Avignon to Viviers - BRAVO!!!

Tuesday 14 June

Well, here we are in the extremely nice marina at Viviers.

Friendly yachties from other boats came to help us tie up.  It’s a gorgeous spot and we arrived just before sunset and there’s a full moon (almost) so it was all totally fab.  There is no one here manning the marina so it is free and though there is no water, electricity is free.  Our cable won’t reach the point but we don’t care - our batteries are still very good. The shallow waters around the marina are dotted with numerous of these weird plastic bathing belles suspended from metal frames – they are too funny and really rather grotesque close up.  On the wall outside are all the big cruise ships filled with the wealthy, grey haired English, American and German guests who beetle about in small gaggles following different leaders who wave flags with numbers and speak heavily French-accented English.

We picked an unfortunately windy day for our excursion – not the best of ideas and our efforts at the first two locks were OK but not great.  We managed to survive the first lock (Avignon) with difficulty but not too much mishap.

At the second (Caderousse), there was a boat tied up at the waiting pontoon who had decided to stay and spend the night there as they considered the passage through the lock ‘too dangerous’.  This put the willies up me briefly, though not Mike of course, but as we’d survived Avignon and the wind hadn’t worsened since then, I squashed my fears.  Fortunately, we survived the second lock, though our mast left a few deep gouges in the lock wall to mark our passage.  

However, the third of the day, the 23 metre deep record breaking Ecluse de Bollène, was our best yet.  We started out immaculately, Mike had stopped the boat dead on the bollard and we’d hooked on when the skipper on the boat opposite us shouted at us to move forward to make room for another boat coming behind.  Ever obedient, we frantically unhooked ourselves and moved forward but the lock keeper wasn’t bothered to wait for the last boat and just shut the gates anyway.  Happily, our second attempt at the bollard was equally successful leaving us pathetically proud of ourselves and faintly annoyed with our interfering (though well intentioned) neighbour.

As for the VHF radio, there was me worrying about ours not working properly, but there was no need because none of the lock keepers ever answer.  You have to phone (fortunately the numbers are still correct in my 10 year old chart) and are often put on ‘hold’ for ages.  The Danish couple we met in our first lock said they neither telephoned or radioed – simply arrived at the lock and waited for it to open.  I’ve established that our VHF does work, however, because we have spoken with other peniches or yachts along the way, no problem.  Time waiting at the locks depends on circumstances and so far we have not been kept waiting for any great length of time – our maximum passage time so far is about 45 minutes

The countryside from Arles onwards has been more attractive with far less heavy industry cluttering up the banks.  There are many bridges for the motorways and TGV to pass over.  The TGV railway is amazingly noisy and qualifies as a real ‘blot’ on the landscape in my opinion.  We sat in our cockpits this evening as the sun slowly sank over glassy water dotted with swans, six boats in a line, all liveaboards (English, Irish, Zimbabwean, German and French) and in our fifties and sixties, drinking and dining, calling out the odd pleasantry to each other, and it’s all so incredibly peaceful and tranquil – and then a train goes chundering past.  We can’t see them but they seem to hurtle past us on both sides, shattering the quiet.  I suppose they go by all day long but they are less noticeable during the day.

We went into the enchanting old town of Viviers today.

I’ve just had an email from my very dear friend Trish, my most devoted blog follower, who expressed admiration for the fact that I tell it like it is – both the good and the bad.  I must confess that I’ve been tempted to leave out all the embarrassing bad bits and just relate the good.  However, this blog is also my ‘aide-memoire’ so I can remember everything that happened, and if I lie in it I’d be lying to myself.  Last night I overheard Mike talking with a neighbour, admitting that having left the boat for three years he has forgotten so much of what he knew.  It is true that I have also forgotten stuff and between us we seem to have lost our knack.  However, it is definitely coming back and we feel better about ourselves all the time.  Today we chatted with two other couples who also admitted to finding the locks rather stressful and I suspect those who say they don’t have simply blocked out the nasty bits.  My round the world blog was written years after the event and I am aware now that I quite deliberately left out all the bad bits - and there were plenty, believe me.  There was so much good stuff, so many fantastic places and people that it’s easy to only remember those things. 

Things like beautiful towns like Avignon and Viviers, friendly people, gorgeous weather, a great lunch in the cockpit, followed by a snooze........