Narrowboat Temujin - 2008

Saturday 16th August 2008 Damazan

2010-10-25T15:28:00.000+02:00

Grey clouds, a few sunny spells and showers, much cooler. We went back to Agen Sud in the car to do some shopping at Carrefour as Mike needed some new oil filters for the car (5€ each there, cheaper than elsewhere). The store was busy and the petrol station had queues as they had reduced the diesel price to 1,25.9€ per litre with a 3€ reduction on shopping if you bought over 30 litres; Mike had taken the jerry cans for petrol and a large can for boat diesel so he filled the latter and added some extra to the car’s tank. We had to queue again to buy petrol as you can’t use the pump again until the last amount had been paid at the cashier’s kiosk. They had no yoghurt at Carrrefour so we called at a new Hyper Casino in Le Passage and I bought a pack, plus a boule and a book of Sudoku games. Home for a late lunch. Mike went to change the oil and filter on the ZX while I got the camera and found maps to go and look at the locks on the Lot. Once he’d changed the oil we set off across the Garonne into Aiguillon, then north through the town to Nicole where there was a canal off the Garonne which leads on to the Lot. We found it, parked the car and walked through a tunnel under the railway to get to Nicole lock.

The water level was much too far down for navigation, only about 20 cms over the cill. Mike took a few photos and we went to look at the third lock on the river, which is at Clairac (there are only four in use yet, the other is at Castelmoron, as the river has yet to be restored beyond Villeneuve-sur-Lot). We diverted up the hill to the viewpoint at la Croix du Perch de Berre, where a 15m high cross was erected in 1897 on Easter Monday. Took a few photos and went on to Clairac, crossed the river and went to look at the lock. The wide weir had no water running over it but the hydro-electric plant on the far side was running and was using a fair drop of water. Back home for a salad for dinner while we watched the news. Team GB won four gold medals at the Bejing Olympics, the most for a hundred years.

Friday 15th August 2008 Damazan

2010-10-25T15:19:00.000+02:00

Warm and sunny with occasional showers. Mike went to buy a loaf before going on the moped to collect the car from Valence. Gave him a hand to get the bike off the roof down the plank. While he was away I cleaned the roof off (again) as there was tree debris and masses of insects (loads of grey froghoppers and little scale bugs) and sticky sap all over it. The French woman on Mongenster, a little Luxe moored opposite, had just finished cleaning her boat down using a hosepipe. Mike had said quite loudly that there were signs on the water taps in the port that drinking water must not be used for washing boats! I had used canal water with bucket and string. It started to rain before I’d finished but I carried on to get all the mess off. Mike called at 1.00 p.m. to say he was at Valence and was setting off in the car. He said Roy had told him that Shebah-Mike had gone off on his holidays with his family on board; the couple who owned the yacht we moored next to had come to their boat, took the sheets off it and the woman got stung as there were wasps on the boat so they’d gone away again; the people who owned the cruiser Cathy had also been and taken their boat out – they went up to Moissac and out on to the Tarn without a chart, got stuck on some rocks and had to call the pompiers and divers out! We missed all the fun! Our space had been taken by a wide beamed narrowboat owned by Belgians, who had left their boat and gone on holiday and the Swiss couple who had the little Luxe Bon Aventure had moved it into the gap next to Charles’s pénichette and gone home. We had an afternoon siesta. Mike mixed up some acid solution to decalcify the loo pipes as the cap for the tank was accessible while the moped was off the roof. We left it to fizz. (10% HCl solution and it effervesced. Ed ). Once it had done its job we put the bike back on the roof. We watched the BBC news, still rumblings in Georgia as the Russians basically told the USA to mind their own business.

Thursday 14th August 2008 Auvignon to Damazan

2010-10-25T15:12:00.000+02:00

Cold night, sunny spells but mainly grey clouds. Only 16°C when we set off at 9.40 a.m. Before we left Mike cleaned part of the roof using the mop as it was running with condensation. We dropped down Auvignon’s shallow lock, it was automatic and back to the new press button system. No one around so we dropped down ropeless. I carried on cleaning the roof off as it was filthy from tree sap and leaves, etc. I sat out with a cuppa to steer while Mike went in the cabin to check that the new section of pipe in the loo had stopped the leak. It had. The autoroute was close by the canal, traffic making a din and the cyclists had woken up and were bombing up and down the towpath. There were no boats about for the first couple of hours which was nice after the madness of the rushing hordes of the previous evening.

The first boat we met was a large Loca going so slowly we couldn’t decide if it was tied up or not. A VNF van went flying past us down the towpath as we approached the first of the two locks after the aqueduct over the Baïse. Two hire boats were coming up in 39 Baïse. I turned the pole and hopped off on the aqueduct to take photos of the Baïse. There were two boats on the river, a little day boat from Buzet and a hire boat. Mike took the boat into the lock and I walked down the path to turn the lever (back to the old system again!) waited until the paddles went up, turned the lever again then stepped back on the boat. There were more boats coming up in lock 40 Larderet, which was a very short distance below 39. A France Fluvial and Locaboat went past and we went into lock 39. I turned the lever and waited just a little too long –

all four paddles had gone up at once and the boat had gone down too far for me to step on the gunwale so I went down the nicely equipped stairs at the tail end of the lock and got back on board as the boat came out. A big blue Moissac hire boat was heading for lock 40, which still had a red light. Mike asked if they’d turned the pole, the American crew said yes, but when Mike said did you get a flashing orange light they said no (which meant they hadn’t turned it hard enough to make it click) he said we’d turn the pole again for them, which we did - that saved them reversing back to it. The light immediately changed from red to green. Back into the jungle. There was a steep 30 foot high bank on the left and so overgrown the towpath looked impassable; the Baïse was close to the right of the canal.

The cycle path must be at the top of the bank or beyond the trees. Ten minutes later we passed a large French cruiser called Fitzcaraldo from Martigues, we’d seen that one before but ages ago. We almost collected the rods of two fishermen who were well hidden in the herbage on the right bank. There was a road back of the trees, so the canal wasn’t as isolated as we’d thought. I took photos of the lock on to the Baïse as we came to Buzet. There was a hire boat coming into the empty lock to come up off the river. The moorings at Buzet were mostly full, no spaces our size anyway. The quay by the restaurant was also pretty well full - we could have squeezed on to the end in front of River Holme (a big British cruiser) with our bows overhanging the grassy bank, but didn’t feel so inclined.

The old wooden landing we tied to last time we were there was double moored on both sides by permanently moored private boats. A shortened houseboat péniche called Jeremy was moored (permanently by the look of the quant poles and electricity meter) a bit beyond the basins where a double line of plane trees started. No TV if we’d stayed there. It started to rain. Brolly up and I closed the doors. At 12.15 p.m. I made a cup of soup to warm us up as it was getting damp and decidedly chilly. At 1.00 p.m. we winded and tied on the quay at Damazan at the Nautic hire base (surprised there was enough space). A few minutes later a Loca almost crashed into our bows as it came in to fill the gap. The guy in charge returned from a liquid lunch (breathing fumes to knock you over) and said, very pleasantly, that we had to moor stern to the bank. We said we couldn’t do that as the stern was round and the boat was too long to do that without having something to tie to (there were no pontoons) so we said we’d moor on the far bank. Hotel boat Mirabelle was moored for lunch on the opposite bank, plugged into a special electricity supply in the wall. They guy at the port was very pleasant and asked if we needed water, nope not yet thanks. We tied to the tree roots opposite the private boats at the end of the quay. I cooked some hamburgers and onions for lunch. Mike decided the weather was too grim for a ride on the moped, he’d fetch the car the following day and went up into the town to find the boulangerie and take some photos, then came back for some money and went again to buy a loaf! Two British wide beamed narrowboats moored on the stumps behind us, which had notices saying that they were for the use of the hotel boat Mirabelle only (it had only just left) and any boats found moored there would be fined! French TV was non existent without resorting to putting our other satellite dish up. Later Mike set our gennie up so we could both use our PCs.

Wednesday 13th August 2008 Bon Encontre to abv Auvignon lock.

2010-10-24T17:00:00.000+02:00

Cooler overnight. Grey clouds first thing, brightening up to sunshine and white clouds. Mike took a few photos of the mooring before we left. A cruiser called Bon Vivant went uphill as we were getting ready and a hire boat went past heading downhill (like us) just as we were untying the ropes. The towpath/ cycle piste was heaving with walkers and cyclists even before we got out of bed, we could see shadows on the bedroom curtains. Set off at 10.10 a.m. A little further down the canal towards Agen a large tree was down on the left bank (must have been in last Tuesday’s hurricane) it looked like a rotten carrot the way it had snapped off at the base. On into Agen. In the big basin there were still a few hire boats moored on Crown Blue Line’s pontoons and there were several boats moored on the grassy bank alongside the road and houses on the right hand bank; wide boat Sainte Margaux among them.

A few resident Dutch barges were moored a little further on, right next to the railway, by the bridge that leads to the city centre, a mere five minutes walk. We had a red light at the start of the aqueduct so I turned the hanging pole (another short one, I could only just reach by standing on the gunwales) and nothing happened. Through binoculars Mike could see the boat in front descending. As the gates closed behind him I turned the pole again, this time it worked and we got a red/green. The lock was filling so we went on across the aqueduct. The gates opened and we got a green but before we were halfway across the aqueduct the gates closed and the lock emptied! Someone stole our lock! I didn’t think they could do that!

We hovered at the end of the aqueduct to wait for the three boats to come up and out. They took ages. Ropes flying everywhere. Then they took forever to leave the lock. There were crowds of gongoozlers around the lock including a whole class of kids on bikes on the tail end bridge. Into lock 34 Agen as soon as the hire boats had gone. It was midday. Expecting there had been VNF intervention in the last uphill lockful, I got off with the centre rope as we were on the right hand side of the lock chamber and Mike got off and went over to the cabin (which were now on the left, we hadn’t spotted that) to turn the lever (they’d still got the same levers for activating the automatic sequence as when we were there last time, ie 1994) and got back on the boat,

then a VNF man turned up and reminded us that you had to turn the lever twice. Once to raise the paddles and again to open the gates. In theory this means that there has to be a member of crew that remains on the lock side. What do single handed boaters do? He turned the lever for us to open the gates and let us out of the empty lock. Two more hire boats were coming uphill in lock 35 Marianettes. They came out and we went in, on the left side this time next to the old lock cabin and the lever, I dropped the rope on a bollard and turned the lever twice. The gates shut but the paddles didn’t open. The VNF man returned in his flatbed van and went to the control box down by the bottom end gates (which was already open and buzzing loudly) fiddled with the controls and came to tell us to turn the lever once,

the gates close and paddles go up open THEN turn the lever again and get back on the boat (it’s a very old system and can’t cope with two commands at once!) We dropped down and went on our way to lock 36 Chabrières, where yet another hire boat was coming uphill. A young couple on board, videoing us as we passed. It was the first hire boat we’d seen this year towing a covered “swimming pool” (just big enough for two people to sprawl in) behind them. This time we got the sequence right, after the fourth paddle had fully opened Mike turned the lever again and got back on the boat. The lock emptied and the gates opened! Hooray, got it right! No signs of the VNF now. In fact, when we got to the bottom lock of the flight of four, 37 Rosette, it was completely deserted – no hire boats, cyclists, walkers, picnickers, etc.

The lock worked perfectly, we dropped down ropeless and the gate opened with no problems. It was 12.35 p.m. lunchtime as we left the bottom. A short section of canal lead on to the old route down to the Garonne, now blocked off by bricking up the arch of the road bridge, and there we met the next hire boat turning the pole for the lock on the apex of the 90° bend. The Spanish crew yelled “Wonderful boat!” in English as they took photos as we passed. The canal below the flight was totally different in character to the one above the locks. Above there were roads and houses and people, down here was jungle on both sides in a shallow cutting with a passable-only-on-foot towpath – the cycle path was somewhere up top of the bank beyond the trees.

I made sandwiches for our lunch on the move. The canal widened out briefly by the village of Columbe, where there was an old silo and picnic tables, now in use by fishermen. We dived back into the cool green Amazon. At KP116 an old tjalk was moored among the herbage by an old house and behind it was a little tug called Teal from Skipton, we hadn’t seen that boat for a while. No one on board, it looked left for the duration. The moorings at Sèrignac were completely full. We couldn’t have stopped anyway as there was only one possibility of getting satellite TV - right on the end of the mooring - due to the trees. One of the boats that had been moored at Sèrignac, a large British cruiser called River Holme, set off and overtook us. We stopped before we got to lock 38 Auvignon on a long straight and tied next to overgrown old piling where it was deep enough to get right next to the bank. Cyclists went whizzing past level with the tops of our windows. It was 2.50 p.m. Mike had spotted that one of the flexible pipes in the loo was cracked and leaking slightly, so he cut a new length of reinforced tubing to replace it and hacked (carefully removed. Ed). the old piece out while I held the torch so he could see.

Tuesday 12th August 2008 Sauveterre-St-Denis bridge to Bon Encontre

2010-10-24T16:41:00.000+02:00

Grey, rain later. We got moving at ten. I cleaned all the leaves and debris (including lots of dead and dying tiny crickets, washed out of the overhanging tree in the torrential rain) which left the roof filthy and very sticky – the price we pay for being in the cool shade under a sappy tree. Less than an hour later we moored just beyond the port de plaisance at Bon Encontre. Three hire boats were moored there, plus two boats which looked like permanent liveaboards (no one home) in the strange basin with a square island. The canal’s summer water level meant the pound was down by about 15 cms, but the floating finger pontoons were sloping at almost 45° - which looked pretty dangerous to us. Mike and I went shopping at the Leclerc hypermarket for essentials like bread and salad. Back for lunchtime, just as it started to rain. We called at the Capitanerie and paid 2,50€ for electricity; we weren’t in the port so we didn’t pay 2,50€ for mooring or 2,50€ for water as we didn’t need any. Moved the boat a bit further away from the port as it was on the bottom, a couple of metres made a difference. Still on 3G. More rain. I did a fragrant beef and chilli stir-fry for dinner washed down with some Buzet red wine we’d just bought.

Monday 11th August 2008

2010-10-24T16:37:00.000+02:00

We were woken by the crash bangs of a loud thunderstorm around eight. It poured with rain so we stayed in bed and dozed. Did a few odd jobs. Mike had another look at the Handy Mains he’d replaced components in a few days earlier that was only giving 180v instead of 240v. He decided he wasn’t really in the right mood and put it away. He dismantled his prototype UPS (un-interruptible power supply) and stored the parts (he’d since built two using the casings of a couple of redundant phone chargers).

Sunday 10th August 2008

2010-10-24T16:32:00.001+02:00

Still cooler overnight under the acacia! Sunny and hot all day again. Loads of passing traffic, boats in both directions. Mike checked the batteries while I made lunch. The voltage was running low so Mike ran the engine to charge the batteries up. I woke at 3.30 a.m. - I’d got a bug crawling on my back! I switched the light on to find I’d squished a poor little bush cricket.

Saturday 9th August 2008 Sauveterre-St-Denis bridge

2010-10-24T16:29:00.000+02:00

Much cooler overnight, a very warm sunny day but the cool breeze through the boat and being under the shade from the tree half the day kept the boat cooler. We had a lazy morning. I did some more census searches on Ancestry taking advantage of having the improved 3G service giving faster downloads. Mike did a service on the loo pump and changed its two valves for new ones. He put the front body half back on upside down and only noticed after he’d finished screwing it back in place! It all had to come off again. (It’s my age. Ed). We watched the news, the Russians had sent tanks into Georgia on the first day of the Chinese Olympic Games.

Friday 8th August 2008 Valence d’Agen to Sauveterre-St-Denis bridge

2010-10-24T16:24:00.000+02:00

Cooler, sunny with white fluffy clouds. Mike was up first at nine and went to get bread, La Poste for cash, Casino for petrol and then Tourist Info Office to pay for three weeks mooring at 15€ per week. Set off at 11.05 a.m. The lady off little Luxe Bon Aventure came and say goodbye; she said everyone was going downhill; then Shebah-Mike came out of his cabin to say au’voir. A British owned ex-hireboat had just set off also heading downhill as we were untying. There were four boats tied up at Golfech, including Linde, who was there for the summer (because it’s free!). The first lock, 31 Lamagistère, was empty, so we had to wait for it to refill after we’d turned the pole. The lock was automatic, the house lived in but was shuttered (probably on holiday). We descended ropeless as usual.

I cleaned out the starboard side handrails which were stuffed full of chaff after the hurricane on Tuesday night, then I made some sandwiches for lunch which we ate on the 6.6 km pound down to 32 Noble. A big blue Moissac hire boat was coming uphill in the lock when we arrived. Again we dropped down ropeless. We were going to tie up at what we thought was a mooring at St Jean-de-Thurac (we’d driven past it loads of times), which turned out to be a parking area for camper vans with no provision for mooring as the bank edge was shallow at least a metre from the grass. We attempted to moor above the next lock but again it was too shallow by the landing for the lock, as was the piling on the other bank. We dropped down St Christophe. The lock house was closed and uninhabited. Just beyond the bridge with the road that lead over the "clackety" river bridge (wooden decking!) to Sauveterre-St-Denis there was a piled edge.

It looked deeper as there was no weed growth, so we managed to get right next to the bank with the fore end sheltered from the sun under an overhanging acacia tree. It was 2.20 p.m. The wind was blowing straight down the canal and through our front doors. I found some right angled hooks and screwed them into the panel under the front door to anchor the bottom edge of the door curtain and stop it flying up in the breeze as there were lots of house flies about. Not long after we’d tied up there was a splashing and commotion outside so Mike went out to have a look. A big black dog had gone in the canal after a stick and couldn’t get out as the piling was too high. Neither Mike nor his owner could lift him so they had to encourage him to swim back towards the bridge. A lovely old black dog, he was even bigger than our Rowsy was and just as daft! I cooked some pork chops for dinner. Nice to have a cooked meal after all the recent salad and it was cooler so the heat from cooking didn’t turn us into dripping zombies.

Thursday 7th August 2008

2010-10-24T16:14:00.000+02:00

18.5°C Grey skies, occasional sunny spells, cooler after the overnight storm. Mike said the show was on again tonight so we’d watch it and then set off next day. He started work on a Handy Mains inverter which needed a repair. We had words when he brought a filthy old towel which stank of diesel to put on the table as he would be doing some soldering. (It wasn’t that dirty and it had only a slight smell of eau d’diesel. It does live in the engine room after all.Ed). I found him an old clean skirt out of the rag bag to use instead. We watched the French weather forecast (no rain). We sat out on the back deck at 9.45 p.m. to watch the show “Au Fil de l’Eau – Une Histoire”. The singer was warming up the audience, the juggler was juggling and the place was packed. The whole show went off without a hitch as it was only slightly windy. A hundred years of history told by a storyteller and acted out by a cast of 350 volunteers. It was magical and we had seats in the wings. Though the view from the stalls would have been better! We worked out later that there were almost 2,500 seats and at 18€ per seat each performance was netting over 44,500€! There were six performances. Not a bad money spinner for the town! It finished at midnight and we retreated indoors.

Wednesday 6th August 2008

2010-10-24T16:11:00.000+02:00

17.5°C Min Overnight! Hotter and hotter. Sunny all day. I was on my third cup of coffee when Mike got up. . Too hot to do anything but vegetate in front of a fan with the blinds shut. Around five we livened up a bit. Mike gave up on his Rubik’s cube and tidied up the engine room (we’d shoved everything down there when we dashed inside the night before) then helped me do the chores. Much later a storm started, flashes of lightening and great peals of thunder then rain. Cooled the outside temperature down, but didn’t do much for the temperature in the cabin.

Tuesday 5th August 2008

2010-10-23T18:24:00.001+02:00

Wooden scenery for the show.

Hot and sticky. Sunny all day. The hire boats were jostling for places again. I made a sign to hang on the rope between us and the hulk, which went< 2.20M> Max! to try and keep the hire boats from insisting on cramming between us and the hulk. We went shopping at Carrefour Agen Sud. Back for lunchtime. I stowed the stuff while Mike went outside to change the coax connectors on the satellite cable as he’d bought some new ones. The old ones weren’t as corroded and rusty as he thought they would be, but he changed them anyway. Later we found our folding Captain's seats out of the engine room and sat out on the back of the boat to watch the performance. It was still light when sat out; the bank of seats looked pretty full and the lights were lighting up the front of the quay where a juggler was performing (we could see the Indian clubs but not him!) and a girl was singing.

More of the scenery during daylight.

When it dropped dark at ten the show started; smoke poured across the canal and a green laser played through the fog; the recorded commentary started (and a brief hello in English) then a ferryman illuminated with ultra violet light paddled across from the grassy bank to the towpath side by the bridge and his three passengers took lamps and got off on the bank; blue lights back of the trees lit up and sent the foreground into darkness. As the passengers alighted the blue lights went off and the foreground lights all along the towpath came on in orange revealing a sepia coloured still life tableau of life in a French village of one hundred years ago and for a brief moment the scores of people in period costume were stock still. Then the spotlights came on and Snap! everyone went about their business: a priest lead a funeral procession with a monk hauling a cart and coffin to the cemetery far left of the scene (opposite us), the harvesters were running a thresher, two old cars went through the village honking for kids and dogs to get out of the way followed by a horse and carriage.

Scenery for "Au Fil de l'Eau" annual pageant at
Valence d'Agen

A cameo scene took place in the schoolroom far right where the teacher taught the children about the rivers of the region and a projection screen mid “stage” showed illustrations to aid his lesson for the audience, then a bullock hauled a barge full of wine barrels from right to left (unfortunately for some reason the barge wasn’t lit up) then a steam barge started from the right. The sky due south had been lit up by lightening flashes ever since we first sat out and it had started to rain just as the lights came up, but suddenly the wind picked up blowing with hurricane force from the south hurling the scenery about and the projection screen flew out horizontal! Opposite us the area around the ancient threshing machine had loads of straw which the wind was now hurling at us with great force along with leaves and dirt! We could see all along the stage the wind was tearing through the scenery and blowing dirt and debris all over the audience in the stalls. We retreated inside. The show was called off and the audience left. Mike said he saw the cars leaving the car park at the back of the “stage” driving over things going crunch on the towpath which he thought were tree branches until the occupants of one car stopped to pick up the scenery panels of the churchyard wall! That was a huge disappointment. It was 10.30 p.m. so there had been another hour and a half of the show we didn't see!

Monday 4th August 2008

2010-10-23T18:20:00.000+02:00

Hot and sticky. Sunny afternoon, dull morning. Back to salad as it was much too hot to cook. Hire boats galore. A huge (4m wide) Connoiseur tried to get into the gap - the one to the right of our bows - and was too wide to get in so it backed out and then moored bows to the corner by the French boats with its stern next to peniche Henri; it looked like there were at least three French families on board. The Son et Lumiere certainly pulls in the tourists!

Sunday 3rd August 2008

2010-10-23T18:18:00.001+02:00

Grey morning, cooler; sun out later. Mike was up first at nine and went to get some bread. He tidied up all the tools, etc, off the front deck but still couldn’t find a 10mm spanner that had been on the back seat of the car. He fixed a crack in a big yellow funnel by melting the plastic edges together with his soldering iron and managed to burn his leg on it (matching the burn on his ankle from welding when we were on the dry dock). The couple on the boat next door went out at 11.30 a.m. and Mike thought they’d gone to eat in town and therefore would want to move their boat while the Grand Prix was on. Luckily, he was wrong they’d been out to buy edible stuff. Mike had to go and move our long green rope from behind the Canalous hire boat so that they could get out – at least now he could watch the Hungarian Grand Prix in peace. When the racing finished we went out for a ride in the car. Headed out on the scenic route (the weekly route to Carrefour in Agen Sud) but went off to Lectoure, into Condom and Eauze towards Pau, came back towards Auch on the N124, then north a short way and east cross country back to Lectoure and home. Mike added more to his car repairs list.

Saturday 2nd August 2008

2010-10-23T18:11:00.000+02:00

Cooler overnight, cloudy day with spells of sunshine. Had a lazy morning. Mike watched the F1 qualis from Hungary. A hire boat arrived and its French speaking crew insisted on mooring between our pontoon and the hulk. Mike told them it wouldn’t fit, they were too wide! They didn’t. They moored on to the hulk with their bows just off the pontoon. They said they were only staying overnight and the rest of the mooring was full. (What they really meant was they wanted to see the show later!) The spectacle “Au Fil de l’Eau” started around 10.30 p.m. Mike called me outside to look, but I missed the opening sequence of ultraviolet light and lasers. The couple on the hire boat were sitting out watching and those on the small boat moored the other side of the hulk, as were all the people on the French boats in the corner. Probably all the visiting boat crews were either watching from their boats or had paid 18€ each for tickets to watch from the stalls.

Friday 1st August 2008 Valence d’Agen. Canal Latéral à Garonne.

2010-10-23T18:09:00.000+02:00

Very hot and sticky 20.4°C overnight. Raining first thing, grey and cooler. Mike ordered some Eva Cassidy CDs from Amazon, four out of the six CDs she recorded, Eva by Heart, Imagine, Live at Blues Alley and American Tune, as they were all selling at around £5 each. A new one was due out on the 25th. Apparently she did loads of demos and studio recordings which are a source for new albums. Then he 'phoned his Mum to tell her to expect another package. I cooked a garlic pork stir-fry for dinner as it was a little cooler than of late (it seemed like the first hot meal we’d had instead of salad for weeks!)

Thursday 31st July 2008 Valence d'Agen

2010-07-03T16:28:00.002+02:00

Very hot and sunny. I got on with the chores and did some washing. The meteo said today would be even hotter. Just after lunch the roof temperature (in the shade under the gang planks) was over 39°C. Mike suggested we went out in the car again to cool down. We went over the river bridge and turned left and went through Beaumont-en-Lomagne, then headed back through Castelsarrasin and Moissac. The sky held the last few streaks of daylight as we arrived back at Valence. The technical dept was still fiddling with lights, etc. Kept a ventilator fan on all night. The temperature outside didn’t drop below 20°C overnight.

Wednesday 30th July 2008 Valence d'Agen - finally, and at long last, fixed the car!

2010-07-03T16:26:00.000+02:00

Hot and sticky. We waited for Citroën to ring to say the parts had arrived. The young lad rang, neither of us could follow his French, but it appeared the new silent blocks had arrived. We went to fetch them. 166€! Even worse! Filled the ZX’s tank at Géant, at least that had gone down a bit more, 1,34.9€/litre (1,38.9€ last time) back home for midday. After lunch Mike set to work on the car and replaced the silent blocks. He finished just after 4.00 p.m. knackered due to having to work in direct full sunshine. He had a wash and went for a lie down. Later we went out for a ride in the car to test it. Hooray! No more banging from the rear as we went over bumps! Took the road to Flamerens, through the lovely low hills to Sisterns and on into Caudecost, then back through Sauveterre and St Sixte (the end of the scenic route to Agen) to the boat in the dusk. Too hot and tired so we watched a film we recorded earlier, Spielberg’s War of the Worlds, a modernised dramatisation of H.G.Welles’ story. Hotter and hotter. The cabin didn’t seem to cool down much after dark, even with leaving the side doors wide open (and mossie net in place). I lay in bed and sweat so much my head felt like I’d dunked it in a bowl of warm water! I migrated to the side bunk, switched the fan on for half an hour until I’d cooled down, and even then spent a restless night. Mike got up several times, he said he could hear the workmen talking who were setting up the sound and lighting system for the pageant, plus they had several large spotlights on, which he could see even though we’d got the reflective heat shields in both bedroom windows.

Tuesday 29th July 2008 Valence d'Agen

2010-07-03T16:23:00.000+02:00

Cloudy first thing, sunny and getting hotter again later. We went to Agen Sud to get the new silent blocks, they hadn’t arrived, Mike asked them to 'phone us. They told him they would be 80€ each! Ouch, ouch, ouch!!! 160€ = £128 for two bits of rubber in steel shells. Waah! We went to get a few groceries from Carrefour, salad etc. Back for lunchtime. Loads of hire boats had filled the moorings. Sent Peter a text to tell him Shebah-Mike’s suggestion for feeding the pups, baby doll bottles from a toyshop! Simple but effective. (He used to own a farm and horse riding school in the UK northeast).

Monday 28th July 2008 Valence d'Agen

2010-07-03T16:21:00.000+02:00

Still very hot, wind picked up late afternoon and it clouded over making it much cooler. Mike 'phoned Peter (on my suggestion that he knows lots about mending old motors and might come up with something Mike had missed) His American bulldog, Mini, had had her pups! Thirteen were born in total (the world record is twenty), five last Thursday and they thought she’d finished giving birth until one was born dead on Saturday, followed by six more live ones! One was sickly and died soon after, but the remaining eleven were doing well. Peter said that Mini looked like a ghost of her former self though, all skin and bones and was very clumsy getting into the box he’d made to contain the pups, she treads on them and lies on them making them squawk! He said he was having to bottle feed some of them, the biggest, so Mini could feed the smaller ones herself, but the baby bottle teats were too big for the bulldog short snouts, so he was going to try getting teats for premature baby bottles. His answer to the knocking noise on the ZX was immediately shock absorbers. He suggested taking them off and having a ride round to see if that stopped the noise, Mike said he would try it. He took the wheel off again and jacked up the hub to take the weight, then made the noise reoccur by inserting a long screwdriver between the metal body of the silent block and the sub-frame (effectively levering the silent block the wrong way) and recreating the noise by loading the wheel and taking the load off again with the lever. A new silent block, front one driver’s side, was required. Roy’s camper van was missing - Shebah-Mike said he’d gone to Narbonne. I made some lunch while Mike put the car back together again. We went into Agen Sud (even the air was hot with the wind through the open windows) via the scenic route. There were two types of silent block, did we know which one? Mike said their mechanics would know which one, so they said they would put the ZX on their “pont” (lift) and have a look. In the meantime one of the mechanics said the two types were just different manufacturers, either would be OK. They had none in stock so they would arrive overnight, collect them next morning. Back home via the scenic route. “My” house near St Nicholas-de-la-Balerme had been sold; the for sale notice had disappeared ages ago. The boat cabin felt humid and sticky after being closed up for a couple of hours even through the temperature was still 38°C, the same as before we went out. Stripped off and sprawled in front of a fan. Bill sent two texts to ask if we had Garry the lorry’s phone number. Nope, never dealt with him, we went with someone else’s transport. Mike tried ringing Bill, but got his answering machine – Bill was trying to ring us. He said forget the texts, the numbers he had were working OK. He had arrived at Agde and was moored by the place with free electric (which was still full of boats). He’d seen Paul at Bézièrs, who had been expecting his next load of visiting friends until he had a last minute 'phone call to say they were at the UK airport about to board the plane and someone in the group had an expired passport, so they weren’t coming. Luckily he hadn’t been out to do a big shop in preparation for their arrival.

Sunday 27th July 2008 Valence d'Agen

2010-07-03T16:18:00.000+02:00

Hot and sunny. Mike organized the ladders and plank under the car to lift the fuel tank back into position, I helped by lifting it while he replaced the bolts. He fitted the brake cables and I assisted with the adjusting, listening for the clicking to finish. I made lunch while he finished putting the car back together. After lunch we went out in the car to test it. We hadn’t gone far before we decided that the banging was still there. We drove north to Cahors, paused to drink a cold coke under the trees by the river Lot and watched a trip boat go by, then carried on towards Figeac with the intention of going to Aurillac, but the traffic along the Lot valley was heavy so we turned left into the hills on narrow roads at Lamagdeleine, up to Mels, Valroufié and Francoulès; then headed west through St Denis-Catus, Catus and St Mèdard along the valley of le Vert stream. Then up and over the hill to Luzech, where we crossed the Lot and headed southwest down the valley of the Seoule to Castelsagrat and back into Valence. Sweltering hot and very sticky - had a ventilator fan blowing into the bedroom all night.

Saturday 26th July 2008 Valence d'Agen - still working on the car

2010-07-03T16:15:00.000+02:00

Cloudy mainly, a few showers of very light rain and long spells of sunshine. Mike started work again on the car, taking the fuel tank off. After lunch I gave Mike a hand to finish emptying diesel out of the tank and sticking bits of one of my green kitchen mats on the areas of the tank that were showing signs of vibration damage. More hire boats filled the moorings up again. The town was having a night market from 5.00 p.m. until 2.00 a.m. with live music (and British beer according to Roy) as part of the celebrations for the 200th anniversary of the creation of the department Tarn et Garonne. Mike decided that the one bolt that just turned and wouldn’t tighten on the fuel tank fixings would have to be replaced by a special fixing. Roy hadn’t got one so he said to borrow his car to go to the DIY, which Mike did. He brought several special bolts from Weldom. He drilled a hole in the car’s bodywork to accept an expanding cavity wall fitting.

Friday 25th July 2008 Valence d'Agen

2010-07-03T16:12:00.000+02:00

Sunny morning, clouding over later. Hot, cooling a bit with cloud cover. We went shopping. First to La Poste to post letters to the UK, then to Agen Sud via the main road. Bought the groceries and called at Géant their diesel had gone down another cent down to 1,36.9€/litre. Back home via the scenic route. After lunch Mike went outside to start on the car, emptying the fuel tank ready to start next day on changing the brake cables and finding the noise.

Thursday 24th July 2008 Valence d'Agen - still fixing the car

2010-07-03T16:10:00.000+02:00

Sunny morning, clouding later, a bit cooler. We went to Agen Sud to Feu Vert, as we had booked an appointment for them to investigate the knocking noise coming from the rear driver side of the ZX. Mike had suggested that perhaps the shock absorbers were the wrong ones and were too short which had been rejected by the garage boss. We waited in a queue at the desk, then another guy served us and said he would find someone to have a look at it, so we went and sat in the car to wait for a mechanic to become available. One passed in our direction at 11.45 a.m. (they closed for lunch for two hours at twelve) on his way to a car which had arrived well after us. Mike went back in the shop to have further words with the chef. Yes, some one would come and have a look at it. Eventually the guy who had originally booked the appointment, the garage chef, came and looked at it himself. Up on the hoist, he tried to waggle the wheels, no play in them; then he got a short pinch bar and tried levering the arms, again no play. He banged on the tyres. Strangely the noise appeared booming on the left no matter which tyre was banged! He and Mike carried on banging the tyres and trying to identify the source of the noise. The fuel tank! Unbelievably it was the left side of the tank vibrating. We thanked him and he seemed pleased and bemused that he’d found the source of the knocking noise. Mike thought it may have been caused by the garage in Valence when they did the welding, taking the tank off and not refitting it properly. He said he would call in at Citroën next day and ask if there should be any packing material between the tank and the bodywork. We gave up on the idea of going shopping and went home. Mike took more photos of the scenery and the seating or the pageant. He got waylaid on the way back, chatting with Shebah-Mike and Roy.

Wednesday 23rd July 2008 Valence d'Agen - day out in the car

2010-07-03T15:58:00.000+02:00

Puy-l’Evêque>

Hot and sunny all day. We decided to go out in the car. Slung some sandwiches in the cool bag with some cans of pop and some frozen ice packs. Mike sorted out the maps, GPS, camera, etc and we went via Agen Sud to call in at Citroën as Mike had forgotten to get a single small securing clip to hold the brake cables underneath the fuel tank, which cost an exorbitant 1€. Called in Géant to refill the car’s tank at 1,38.9€ (£1.10) a litre and we set off through Bon Encontre to find the D215, heading north-east through Sauvetat and Cauzac; north of Beauville (moto-cross on on Saturday) carrying on up the valley of the Petit Séoune, a tributary of the Garonne, on the D41 to the head at Couloussac, then over the hill and down into the next valley. We stopped on the shady, little used road for our picnic lunch before descending to the Boudouyssou, a tributary of the Lot, and up the hill through Saux and found the D44 (saw a road accident with pompiers in attendance where a motorcyclist had been hit by a car) through Floressas, a lovely little fortress of a village on top of a hill with seven roads radiating from it, to Puy-l’Evêque, a large town on the Lot. We paused while Mike took a photo of the hillside town, then crossed the river and carried on on the D44 to Frayssinet, another village on a multiple crossroad, taking the D673 through Montcléra, Cazals and Salviac, then followed the river Céou, a tributary of the Dordogne, for a short distance, passing a tumble down château on a hill, with big holes in its slate roof, called the Château de Repaire! Over the hills through St Martial-de-Nabirat to Domme, where we crossed the Dordogne. The river at this time of year is shallow and slow flowing, so the tourists were out in their hundreds along the bank, kids in hired canoes and loads of cars generally slowing down the passing traffic. We followed the river road heading upstream to Vitrac then up the valley of the Vitrac, towards Sarlat-La-Caneda, into more slow moving holiday traffic (Germans, Brits, Dutch and Belgians mostly) so we took a left up a very steep hill road with hairpins to the ridge road and turned left, heading back towards the river to la Roque-Gageac. Turned right heading downstream alongside the Dordogne, still filled with paddlers and canoes, past loads of souvenir shops in la Roque and turned left across the river to Castenaud-la-Chapelle.

I took a photo of the impressive fortress on a crag. South, running up the valley of the Céou a short distance, then turned right on the D50 running west a short distance before turning south through La Chapelle Péchaud to St Laurent-la-Vallée then took the D60 through the lovely little village of Prats-du-Périgord (saw a red deer nonchalantly grazing not far from the road so we stopped and I took several photos of it) and into Villefranche-du-Périgord. Took the tiny forest roads past Loubéjac to Montcabrier then had to divert towards Puy-l’Evêque as the D58, the road due south to Duravel was blocked for road resurfacing. No diversion signs so we followed a Dutch car and ended up having to back track as the whole of the D58 was closed. Ran up to Duravel along the river road and turned left across the Lot to Vire-sur-Lot. We thought there seemed to be a concentration of Dutch cars then we saw a campsite whose car park seemed to be exclusively Dutch. A Dutchman must own the campsite for there to have been so many Dutch cars. We carried on through Lacapelle-Cabanac to Mauroux, then Tournon-d’Agenais then south on the D656 southwest towards Agen then south through Lacour (another hilltop gem) to Bourg-le-Visa, crossing two more valleys then down the Barguelonne valley back into Valence. Back at six. The cabin was hot having been shut up all day, but I’d left all the blinds closed so it wasn’t too bad.