We got up a bit later today and after a buffet breakfast headed out to a cloudy morning to have a look around the shops. There is a real market feel to the streets and the shops are keen to negotiate their prices. We both bought some new clothes and Sheree got some jewelry. Most of what was left of the morning and the early afternoon was spend exploring the never ending street of shops (see pic).
After lunch at a cafe that sold some of the biggest meringues we had ever seen (see pic)we headed for the beach as the sky had cleared and it was another hot beautiful. We spent the later part of the afternoon just swimming and sun bathing. The water is the warmest we have experienced yet and the beach gets deep very quickly. We watched a large ferry boat full of passengers arrive nose first straight into the beach where the swimmers were, lower a ladder at the front for the passengers to disembark and then reverse off.
We finished the night off with a meal at the top cafe again. I had a huge plate of spare ribs that this place is renowned for and Sheree had the pork kebab with peanut sauce. We washed it down with a litre of a yummy fruit cocktail called Sangria. then we went back to the beach and got a table on the sand with live music and another cocktail called Mojito. We got back home at 12:30am. What a lovely evening.

1/7/2011

This was our last day on the Canal du Midi and we had to have our boat back to Homps, the original start point by 2pm. We timed this to perfection but when we arrived the office was closed so after successfully backing the boat into it’s mooring we waited for them to open.
By 3pm we were back on the road. We had heard about a place called Fonserannes Lock (French: écluse de Fonserannes, les neuf écluses). This is a staircase lock on the Canal du Midi near Béziers. It consists of eight ovoid lock chambers (characteristic of the Canal du Midi) and nine gates, which allow boats to be raised a height of 21.5 m, in a distance of 300m. The most we had negotiated was 3 so we decided to go and see this. (see pics)
From here we made our way via the tolled roads to Calella in Spain. It cost us another €16 for this privilege but saved over an hour of travel time. Again we passed through a border but this time it was more noticeable. Spain is drier and appeared more expansive and the buildings design changed.
Something that we found quite different on the Spainish motorways, was the prostitutes dressed in really skimpy provocative underwear, sitting on chairs under an umbrella, about every 100 meters at one stage.
We arrived into our really nice BB at Calella around 7:30pm after having a little trouble finding it as there were a lot of one way streets. It’s only about a 3min walk to the beach and even closer to the many shops with sales on……oooooh no.
Around 10pm we went out to a cafe called Top Bar Cafe for a mixed selection of Tapas as advised on Trip Advisor and then headed back home around 11:30pm.

We were up early today as we thought it was 7:30am when in actual fact it was 6:30am. The clouds had gone and it was another stunning day. This now meant we had and extra hour to go and have a look at some of the shops in the main street of Carcassonne before heading away. By 8:30am we where on the streets window shopping but most of the shops did not open until 9:30am. We spotted lots of shoe shops that had sales on of up to 70% off so decided to wait until they opened.
By 10:45am we had bought two pair each and now needed to get to the boat as we had one and a half days sailing to do or we would not have the boat back in time for the next day (Friday) at 2pm.
The first lock was at the harbor of Carcassonne so this would be our first attempt at managing a lock going down rather than up (it’s called locking down). This did not go quite as smoothly as we had hoped as you have a down current and this morning there was a bit of a breeze to contend with. Sheree had to work the back of the boat and as the water goes down you just feed the ropes out.
By the next lock we where looking much better and from then on we looked pretty professional. Later we helped another boat of older people who were having major troubles with the ropes as none of them could jump off the boat.
It was a fantastic trip down the canal for the rest of the day and really hot again.
When we reached the town of Trebes about 1pm we decided to stop off and by some groceries for tea rather than stopping over night and buying tea at a restaurant. This would mean we would get further down the canal by the end of the day. The lock keepers stop work at 7pm.
First we went to the tourist information centre were they had local produce. We bough a bottle of wine and beer and some olive paste. They showed us were the supermarket was about 15 min walk away. Here we bought local kababs, rice salad and tubole. On the way back we stopped at the local bakery and got some really nice looking sweet treats for desert. Then we were back in the boat and on our way down the canal.
By about 7pm we had found a nice spot to moor at, and it is here that we will have a few wines in the late afternoon sun and cook our tea before bed.

Today we were up at 7am had breakfast and were heading for Carcassonne by 8am. Being so early we got thru the remaining 5 locks (3 boats at a time) really quickly and by 11.30 we had arrived. We were very disappointed to see floating in the canal plastic bottles and other rubbish & thought this spoiled very much what we had seen up till now.
After debating where we should stop, we pulled into a mooring that was near what looked like a main road. An elderly man grabbed our rope so we asked him if we could moor here. The next minute a lady comes up & asked us if we want to moor in the boat harbour ( which is thru another lock). The cost for us 2, no power or water but use of the showers and washing machines etc for the boaties was 12 Euro for the night. Plus it is only 2mins to the town. Steven had a lot of fun backing our boat into the mooring as it has no steering in reverse. With the current and the wind it was not easy at all and everyone watching didn’t help.
Once we were all moored we headed to the Carcassone Castle on the hill which is surrounded by a old walled town. We took the novelty train that tows several carriages of passengers up to it. It’s is like an old Medieval town inside the walls and several people had period costumes on including a guy with a sample of the food served in his restaurant. Yes we got talked into having a genuine medieval meal of the time and local speciality called Casteline which consisting of haricot beans, roast duck and a sausage. (see pic) This proved really filling and we will not require much tea at all tonight.
The weather was overcast & windy today and although it was still in the 20s we really felt cold after the wonderful sunny 30 degree days we have become used to.
Tomorrow we head back toward the base at Homps which will take us back the way we have come but should prove easier at the locks as you just hook the rope around the bollard & let it loosen as the boat is lowered. Looks easier anyway, time will tell.

We woke up early after a pretty average sleep as it was so hot during the night. After breakfast we set sail, saying good bye to our new boating friends. Mooring up along the edge is a bit like camping were you get to know the people next to you.
Our first stop was a little town called Puicheric. It was supposed to have a market on today, so we off loaded our push bikes and biked into the town. There was no market on, so we bought another buegette for lunch, loaded the bikes back on the boat and carried on. The first lock was a double one which kept us on our toes and the next was the same but this time we watched as they placed 3 boats in the lock at once. Thankfully we were not one of them. However by the time we reached the next one we had to bunch in with a few others who were from Austarlia and Tasmania. When several boats are in the lock at once it’s a bit like dodgem cars but with boats.
It is really hard work getting the boat through these locks and little Sheree was doing an amazing job catching ropes, tying up and passing the stern ropes back to me and holding the boat with the bow rope as the water rushed in and raised the boat. She had to soak her feet in a bucket of cold water at one stage (see pic). Some of the triple locks lifted us nearly 20meters
As the day went on it got hotter and hotter and soon we were both covered in sweat working these locks. They expected it to be 35deg today and we think it was all of that.
We finally arrived at Trebes around 7pm. This will be our stop for the night so we tied up again along the canal edge. We had a quick wash and headed into the town for tea which is only 2 mins from the boat.
It has been a very busy and tiring day but OMG what a lot of fun and it is so lovely cruising along the Canal De Midi. We have seen and experienced something that is so unique and loved every minute of it.
Tomorrow we will be up early and heading for Carcassonne.

Today we left the Isle de Sorgue. We bought some groceries at the local super market before leaving and headed off for Homps and our canal boat trip.
The trip was again a reasonable one of just under 3 hrs and that included taking the toll roads. It’s always great when you get on these three lane highways and although they are expensive you can zoom along at 130km/hr and cover quite a few kilometers very quickly. In our case it cost about €12 for the whole trip.
We arrived into Homps after missing the first turn off that cost us another 24km but got there pretty much on time.
They were quite busy at the main office for the canal boat trip and we had to wait nearly 2hrs before we finally slipped our moorings and were under way.
It was such a thrill to be on the canal de Midi and motoring up under our own steam. Iris as lovely here as all the photos portray with grape vines in the fields and wild life every were along the tree lined banks of this amazing water way.
Our first lock loomed up very quickly so it was all hands on deck as we approached. Sheree jumped off the boat just at the beginning of the lock so she could grab the ropes tossed to her once the boat was inside the lock. This we pulled of without a hitch and felt quite proud of ourselves. Even the lock keeper commented on how well we had done. It was so cool being in the boat as all the water rushed in and quickly raised the boat up about 3 meters. We bough a nice bottle of Rose wine at the lock keepers stall for €4 before proudly carrying on. A few narrow and not very high bridges later we arrived at the little canal side town of La Redort . We parked up the boat on the side of the bank with a little help from another experienced Dutch boatie who spends half his year in Spain and the other half in his boat on the canal, he has done this for 11 years.
Once we where all secured for the night we walked along the edge to a little restaurant on the canals edge. Our tea was delightful and we wondered back to the boat and set up the bed for the night. As you read this I am sitting up in bed writing this story of a wonderful day and will close of now, enjoying the absolute peace and quite of this place.