Roaming on the Rhone (2)

Hello folks, we write from about half way down the Rhone - amazing how much distance you can travel with a lively current under you.  Not that we're rushing things - we just want to get to Spain as we've been away now since end of April and in the French waterways since early May.  We are enjoying being back on the rivers and are passing lots of British yachts - there still seems to be a strong British contingent doing this type of trip - good to see we still fly the flag!

Thursday 18 July - Condrieu to Valence
We got away early as we had a long day's cruise ahead plus the Capitainerie wasn't in the office yesterday to collect our moorings so a quick escape was high on the agenda for "Reward" and "Splodge"!  The scenery is changing from lush vineyards to industrial quaysides again but there's still nowhere near the amount commercial and tourist traffic we were led to expect by the books.

A last glimpse at the lush vineyards approaching Valence

The locks are huge - an average of 12m drops each - they even waited for us on two occasions.  We reached a heady 15km ph in parts of the river and passed a couple of hotel barges - some may say they're stylish but we reckon they're pretty style-less!

Typical hotel barge

We passed another of France's many nuclear power stations - grim billowing chimneys.  A few hours later we arrived at Valence but not before Skipper had to manouvre "Reward" skilfully through narrow entry buoys, against the current (known as "stemming") - easy for someone who regularly navigates Ramsgate Harbour! - but impressive nonetheless.  A couple of sundowners with "Splodge" before lights out as they had a fairly early start tomorrow whereas we are staying another day to explore Valence.

Locks: 3 (210)
Miles: 49 (675)

Friday 19 July - Valence
Another hot day and en route back from the laundry I thought I was seeing things but - no! - after rubbing my eyes and refocussing I knew I'd seen a llama - on a lead!  I couldn't resist saying 'hello' to Diego - but only after he sussed me out by sniffing my hair and armpits! He was lovely and let me stroke him so I must've smelled OK - to a llama anyway!


Diego the llama attracting passers-by at Valence PdP

 Valence is a lovely city and we had a good walk around - nothing really to photograph that you haven't seen in other cities though - sorry folks!

"Flightline" arrived this afternoon from  Lyon and we invited them aboard for G&Ts - you may recall they used to own a Southerly 105 so we thought it'd be a trip down memory lane for them but a big storm meant we had to take a raincheck - sorry for the pun!  The heavy rain, thunder and lightning were with us for about 5 hours before moving southwards and was pretty dramatic. 

Saturday 20 July - Valence to Cruas
The lull after the storm - the Rhone was a millpond.  We saw Diego again today and bid him farewell.  Our choice today: a 70km passage to Viviers - very popular at weekends with limited moorings and nothing much for another 20km after that - or go for two shorter cruises but one which meant mooring near yet another nuclear power station - what a choice! - so we opted for Plan B.  We used our homoepathic remedies and steered a course for Cruas which was, naturally, not without event.

We had to moor at the first lock to wait for a barge to move through and First Mate was moments away from taking a line gracefully onto the holding pontoon when we realised the current was doing the opposite of what Skipper expected, i.e. took us away from the pontoon.  Suddenly, First Mate was hanging onto the guardwires with all her might as she couldn't get ashore!  No injury - just a shock - and Skipper was there straightaway to haul her back aboard.  That woke me up!   Moving on swiftly to the next lock we went straight in fortunately - no hanging around - literally! 

Shortly after clearing the lock we arrived at Cruas but stayed below out of the strong sun - 36C at 1845!  That's it for now folks - over!

Locks: 2 (212)
Miles: 20 (695)