The day dawned overcast and cool, which didn’t worry us too much. As long as it stayed dry, it was better than working in excessive heat. Today was the day we did the Castelnaudary 4 locks, as we headed further east towards Bram, although we were going down the 4 locks this time, which was much easier than going up.

Our previous time up through these locks on the training ship Vertrouwen turned into a bit of a debacle. When we arrived at the top of the 4 locks today, there were boats already coming up, so we pulled over and waited in a holding area. Eventually, we were joined by a hire-boat which we had seen previously in Port Lauragais and Castelnaudary (we recognised it by the yellow sail-board on the side). Finally, the gates opened and disgorged three hire-boats, then it was our turn to go in, followed by the hire boat.

There’s always a bit of a crowd at the 4 locks, because it’s often a good spectator sport. I let the little girl in the black shirt help me with a rope at the bottom lock and she was as pleased as punch. The smile on her face was priceless.

As we headed down the 4 locks, we realised that the four people on the hire-boat were all New Zealanders.

We headed on though a double and then a triple lock, until we stopped for enforced lunch at a short bief (stretch of water) downstream of the Viviers ecluse. It was here that I read a panel about the plight of the plane trees along the Midi. I had heard various stories about how “all” the plane trees had been cut down on the Midi because of a contagious virus, and had been surprised that I had noticed very few trees that had been cut down so far. This panel explained the situation a bit more clearly, and next to it was a row of newly planted trees replacing the old plane trees.

I also went for a walk to the next ecluse and found two cats who were very friendly to me, and appeared friendly to each other, until they got too close to each other!

Soon after lunch, we headed off to leave the bief through Ecluse Guillermin, where our NZ partners captured me relaxing as we dropped down in the lock. Being on my feet most of the day at the wheel, this is one of the few times I get to sit down and relax, especially going down in a lock where you have to pay attention not to get the ropes crossed.

Photo: Vicki Butterworth

Soon, we arrived at the La Peyruque ecluse, and advised the NZers that we would be stopping here for a while because we wanted to go to the little shop to buy some ceramic, since we had stopped there on our first barging trip 6 years ago. Since the NZ girls also liked ceramics, we all stopped, and we eventually ended up buying a “daytime” ceramic picture of their shop to match the “night-time “ ceramic we had bought on our first trip.

As we all sat outside the shop eating our ice-creams and drinking our coffees, we got talking with the NZers, and found out that one of the girls (Vicki Butterworth) was the coordinator of the Hawkes Bay bicycle program, and that she was very interested in the application of Travel Behaviour Change programs to encourage more cycling. She was amazed when Rita told her that this was the very topic of her PhD thesis! So we talked a lot about bicycles, and our role in the Veloland bicycle surveys in Switzerland. We swapped business cards, and concluded that we had now done enough work to declare this a business trip for tax purposes!

As we continued cruising, Vicki got a nice shot of them following Kanumbra. It is rare for us to get a photo of Kanumbra on the water, so I had to include it here. It beautifully captures the serene nature of cruising on the Midi Canal

Photo: Vicki Butterworth

In the late afternoon, we cruised into Bram, having decided that we would stay there tonight, but unsure of exactly where we would moor. But as we entered the port under the narrow bridge, we saw two spaces on our right in the stone quai area right next to the cafe (where the old hire-boat base used to be). We figured they might be reserved spaces, but decided to tie up anyway and see what happened. And nothing happened; we stayed there for the night (for free). We were so impressed with our luck, that we immediately adjourned to the bar, and had a few drinks with many stories and much laughter.

The highlight was when a bunch of Americans (Yanks) arrived in port in a BIG hire-boat. They hovered near a space next to the bar, and Warren (one of the NZers) asked if they wanted a hand with the ropes. They said they were OK (there were about six on board) but then spent the next 15 minutes giving amusement to the crowd by going in and out and roundabout trying to get into the space and tied up. Eventually, they went downstream a bit, turned around and then tried to moor into the breeze. This time when we offered help with the ropes, they quickly agreed, and we had them tied up in 2 minutes. We said that we would accept payment in beer, and one of them said the next round was on him, but we never saw anything of the beers!

By the time sunset rolled around the port was pretty full, and we realised how lucky we were to get the two good moorings on the stone quai (actually, it’s not all luck, but a matter of getting there in the late afternoon rather than stretching the cruising day out until the locks are ready to close, as many hire-boats do).

Photo: Vicki Butterworth

After dinner on the boat, Rita and I rode to Bram, a town which is noted for having a series of circular streets around the church. We rode around on our bikes and just holding your iPhone up and clicking randomly gave a good idea of the street system. Here are just two of the photos.

When we were riding back to the barge, I spotted this pigeonairre in a field backlit by the setting sun.

When we got back to the barge, the canalside cafe was still doing a roaring trade and continued to do so late into the night. It’s strange that the cafe continues to flourish, even though the port has effectively shut down, with no hire-boat base, no water and no electricity. Still a nice place to stop if you have healthy batteries.