Day Five aboard Tamaris, Wednesday, September 21, 2005
From Puicheric to Carcassone – 31 km/18 locks of which 6 were doubles, 1 was a triple, and 1 was a single
We took off early (8:35 AM) and were in the first pod of boats through the first lock. We pushed on through four sets of locks to arrive at the stairs at Trebes at 12:45 PM.
Naturally, the lockkeeper was at lunch, so we dined on the deck
on tunafish, tomatoes, sausage, bread and crackers. When the lock opened shortly after 1:30 PM, we entered and ended up with a new pod of boats that included a group
of Norwegian men and a group of German couples. Negotiating locks was not exactly their strong suit but they did provide entertainment for us and the usual gallery of sightseers who gathered at the locks.
We had hoped to make Carcasssone so that we could visit La Cite, the old city, on Wednesday but after Tuesday’s results, we were sure we wouldn’t be able to get there. All at once, we rounded a bend and off in the distance we saw La Cite off to our port side.
We arrived at Carcassone at 5:30 PM, found the dock master, tied up, took on water, and had our first real shower in the boathouse on land since we started out on the canal. Once we were all human again, we took off walking through town to get our bearings for the next day’s sight-seeing.
On to Day 6
