#1. December 2009: Our First Trip to Columbus
#2. Feb/March 2010: Western Australia
#3. April 2010: China Trip
#3a. Jingjiang Prince City
#3b. Reed Flute Caves & Elephant Trunk Hill (Xiangbishan).
#3c. Li River to Yangshou.
#3d. Around Yangshuo
#3e. Canals of Guilin at night.
#4. A Winter Picture of Columbus
#5. June/July 2010 UK/France
#5a. CEVNI & ICC Course River Trent, Nottingham
#5b. Toulouse to Carcassone
#5c. Carcassone to Bellegarde with the Hodges.

 

December 19th 2009. We arrived late December for the first time to see the barge "Columbus" after our purchase of her in September of this year. We had actually been on board once before when a chance meeting during April 2009 on the Canal du Midi found ourselves, at the time on an hire boat, berthed in the same town of Le Somail. Well! to say that she was BIG, to me was an understatement, when I stepped on board in Bellegarde where she is currently moored I just could not believe the size and for someone standing in the wheelhouse looking forward and seeing 45 feet of deck in front of you and 15 feet or so behind you was quite amazing but still very daunting The weather at that time of the year was very cold and unfortunately at times wet, very wet and windy, we did take Columbus along the canal du Rhone a Sete to the junction of the Petit Rhone, but decided that it would be best to return to our mooring as it appeared that most moorings were occupied by wintering boats/barges and also the weather being most unpredictable and cold and was really not suitable for rope handling. Anyhow being as by now it was getting very near to Xmas we decided due to the bad weather to head into Spain. When I had picked up Eileen from Toulouse airport I had noticed at a junction on the motorway a sign for Barcelona which was about 300kms from Bellegarde. So Xmas eve off we went and on entering Spain two things crossed my mind, the first was how nice to see the sun again and how clear the sky was, the second thing I thought just as I passed through the border, "I hope the car is insured for Spain!" (I did later find out that it was) Spain, Barcelona a great place, I had not been there for well over 40 years, Eileen had never been, living in Australia and having relatives in the UK you tend to just go there utilising various stop-over’s through Asia, so we thought a great time would be had !!!!! WRONG! First night heading back to the hotel after having dinner, at about 9pm, we were stopped in the street by a guy holding vouchers for something, I tried to wave him away but he would persist and as I tried to walk away he jokingly (I thought) put his leg in-between mine in a position to throw me (Judo) I lifted my hands up in reaction, as you would, as I did this he picked my pocket, front pocket of jeans! but luckily I realised and shouted to Eileen who grabbed a guy who he had passed it to, I turned around just in time to see him going through my wallet, I snatched it away from him and gave him a push, we started shouting out PICK-POCKETS, as there were quite a few people in the street, but no one seemed to bother, and the two guys just walked away along the street, again to say it was a frightening expierience would be an understatement and we became quite nervous of just doing the normal tourist things around this wonderfull city. Was this the end of our disasters? Unfortunately NO! The next day was Christmas and we did have a nice time but kept close to the hotel and did not venture to far in the evening. We had decided to head back to France on Boxing day, it was a nice day, sunshine the works. We headed out of the City to pick up the motorway, we were travelling along a four lane highway stopping at a few traffic lights, a motor cyclist came past indicating and gesturing with his hands that we had a problem, I stopped at the next lights jumped out and to my surprise I had a flat rear tyre, i did not know then but later the police told us it was a scam by people in the area we were passing through, a scooter would drive up behind you at traffic lights, spike your tyre and then let you know that you had a problem, but really just setting you up for a robbery! anywayI got back into the car and slowly made my way off the highway onto a slip road! Again Eileen was in a bit of a state wondering if I would manage, but I took all of the cases out of the boot putting them on the rear seat of the car and shutting the door, grabbed the tyre (A little thin thing that looks like a motor bike tyre BLOODY Useless) and proceeded to change it, Eileen stood about 2 yards away from me, I asked her to hold the new tyre, I had the flat one off but had to winch the car up a little more, anyhow when she went back to the front seat, she found that her handbag had been stolen, also from the back seat my briefcase and computer had also vanished, PANIC!! we had not seen anyone, a guy also on a scooter had stopped to say a garage was around the corner, but we did not go, how had people managed to take all of this without us seeing??? I do not know. To cut a long story short, we were over three hours with the police, and now with No money, no credit cards, no phone, no computer plus lots of other stuff, thankfully our passports and Eileen's jewellery were in another case, we had to make our way back to Columbus!! And guess what, it was now pouring with rain, torential, it was very hard you do not realise how isolated you are, you do not know telephone numbers, they are all on memory on your phone, you can't use Skype, it was awful. Anyhow after arriving back, changing the car, getting a phone card and telling the kids what had happened, we decided to head back to our friends Mick and Michelle who had kindly invited us to their home in the UK to get over our terrible expierience, cutting our trip to Columbus short. Mike and Marina Clark (the previous owners of Columbus) were great and made their way to us with computer and phone, arranged a flight for us and generally got us through the ordeal. Now we look forward to returning to Toulouse (where again our friends Mike and Marina are taking Columbus from Bellegarde) in June/July and enjoying a cruise back to Bellegarde the full length of the Canal Du Midi and we are hoping that all of our bad luck was had in Spain! We will see. RETURN

 

Feb/March 2010. Back in Australia, still trying to arrange insurance from what happened in Spain. Have just completed the Marine Radio Licence test! Will I pass? Time will tell, other than that all is fine arriving in the UK towards the end of June to do the ICC course on the Trent in Nottingham, then heading over to Toulouse to pick up Columbus for our trip back to Bellegarde, we are really looking forward to it and now cannot wait to get behind the wheel of Columbus.   13th March Actually heard from the insurance company yesterday, and would you believe it, we think that we will be receiving part payment for the items stolen, we have not received it as yet, but again hopefully next week. And I did pass the Marine Radio test! I will not mention the mark, but a pass is a pass. RETURN

 

 

April       We left for China via KL on the 5th April, traveling with our oldest son Dave, his wife Kazza and our grandchildren Zoe and Jack, who were staying the night in KL on their way to a tour of Vietnam.     Eileen and myself headed into China on the 7th April flying into the City of Guilin which is situated in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. When we arrived it came as a bit of a shock from our previous trips into The Peoples Republic by finding the place to be practically litter free, hardly any spitting (which always seemed to us to be a Chinese custom) and the roads and walkways beautifully tree lined and green, a river (Li) running through the centre, with again tree lined walkways where early morning people found time to do Tai Chi, Fan dancing and Ballroom dancing oblivious to the people passing by. Also from our previous visits (We first went into The Peoples Republic in or around 1976 and have been on numerous occasions since) we noticed the marked increase in the amount of cars on the roads, the increase in the amount of scooters, which the majority of are electric, and travel for around 60kms on a single charge.   Map of Jingjiang Prince City The first tour that we did was on our own. as part of discovering the city, we made our way to the "Jingjiang Prince City" which is within a walled area in the central district of the city, it used to be the place where the princes handled political and military affairs in the Ming Dynasty. Firstly when in China you find that there are two prices for entry into most places, one for the locals and one for us, the TOURISTS! Heading towards Prince City looking from 'Walking Street' a main area of Guilin you see a massive hill ("Solitary Beauty Peak") with a pagoda at its summit, you first enter through a stone tunnel which lies beneath the palace walls and then before you lies the main entrance a typical Chinese style building with an arch leading you in. Entering through this the views and buildings are arranged very similar to the 'Forbidden City' in Beijing with buildings central to the stone hill. It was built in the Ming Dynasty 1372 AD but partly destroyed by the Japanese in the early part of the 20th century. The climb to the top of the peak is quite steep and on hot days would be very daunting but the views around Guilin when you reach the summit are spectacular, you can enter quite a number of buildings within the City, a few with artifacts and small theatre presentations. Guilin Panorama looking from "Solitary Beauty Peak" Jingjiang Prince City RETURN     Only 5 kms from downtown Guilin, The Reed Flute Caves are marked on nearly all of the tourist itineries. Named after the verdent reeds growing outside which locals make flutes. Inside this water-eroded cave is a spectacular world of various stalactites, stone pillars and rock formations created by carbonate deposition. Illuminated by colored lighting, the fantastic spectacle is found in many variations along this 240-meter-long cave. Walking through the serried stone pillars, tourists feast their eyes on changing spots, feeling they are in a paradise where the Gods live. These caves are quite different from others that I have been through, firstly you enter the cave high above ground level and notunderground as most caves are. The lighting inside gives you some spectacular scenes to photograph and the reflections obtained with the water are impressive. We then made our way to 'Elephant Trunk Hill' apparently another must see area whilst visiting Guilin, It must have been quite a long day, because besides the picture taken of the Elephant Trunk I found it very ordinary, we did not climg the "HILL" we had climbed two that day and the aching legs and thighs were starting to tell, but the story taken from an old Chinese fairytale about a warrior who shoots his arrow through a mountain "Moon Rock" then creates the drinking elephant after his arrow passes through the hill was quite interesting,, I believe the arrow finishes somewhere sticking out from the top of another hill!                         RETURN     VIEW VIDEO RIVER LI, GUILIN - YANGSHUO This was one of the reasons that we came to Guilin to see! The trip from Guilin to Yangshuo aboard a river boat on the Li River, the weather was not exceptional so some of the pictures are not the best, but it gives you a good idea of the amazing scenery that you get in this area of China. Leaving Guilin Truely Great scenery A Cave with a small railway line inside and lifts to lookout! We did not go. Can you see 9 Horses on this hill? Eileen Enjoying the day The Li River The 20 RMB note showing the same scene. lots of wildlife, hard to take pics of on the move. Arriving in the town of Yangshuo RETURN         We managed to do a tour from Yangshuo, we travelled back to Guilin by coach as the barge that we came on and which had taken us around 4 hours needed another 10 hours against the tide for its return. We again found this town to be very clean and tidy and we would have loved to have stayed overnight, the main areas are very tourist friendly with nice markets, where you could get good copies of well known brands (Guilin did not have this!) and some very nice restaurants. For those interested there is a new 5 star hotel that has just opened overlooking the river. Notice the lack of rubbish in the streets? A Tour to a local village The old way of fishing in this area is by using a Cormorant, the fishermen have an elasticated band tied around the birds neck to stop it swollowing the fish, it takes around 3 years to train these birds, they are well fed on the smaller fish caught by the fishermen. We sailed on a small raft down the river to get to a small local village, on the way we passed these locals (Put there for the tourists) grazing their Water Buffalos, we then made our way to the village, again with a backdrop of some amazing scenery. Arriving in the village What scenery to have your wedding photos taken against! RETURN       VIEW VIDEO OF GUILIN CANALS & LAKES When in Guilin you can do a tour at night from the Li River, through a lock connecting the river to the lakes and canals, when we first left at around 7.30pm the weather was not the best, drizzling with rain and I thought that it would not be the best tour, but once through the lock it turned out to be very good, great lighting, small theatres as you go into different areas and all in all a very worthwhile tour, Highly Recomended!!! RETURN GALLERY PHOTOS & VIDEOS

 

Here is a photo taken on or around January 10th 2010, just after we returned to Australia via the UK and Hong Kong. I found the picture on a website/blog page taken by (I think) the owners of the "Sagar" barge "Ailsa" It does look quite cold! If you want to view other photos taken by the same person, check out my links page. RETURN

 

 

 

To Legally sail a barge in France you are required by law to have a completed an ICC (International Course of Competency) and a CEVNI (EuroRegs for inland waterways) licence, luckily being born in the UK and to be still holding a EU passport (plus Australian) I can do the course in the UK instead of having to take it France in FRENCH!!! Checking the internet I had read about a guy from the Trent Boat Handling, Ray Cullis who is a RYA (Royal Yachting Association) instructor with more experience than you could poke a stick at, a ex Royal Navy Seaman and Nottingham River Police Officer working the Trent for I believe over 16 years! I contacted him and arranged to do the course the last week in June and he arranged the hire of a Replica Dutch Barge to use during the instruction, the barge "Louise" was owned, designed and built by Paul Barber of P. J. Barber Boat builder Pty Ltd. Anyway after 2 days of a very testing and tiring time doing various things with the barge under the expert tuition of Ray, who turned out to be a great guy with a great sense of humour, I now have the relevant certificates to navigate most of the canals/rivers of Europe. Ray Cullis RYA Examiner Onboard "Louise" Am I concentrating????     RETURN

 

 

 

We were supposed to be meeting up at London Heathrow Airport Terminal 5, but unfortunately Eileen`s plane was delayed in Singapore and arrived at Terminal 3 only 30mins prior to our departuure to Toulouse making it impossible to transit to Terminal 5! I departed on my lonesome on the 7.50am flight, Eileen would take the later 12.30pm flight. After an uneventfull flight I arrived at Toulouse and made my way to the "Port Savieur Marina" to pick up Columbus who had been left there by Mike and Marina Clark just a few days prior. The one thing that I had to do was repair and service the gray water pump which Mike had taken apart for me, being a little uneducated in anything technical, it was a very daunting thought, but turned out to be fairly straight forward but a little fiddley. Eileen arrived at around 5pm exhausted after nearly 30hrs traveling, the barge was tidy and really all we had to do was fetch provisions and refuel ready for our trip back to our Winter base of Bellegarde which is approx 300+kms south and south east on the Mediterranean, we had Monday to do this ready for our departure on Tuesday, baring in mind that I had not really taken control of Columbus, the refueling bit was a little scarey to say the least, but remembering the instructiuons and tutition given to me by Ray Cullis all went well and we refueled, turned the barge around and pointed her South and we were all ready for our departure at first light on Tuesday morning. We made our way to the first lock which was an up-lock, I had been told it was quite a tall and tricky one, I dropped Eileen off the barge prior to entering and she proceeded to the lock carrying the forward rope. As I entered I had been told to expect a bar/pole set into the lock to secure the centre/rear of the barge, I had to pass the rope behind the pole and as Columbus rose in the lock the rope moved up the pole! Simple Eh? after doing this all went well, Eileen jumped on and we preceeded to the next lock. All of the other up-locking were fairly straight forward and we had no problems. Our first night we moored beside the canal, at Villefranche-de-Lauragais, secured by pins which I hammered into the ground, we had stayed here on previous visits and made our way into the town for dinner at the Hotel de France, (A great place to eat, one of the best meals we had on this trip!!!) The next day we decided to head back into town to pick up some provisions, so we walked the long way along the canal then into town. All went well but we decided to take a taxi back to the barge as we had bought a few things and the bags were quite heavy.Well to my horror on arriving back I saw Columbus sitting across the canal!! My first thoughts were of someone taking out the ropes and letting her go adrift, anyhow I raced to her and jumped onto the front which was still secured, started the engine and proceeded to get her turned around and laying along side the bank again, again good tutition from Ray!! to my horror on doing this I found that passing barges (mostly hire barges) had passed so fast,causing a swell which pulled out the rear pins! (I have since been advised how to set out the pins and touchwood up until now all OK! We then proceeded on to Castelnaudary, a great little town with quite a few good tourist attactions and the home of the "Cassolette" a superb dish of beans and duck and duck sausage! Yummy!!! we stayed on a mooring in the centre at 30euros a night! (I had been told 50euros!!) we had a good walk around stretching our legs, visited the church and viewed the WW1 war memorial. After a coffee in town we headed back and cooked dinner, sitting on the rear of Columbus watching the world pass by. Whilst there we met our first Antipodian bargees, Ken & Rhonda Blakie from New Zealand on their barge MV "Somewhere" A Delta Marine built barge of around 21mts, very big but really nice (Ken was the first to give me advise on tieing up using pins at canalside moorings) Apparently they changed the name of their barge from some obscure Scandanavian sounding name to "Somewhere" which is/was the name of their property in New Zealand. They were really nice couple and we look forward to running into them again in the near future, I believe that they are heading up north of Toulouse to a place called Moissac for the Winter months. We left Castelnaudry after having a couple of nice days, the weather was still quite hot, even for Aussies! It is funny over the summer months in Perth we have regular days of 38c + but when in Europe and the temperture gets over about 30c it feels like 40c and quite uncomfortable! It must be the lack of a sea breeze. The trip down to Carrcassonne was very nice, with some of the nicest scenery in this area, you start hitting the vineyards of Langadoc, also what we noticed was within a matter of a few kilometres of being on our way, the cicardas started to make a terrible noise, it was just like someone had turned them on.   We arrived in Carrcassonne at around 4pm. but unfortunately at this time of arrival and Columbus being 60 feet long, there were no moorings available. Most of the hire boats moor stern to in lines but with our length we have to moor alongside. We were told of one mooring that possibly would be available later that evening, across from the railway station by the hotel, coincidently it was where we had stayed three years before on our first trip to the Midi. We motored through the lock along the canal for a few hundred metres and turned around and tied up alongside the canal bank. As advised a small Locaboat moved away from the mooring around 6pm, and we moved in which then allowed us to have electric and also to fill up our water tanks. We always enjoy being in Carcassonne besides have the Cite there are some great places to visit, there is a really good market in the town square which is surrounded with some nice restaurants and bars. in the Cite you have all of the tourists attractions and shops and again some really nice restaurants with nice menus and good local wines. I do not believe anyone would be dissapointed with a visit here. The Hodges arrived from the UK mid afternoon on the day of the World Cup Final! I worked across the bridge over the canal to meet them at the railway station after their trip from Toulouse. After settling them in then having dinner at the hotel by the canal whilst watching the first half of the final we made preperations for leaving the next day. RETURN

 

The Gang Arrive! We left Carcassonne early on the Sunday morning after a noisy night with crowds celebrating the Spanish win of the World Cup!! the Hodges had settled into their cabin, Michelle had made breakfast and we were on our way. RETURN