Here are a few pictures of our trip on the Canal du Midi with John and Jackie on their yatch Eleonora. Eleonora, a Westerly Falcon, had already had her mast removed so that she could get under the bridges, but her 1.5m keel caused some problems.
The double locks were formidable - note the open middle gate!
We went firmly aground below Fonserannes locks when the water level in our pound fell. We only got off again when the deep locks at Béziers closed for the night allowing the water level to rise once more.
Next day we had to wait for an enormous commercial boat to go up before we finally got into the bottom of the 5 lock staircase.
In all it took us 22 hours to get through Fonserannes.
At the top looking back towards Bezier.
Below Puicheric lock we tried to winch the boat off the bottom of the canal.
Then on to Castelnaudary. The St Roch locks here were fantastic. They were 4 in a staircase, electrically operated , and controlled by one man sitting in a yellow building. There were 2 pairs of gates wide open as it filled the bottom lock!
*Note how sick the plane trees look. This is probably due to Anthracnose, a disease caused by the fungus, Gnomonia platani. http://www.caes.state.ct.us/PlantPestHandbookFiles/pphS/pphsyca.htm tells us: Symptoms appear as large, brown patches that develop along veins or at leaf margins as the leaves expand in spring. This often results in extensive tattering and distortion and severely infected leaves drop prematurely. The fungus can also cause a blighting and dieback of tender shoots which can result in deformity. Near to complete refoliation usually occurs and trees seem to survive these yearly infections.
and so on to Toulouse. Then home via Montpelier, Lille and Eurostar to Waterloo. A fantastic holiday!