September 2017

When we finally decided to move on from Salleles d'Aude, where we had moored by the bank next to the museum of amphoralis, we found to our horror that we had gone aground. This became more problematic by the hour as it was a Monday and lots of hire boats were leaving Narbonne coming upstream and emptying the canal of water. So I walked to the next upstream lock to activate if and let more water through, in the hope that this would be enough to float us off the bank. But each time I managed this another clutch of hire boats came upstream.  By this time we were listing dangerously and worried that our ropes would break, lurching us across the canal.  After Ni's efforts at 'wriggling' the bow thruster and rudder he eventually managed to get us back into the water and onto one level.

So we gently made our way downstream to Capestang, stopping at the peaceful spot just outside Argeliers.

Ferme le vie

Nice dog walking here, with almond trees lining the paths. Unfortunately we dont have any nut crackers onboard. NB to self: buy nut crackers!

We arrive at Capestang ready to greet next visitors, and are kept entertained by the antics of hire boaters.

Not sure what they were trying to acheive here.  I know we call them "Bumper Boats" but that's just plain ridiculous!!!

On a lovely sunny evening Nigel decides to have a barbeque. But we didnt have the right kind of charcoal and the meat was literally smoked rather than cooked!  Not too keen on that method.

Capestang has some interesting buildings one of which is this one with a beautiful trompe l'oeil on two sides. Tashi was completely fooled at first and kept barking at the little dog in the bottom left-hand corner.

Trompe l'oeil at Capestang