A beautiful sunny day, but extremely windy and unfortunately it was a head wind, so todays 30km was heavy going.
I left the hotel after breakfast, leaving Donneville along a main road, without a lot of room for walkers, but it wasn’t long before I reached the canal.
The nature of the canal hadn’t changed, the canal, plane trees on either side, and locks offering a change in the scenery. Just as yesterday, there were many cyclists. I also said hello to a few pilgrims walking the Arles Way, where the last stage to Toulouse is along the canal.
Between the highest point on the canal and sea level there is a difference in altitude of 189 meters. Locks are used to transport boats through the changes in altitude. Between Toulouse and the Thau lagoon, boats pass through 45 single locks, 12 double locks, 4 triple locks, 1 quadruple lock and at Beziers 1 lock with eight chambers. The latter allowing boats to be raised/lowered 21,5 meters.
Riquet, the architect of the canal, limited each lock to 2,9 meters in height. The first locks he designed only had one chamber and were therefore often deeper, but he soon realised that the significant depth of the chambers was damaging the structural work and the gates were not easy to manoeuvre.
At the end of the last century, the locks were modified to operate mechanically instead of manually, and since then the locks have been automated. Some of the locks are self-service, in other words are managed by the sailors themselves via terminals. Others, not least the multiple locks are managed by lock keepers.
There were 4-5 boats on the canal today. I usually see them at the locks. The barge with the Brazilian couple was docked just after the first lock at Montgiscard and at the third lock, Écluse du Sanglier, I met a Swedish guy who has been sailing the European canals for 4 years and spends the winters in Toulouse. He lives on his boat. I met him several times during the day, and he is docked in the port I am staying this evening.
I met 3 ladies from Belgium, cycling along the canals joining the Atlantic and Mediterranean. They had next to no baggage on their bikes, so I asked whether they had a car carrying their things. They answered that this was all they had. They were really travelling lightweight. I also spoke to a French guy, without his front teeth who “walks where the wind blows” from day to day. He had a tail wind today.
I visited an Inter Marche, slightly off route, after 5 kilometers and bought some biscuits and nuts. At the time I regretted doing it as checkout took forever. The lady in front of me had 40 cards, waited until she had packed everything, then went through each card to find the one she wanted to pay with, which was subsequently rejected, and then went through the whole process again. However, sitting for a break after 20kms, I was happy I had something to eat.
The canal runs parallel to the A61 motorway, so beyond the noise of the wind, there was a constant hum for the road. The hotel I am staying tonight is at a service station on the motorway, but also a port for many of the boats sailing along the canal. There was an excellent restaurant next to the hotel, which was nice, as there weren’t any services along the route today. There was also an area dedicated to the French jazz singer Claude Nougaro.
Another pleasant day in beautiful sunshine. Not a lot of variation in relation to yesterday’s walk, 12 days along canals may turn out to be heavy going.