Really the first chance to get back to this.  Being on holiday is hard work even although this was supposed to be a relaxed holiday.

Monday – continued…………

We are heading to Montech, we have done our first lock and are now experienced canalers.  Woophy.  The girls are on the ropes, David is managing them and I’m on the poop deck with the wheel and controls.  As we are going up hill the locks are at their hardest. All the locks on our route are automatic, for the first nine locks down to Montech we have a remote to activate them.  We drive into them empty (at the bottom)  and find a greasy pole to wrap our rope around fore and then aft.  Hit the remote again and the gates behind us closes and the lock starts to fill.  When it is fill the front gate opens, we release our ropes and drive out, walla, we have risen somewhere between 1.2 and 3.6 metres.  A great system, we chug along at 8 knots or 1800 RPM. In this first section the lock are very close together so the girls don’t get much rest and are finding muscles they didn’t know they had.  There was a pub at the last lock and we thought we might stop there for a late lunch,  A small problem, not much room to park, a very inexperienced captain and a couple of boats already there.  Its funny how you can make friends with people after they have spent the first few minutes giving you looks that could kill.  We had to do a U turn, we had a propeller full of weed and it wasn’t very pretty but we managed to tie up alongside one of the other barges with out any bad bumps.  I think when they worked out we were Kiwi’s and Aussies and complete beginners at this they became very helpful.  The couple we were tied up against were from Bristol and I think had place their life savings into their boat and were living the dream.  We were to come across a lot of people like this.   We got into discussions about weed boxes and how we should be able to open it up and clear the weed which was particularly bad on this stretch.  But we didn’t appear to have one.  It was at this point there was suggestions that we may have to dive down and clear it but we knew where all the bilge was pumped and that didn’t make that sound like a good idea so we tried again what we had already been told to do which was to alternate between fast forward and fast reverse a few times and that appeared to clear it.  To top all that off the pub was shut between 2 and 4 so no lunch there, instead we had it on board. Cheese, bread, olives, butter, tomatoes, small gherkin things and jam, wonderful, the bread here is just the best.  We decided not to go into Montech as were advised it was nothing flash and everything would probably be shut so as we reach there we turned right and started our journey along the Garonne Canal.  It is all down hill from here which makes it a lot easier in the locks as you can walk off the boat at the top of the lock and easily secure your ropes.  We handed back our remote back up where we were stopping for lunch and the locks from here were operated by twisting a pipe hanging from a wire strung across the canal,  this was Jan’s job to be like Kate Winslet in Titanic and stand on the bow,  Never missed one.  Our first 5 locks ran as a series with us only having to activate the first and the next four being ready for us.  In fact it was operated by real people who would operate the lock manually for us and then hop on their bike and head down he next one.  There was a bypass here where the bigger boats were winched up by a big train type thing but it was not operating while we passed by.  We decided to do three more locks before stopping for the night.  The locks only operated between 9.30am and 6pm with some even stopping for a couple of hours through the day for lunch.  We stopped on the side of the canal at Castelsarrasin for the night, tied up, and had a couple of beers on the poop deck before heading into town.  This was to become a tradition, Jan, bless her had brought us all berets and when we brought the drinks out we had to wear them.  We talked to some yank from Seattle who gave us directions to a restaurant near or at some windmill but after walking for some kilometres we didn’t find it or anything that looked suitable so it was back to the boat for a meal on board which Jan was a pretty dab hand at.

Tuesday –  A pretty relaxed start to the day,  A shower and then on the bike to go and get some fresh bread.  This was again to become a habit as that fresh bread became a stable and enjoyable part of our diet along with the cheeses and other produce we able to find.  We hit our first lock about 10.15 and knew that we hadn’t lost our skills over night although I heard an inkling of noise about sore muscles.  We were into another small string of locks and were just getting our nose into Lock 21 when the green light changed to green and red which means we shouldn’t go in.  As it had been green and we were virtually in anyway we decided to continue and tied up.  However we going nowhere for a while as it would not let us continue.  We had to ring for help and eventually a guy arrived and after a bit of fiddling around said to Jan “It is fucked Madame”.  More people arrived but none with the skill to get us going.  We were asked to back out of the lock and moor up while they worked on it.  A couple of hours later and we right for another go.  Another boat had caught up by this stage and we were two boats in the lock.  They were Americans from Ney York and we got quite friendly with them as we doubled up in the locks with them for the rest of the day.  We berthed in Moissac beside them which was a very pretty ancient river town.

The first job for me was to find a nurse and get my dressings changed.  Where would you find a nurse? Why the hospital of course, at the Urgency Department.  I had this big green bag of stuff I had got from the Pharmacy which I didn’t know what to do with all the stuff.  I had been under this blue sheet so hadn’t seen what they had done with my interesting bag of goodies.  At first nobody spoke English and I couldn’t get my message across until they found someone that could.  Then I got told off for going to The Urgency Dept and told I had to go to a consulting nurse.  Nobody seemed to be able to tell me where to find one.  They finally agreed to get a nurse from the front of the hospital to attend to me, one who had the same name as one of my cousin’s who was really nice and friendly.  She gave me a  lesson in dressing wounds, some more bits for my bag and I was on my way  Back to the boat and beers on the poop deck before heading into town for a look around and a lovely meal outside under the stars.  The restaurants in this part of the world don’t open until eightish so for us hard working sailors it’s a late night.

Wednesday – We sleep in a bit and our American friends are long gone before we set sail.  We have to wait while this quaint bridge is swung open and it a beautiful drive up through the town at 3 knots and everything so peaceful.  We have the Garonne river on our left and it is not long before we are hitting full speed.  Bikes are going past us and even walkers catch up to us at the locks.  The girls are getting pretty good by now and we whip through them.  There were bike tracks along the canals and they are mostly lined with trees and as we are in Autumn the leaves are changing colour and dropping,  A truly beautiful scene. We have lunch tied up along the canal and decide to spend the night at Boe.  We went looking for a meal in town but in the end got some stuff at the supermarket and went back to the boat to cook it.  We had only just got started and the gas ran out.  A call back to Le Boat and they were very apologetic, there should have been a second bottle on board but alas that wasn’t the case.  They were going to bring a bottle out but we weren’t prepared to wait the couple of hours or so that would take and said we would use the electric barbeque and they said they would have it out before nine in the morning.  Being an Aussie Jan was a dab hand on that and we eat well again.

Thursday – Dennis got lost finding us so it was 10 before the gas arrived and we were on our way.  We went up through Agen which was an interesting stretch through the town and harbour. Again so peaceful and serene.  It also took us over a long Aqua duct over the Garonne river, pretty impressive.  We had to wait a while before crossing as there was a boat coming in the opposite direction and no room for passing.  There was a string of five locks on the other side so the girls got a good workout.  We passed Chateaus , farms,  small villages and vineyards and all so lovely.  There had not been much activity on he canals and we only saw three or four boats a day actually motoring.  There were lots of boats tied up along the way.  Some looked like they hadn’t moved for months, other had people living on board, some with beautiful gardens, real show boats.

An impressive bit of backing by the captain saw us get a great berth at Buzet for the night.  We had been lined up to park as the fourth boat out, but ended up with our own berth against the wharf.  This was by far our prettiest birth amongst the beautiful old birch and walnut trees.  Beers, cheese, bread and more on the poop deck before walking off into town.  Unfortunately the vineyard closed at six and we missed that but stocked up and headed back to the boat for our own wine tasting.  Dinner at the local that we think opened especially for us.  We had a choice of either duck or salmon.

Friday – We could have gone down on the river today but decided not risk it as things hadn’t been going all our way.  This was going to be our last day on the canal, sad really.  We got up late, I headed out on the bike to get some bread.  Have I said you could almost live on bread alone here, and wine and butter and cheese, and ham, all so yummy.

After about an hour we berthed at Damazan and went for a stroll.  One of the many old towns along the way and all steep in history.  Coffee in the square and back to the boat for lunch on the poop deck.  We meet up with some lovely French folk who had berthed in front of us and were to share our locks for the rest of the way to Le Mas d’Agenais, pulling in there about four o’clock. This was as far as we were going on the boat.  The Base Manager was a Kiwi guy, Phil Gibb from Hunterville, used to be in the volunteer fire brigade with Vaughan’s (the Brother in-law) brother.  We presented him with our Kiwi flag which in directly had been the cause of the injury to my hand.  We went for a wander up in to the village and found this pub with some ex famous guy playing on a guitar.  After we had brought them drinks they were our best mates.  Well there were two of them the other was not so famous.  Dinner back on the boat.  A soup we had been cooking since Damazan and a clean up of what we had left, yummy.

First chance to get back to the blog and so much has happened but first back to Friday in Mountauban. A beautiful breakfast in the hotel before off o explore the old town but first we went through the joys of finding a doctor for Margaret’s ear problems as they had not been comfortable since the flight over. Decided the channel was blocked up from the nose and some nose drops sorted that. We spent the day just strolling around the city, coffee in the square and a wander up to see our boat.  All very exciting.  The logistics of getting us, our gear and our shopping to the boat the next day took the biggest effort.  We had dinner under the stars back in the square that night, wonderful ambience and strolled back to the hotel for an early night as we were all tired.

Saturday – go to the market, great fun shopping, veggies, cheese, meat coffee.  Lots to taste and all very nice and yummy.  Back to the hotel for a 11 o’clock pick up.  Drop the girls at the supermarket while the boys went on and set up the boat.  The girls got locals excited as they loaded up with beer, wine and water.  All looking good for an early departure when some bloody idiot slices his forefinger left hand.  Blood everywhere, a very deep slice.  We look for a doctor to stitch up as we think it might be quicker than the hospital but in the end decide on hospital.  Dennis the base manager ran us in and got us started in the system. A bit of a noise about not being French and not having a European Card but we offered to pay and showed them our New Zealand passport they seemed happy.  Our chances of being off tonight are looking slim.  When the doctor finally gets around to putting the stitches in he says opps we have a problem.  Tendons have been severed and surgery is required.  He whips the tourniquet off and takes off.  Blood starts pouring out and I have to bunch up the sheet to stop getting covered in it.  When he comes back there is quite a pool of it.  He has arranged an appointment with the surgeon for 9am the next morning for what should only take 3 hours.  He throws in 3 stitches to hold it together and sends me on my way with a prescription for antibiotics and pain killers.  I’m not very happy as you can expect.  All the pharmacies are shut.  After walking to three we decide to order a taxi from someone that only speaks French.  We wait and we wait and have to ring a second time to get someone to arrive.  We manage to find a Pharmacy and head back to the boat to tell Dave & Jan the bad news.  By the time we got back Jan had cooked a beautiful pasta, yummy yum.

Sunday – And we are at the hospital before the allotted hour.  I get shown to a room and after fifty questions from four gorgeous nurses get to put on a gown and hop into a bed.   I get to read a heap of my kindle before being wheeled off to surgery at about 12.30.  I had had a visit from an Anaesthetist telling me he was going to deaden my whole arm but that got downgraded by the surgeon to just my finger.    I got really looked after and it was a lot of fun with the language problems. Ask me sometime about the sign (or maybe body) language to ask me if I had had a number one or two.  I ended up under a blue plastic sheet so did not see what was done and came out with two fingers strapped to a metal plate running down my arm and being told to keep it there for three weeks, bloody great as it almost made that arm almost useless.  Glenda if you are reading this please put me down for three week sick leave from Saturday 6^th.   We got back to Port Canal about 5pm to another great tea from Jan.  I am going to keep her on, pork loin steaks with veggies, another yummy yum yum.

Monday –We have had two nights on the boat and gone no where.  Jan and Dave are very understanding and probably going a bit stir crazy but today we are finally going to be on our way.  Dennis is going to accompany us through the first lock.  I have been given the role of Captain, you would think they would know better wouldn’t you after my effort so far.  Well I was soon going to learn that that driving a Mystique was like driving the Queen Mary.  You had to make the move five minutes before you wanted it to happen, loads of fun and we almost took out the pontoon on our first practise at berthing.  But as often happens we could only get better from there.  We were shown through our first lock and wished good luck.

Typing is very slow with just one hand so thought I had better get this up while I could and had internet.  We are in Buzet at the moment at a Restaurant and it is a rainy Thursday night. .

Margaret and I up the Eiffel Tower

Margaret, Russell, Jan and David just arrived at Mountauban Station

It already seems such a long time ago but the memory of that long plane ride lingers.  At the airport before 8am an hour flight to Auckland at 9:10, A 10 hour flight to Singapore with a 5 hour stopover before the 13 hours to Paris arriving in the dark at 7am Tuesday Morning, raining and coolish.  I probably got about 6 hour of interrupted sleep, watched 5 junk movies but read a whole Baldacci book on the kindle.

We caught up with our friends David & Jan Althorp (from Melbourne) in Singapore and shared an hour with them in the Krisis lounge before they took off to their Business Class suite on the plane.

We dropped our bags at the Hotel Passy Eiffel and went looking for and found a decent coffee.  The rain had stopped so we headed out walking to the Eiffel Tower which we could see not far away.  The name of our hotel may have been a give away that it was close.  We had a whole day to fill before we could have a sleep.

Our first full view of the Eiffel was as you would expect majestic. Crowds were starting to form and the levels were already crawling with what looked like ants.  Although we had been on the tower before we decided to head for the top.  Amazing to think that the tower was only going to be a temporary structure over 120 years ago built in a marsh area.  Saved by the need for good communications it has become the icon of France.  A glass of champagne at the top and a fantastic view made it all worth it.  We were also able to spot the stop for the Green open top bus which was going to be our transport for the next two days.

Paris must certainly rate as one of the great cities of the world, so steep in history and fantastic architecture. Everywhere you looked were great buildings and according to our commentary so many stories to tell. I have to say that I also just love the French woman, they all looked so chic. I could have spent many hours sitting in the many outside seating of the restaurants’ and cafes watching the world pass by.

For tea on Tuesday night we went to a supermarket and picked up wine , olives, bread meat, tomato and cheese and had a party in our room.   Yummy, what a way to end a fantastic day and get an early night.  I think I was asleep within minutes of David & Jan’s departure, a very deep sleep for 5 hours before nature called.

Wednesday we met at 8.30 and headed off to find some breakfast.  For 11E we had coffee, toast, bread and a Ham & Bacon omelet.  Very tasty and filled us nicely as we headed out for our Green Bus stop.  Today we headed out towards Sacre Cour and started walking.  So many interesting things to see.  At about 3pm it started to rain so we found some interesting arcades to explore before hopping on our bus and continuing the tour.  Back to our hotel before heading out to a restaurant that David & Jan remembered from a previous trip.  Unable to locate that we ended up at a little Italian place.  It was still raining when we came out so we puddle hopped back to our hotel.  It rained all night an into Thursday morning.

We went out for breakfast before heading back to the hotel to settle up and catch the Metro to Montparnasse Station where we were catching the Fast train through to Mountauban.  It took about 5 hours with the train traveling at speeds up to 320km per hour.  It was a very comfortable ride and the country side passed by at quite a rate.  We had picked up some beautiful bread rolls in Paris which we had for lunch.  The bread here is just fantastic.  We passed some of the canal which we would soon be traveling on so the excitement level was rising.  The weather had changed and by the time we got off in Mountauban we were in the high 20’s.  We waited half an hour at the station for a cab.  An earlier pickup had promised to send one but we are not sure what happened to it and we were getting ready to walk when as you would expect one turned up.

The Abbaye des Capucins hotel and Spa Resort was to be our resting place for the next two nights.  A really lovely hotel with huge rooms, it started off as a monastery back in 1629 for the Capucin monks and appears to have had a very checkered history. It was very peasant sitting in the gardens supping back on a 1664.  1664 was starting to become our favorite beer. Dinner at the hotel and an earlish into bed.  It was hard to imagine that at this point we had only had two (real) sleeps since we left home.