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Published: July 15th 2017
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It’s Friday the 14
th of July and we have completed our journey up the Mighty Rhone River and are having a few days in one of our favourite French cities, Lyon. As it is our 44
thwedding anniversary we may indulge in a few vins superior and lots of chocolate ( we did ). The French are very appreciative of us being here as they have declared a national holiday and put on lots of fireworks for us, or maybe it’s because it is also Bastille Day. As we arrived in Lyon Port de Plaisance we were greeted by a film crew from the local TV station and were interviewed about our travels. Yeti stole the show and was the only one whose name they used!
Our trip along the Canal du Midi was as quick as possible with all the hire boats being a right pain for most of the time. Mainly between Carcassonne and the Etang du The, as before that we had most of the locks to ourselves. On one occasion we were in a lock with three charter boats, the lock had broken down and we were there for 2 hours. As we were first in normally
we are first to leave but the boat alongside us decided he was going first despite there not being any room for him to pass and we both got well and truly stuck, we thought the lock keeper was going to have a fit. It seems that only the British and Aussies take their turn as even Kiwis tried pushing past us. Not to mention the rest of Europe! We stopped for a few days in Castelnaudary to catch up on some shopping and retrieve Tilly from Castets . The weather was hot and very windy for most of the time and the lack of shade due to all the chopped down diseased trees made it a desperate rush for the bits of shade. Our big generator malfunctioned which meant we could not run the AC unit.
We enjoyed the Camargue and the Canal Rhone a Sete and spent some time catching up on boat jobs etc. Our long time friend Bernie Katchor came to join us for a few days whilst doing his mad cap tour around Europe. Bernie and his late wife Yvonne had a profound effect on our lives. They were instrumental in our emigrating to
Australia as we had seen them on a Holiday programme in the UK in the 70’s when they owned Whitsunday Rent a Yacht and demonstrated that sailing could be done in shorts and tee shirts. The next day we applied for a visa for Australia with the intention of buying a yacht and sailing around the Whitsundays. We met them in Trinidad when we were circumnavigating and have been friends ever since.
Our trip up the Rhone was uneventful, apart from one night, due to the suction and wash of a large hotel barge the pontoon finger we were tied to was ripped off the main pontoon and we were in danger of floating off down the Rhone tied to a Pontoon! On another occasion again tied to a pontoon the wash from another hotel barge threw Vintage Crew around so violently Marg was thrown from one side of the boat to another, luckily no damage to Marg and only a burst fender. Apart from a few stretches which are boring the Rhone is a lovely river to navigate. We were arriving through the marks at the marina at Valence when a large boat appeared to be aground and
the couple on board were screaming and shouting at each other. We realised, as we were about to moor to the refuelling jetty that they had in fact broken down and were in danger of drifting rapidly down river either to be run over by a large freighter or get washed onto the rocks. There were plenty of people on their boats in the marina all watching but no one was going to help them so we forgot about refuelling and set off in pursuit of the boat as they rapidly headed for danger. We managed to come alongside; both of the couple who were probably in their 70 s were in shock and could not function at all! Making them fast alongside, we and the valiant Vintage Cru managed to keep them off the rocks and slowly made way against the strong current and into the marina where we tied them up at the fuel jetty. They were very grateful and did give us two bottles of superb red wine.
The locks on the Rhone are so easy we will miss them despite them being some of the largest in Europe.
Hopefully tomorrow we set
off up the Saone for destinations north, assuming the celebrations don’t affect us too much. Next stop ?
As always there are lots more photos below
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