Friday 28 Sept - Fonserannes protocol, Serignan Plage, blog, Ecluse 9 dinner

Ian & Flis left Beziers on the 0830h train to Paris, before they head on to meet up with friends in the UK. I went to check the front of the queue after the morning departures, and found an empty mooring right next to the top lock. So I thought I would take advantage of this and move Kanumbra to the front of the queue for the morning after.

Rita and Sarah headed off to Serignan Plage for the day at the beach. This is where we all used to go for Karate Kamp many years ago, so for them it was a homecoming of sorts.

Later in the morning, a bunch of Aussies pulled their hire boat into the mooring behind Kanumbra. I went back later to explain that I would not be going down the locks in the afternoon, and that they should feel free to go past me if they were going down that afternoon. As we talked I learned that they were from Kew and Alphington, each within 2-3km of where we used to live in Fairfield on the Yarra River.

I settled down later in the morning to do a blog update, and then later I watched the afternoon departure protocol. As always there were some interesting manoeuvres from some of the hire-boats, but generally they were well-behaved.

The girls were home by 1900h. It’s amazing just how well-tanned you can look after just one day at the beach.

We then had dinner at Restaurant au 9 Ecluse at the top of the 7 Locks (I guess there used to be 9 Locks when the canal connected directly with the River Orb before the Aqueduct was built), looking out over Beziers and the Cathedral at night.  A very pleasant evening with a delightful chatty tattooed waitress.