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The area of France where this river runs is very beautiful, the river has carved its way through the hills making deep ravines so we had steep cliffs and pretty villages perched on the sides of the cliff! But what made it perfect for us was the warm sunny weather, every day was perfect!
Three couples, Suzette’s two brothers and their wives, we all had different holidays but met up in a small French village called Douelle the pick up base for our boat.
The Lot river can be navigated from Luzech to Cregols, 128 km and has 14 locks. We did the whole river so went through 28! We set off from the base upstream so the lock had to be filled after entering which rocked the boat so the rope holders had to hang on tightly! The driver of the day had to pull alongside to a small jetty prior to each lock to drop off which tested the skill of the driver and the balance of the crew!The time that we all spent together on the boat was really good fun. Six very different people all in close proximity! The toilets were great fun! They were typical nautical loos that had to be pumped out after use which proved both noisy and difficult for the ladies! The showers were difficult because of the small space but a good hot water system. The galley was excellent and we all had turns at meal preparation. We tasted some wonderful local food with several different cheeses being tried. The fresh fruit was very special, strawberries to die for! We bought crusty baguettes fresh from the bread shops and really enjoyed the local wines. Prior to the trip we had imagined that we would eat at restaurants most of the time but only on 3 occasions did that happen as we created some wonderful feasts on the boat.
The area that we travelled on the river Lot is very lovely French countryside with breathtaking scenery of villages perched on hillsides, castles and Chateau’s looking like Disney creations. The weather was perfect and because it was late in the season we saw very little other river traffic. Locks were both hard work and fun! Nobody fell in! but we got better as be learned the skills needed! Parts of the river are shallow with rocks but these areas are well marked on the maps provided. Someone sat alongside the driver each day to navigate pointing out the hazards and which buoy we had to go round! The river has a strong current which powers the hydro electric station at Luzech so the boat was a bit tricky to handle at times, each male had a go and we were all soon experts! Well, we got the boat back in one piece! It weighs 16 tons so we were shown pictures of one that used a bridge to stop and the damage was horrible! We just scratched ours a bit!I can honestly say that we all had a holiday of a lifetime and laughed a lot!
As I have said we had several very lovely French villages to explore and one of them has been awarded the prettiest village which makes it very special. I had taken several photos and intended doing a seperate blog but this web site says it all and has some good photos We parked our boat and walked up the hill through narrow paved streets. Please visit the site and enjoy!
http://www.quercy-tourisme.com/st-cirq-lapopie/english/saint-cirq_english.html
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September 26th, 2007 · No Comments
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September 9th, 2007 · 1 Comment
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| A special day! |
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Many years ago a relative said to me “whatever the mind can perceive, you can achieve” and at the time I had little idea of what he was talking about. It boils down to beliefs about yourself, if you really want to achieve something great in life you must believe it is possible. If you don’t then it will never happen! I work with students who have their life in front of them and they have all the advantages of a wonderful school where learning is made as understandable as possible but many students will not achieve the position in life that they would like because they do not believe it is attainable.Here is a nice story of a student who had a dream. I knew her quite well because I was a school bus driver for several years and she was one of my regular passengers. She learned that I was a private pilot and asked me all about the training that I had done. I was amazed when she revealed to me that she was going to be a helicopter pilot when she left school! And when she achieved that she would land on the college oval to show the teachers that she had achieved her goal! Not surprisingly, few people took much notice but that did not deter her. She achieved some very high qualifications and could have gone to university and be a doctor, lawyer or any profession she wished. She joined the RAAF and went to flying school but the path to becoming a helicopter pilot was very hard. Firstly she had to get her wings on fixed wing aircraft, then she found female pilots were not expected to be trained as helicopter pilots and she almost gave up. But it must have been obvious to her instructors that she would just keep applying until they gave her a chance!Here are some wonderful pictures of this remarkable lady, now a captain of her aircraft! visiting our college. I was pleased to give her a big hug!!
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Earlier this year Suzette and I went to a B&B on a farm about 2 hours from Adelaide. It was called ” The Dairy” and was in a small town called Springton. It was very quiet at night and very peaceful. The birds came to visit us at breakfast each day and were surprisingly tame considering how shy the Blue Wren is normally. So I took these photos which came out quite well.
The Female is dull compared to the bright blue of the male!
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I will add various pictures of my family as I get more used to this wonderful blog site! but the one photo that I love is me with my sons. David has made this site possible to which I am very grateful. Check him out at davidgriffo.com Jeremy is building ships in Perth and has a lovely home in the Perth hills. I am very proud of them both and love and admire them.
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John’s Blog and travel adventures!
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Although I am retired I have a great job, two actually!, at a large girls college very close to our home. (I can walk) My main job is to look after all functions that the college holds. These can be Clan birthdays, we have clans because of a Scottish heritage. The clan is like a house. Our clans are Cameron, Bruce, Douglas and Stewart. Birthdays are fun, that day starts with pipers at assembly and the students wear their clan colours. The lunch which I organize with the help of parents. They usually have tables set with balloons and lollies and a beautiful birthday cake. They all have Piza! Followed by icecreams. I serve cups of tea and coffee to teachers and helpers!Other functions include reunions and fundraisers. Also meetings and training which may include grog or just soft drinks. I also work in the school library for 1. 1/2 hours a day as the ‘after school care supervisor! it involves looking after about 30 students who sit doing homework and playing games on 35 computers. I watch that they are not accessing any naughty sites.
Here is a photo of me at work!!
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