled over to a pontoon and waited from them to pass by.

As we were entering one of the locks, a duck jumped into the water in the lock, followed by five ducklings. We quickly put the barge into reverse and backed out, allowing them to escape before we entered the lock. Part of the charm of the Montech Canal.

When we got to Montauban, we moored, had lunch then went looking for the Capitainerie. The office was closed, but a little while later Lionel came down to our boats to enquire how we were going. Lionel used to live in Moissac port on Alert, but is now Capitain at Port Lauragais and is relieving at Montauban for a while (given that they are both CEPP/Veolia ports, like Moissac). We enquired about going down onto the Tarn but he informed us that the water level was officially too high at the moment (1.1m, instead of 0.9m), but that it might be OK tomorrow. So, we will stay in port tonight and check out how it is in the morning. After a quiet dinner on-board, we watched the sunset from the rear deck of Kanumbra.

Later, Stuart came over from Hilda May (which was moored next to us) with his guitar and played along with Rita on her pan, with some old folk songs from France and the UK. A very pleasant night on the back deck, until the mossies drove us inside the wheelhouse.