"ONCE AGAIN INTO THE BREACH, DEAR FRIENDS............."

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"ONCE AGAIN INTO THE BREACH, DEAR FRIENDS............."

If you thought "cruising susan" and "pilate pete" had ceased to have puff and stuff for blogging you would be partly right. "It depends" as lawyers would say. We did stop telling you all about our adventures after our circumnavigation but that did not stop us going to Fiji, Vietnam, Spain, the British Virgin Islands and New Zealand since our last report. When the camera got mislaid after Fiji we lost the blogplot but now we are headed to Burgundy for another nautical (freshwater rather than marine) venture, so we thought it was time to revitalise the travel story.

Barging (CS is rather known for that in some circles) is the plan.

PP has cousins (lots of cousins) who turn out to be really splendid folk and we decided some time ago that a sister and brother team, together with respective spouses, would be suitable companions on the waves (ripples, we hope). Their eligibility is largely achieved because they drink, laugh a lot, enjoy good food and were prepared to join us. So the six of us head off tomorrow (one lot is actually already in Denmark to attend a wedding) to wonderful Paris (yes it is almost as wonderful as Copenhagen but CS can say that since she was born there - Copenhagen, that is!). The cousins have not yet seen Paris so CS and PP will enjoy feeling like ‘old-hands’ (well, perhaps not) and we are looking forward to a few days in that lovely city before we hop a train (the right train, we hope) to get to a little out of the way place called Vermenton. We will tell you later what happens then.

Preparations were pretty painless. Once the gang of six worked out that it is not feasible to travel by river from Amsterdam to Budapest privately, because you can only go by one of those flashy river caravans with hundreds of others or if you are engaged in some commercial activity (a different type of barge - oh the coal-dust) something more modest seemed appropriate. Lots of choices of styles, locations, durations etc presented, but slipping gently (if not quietly) along the Nivernais Canal/Yonne River in the wine growing region of Burgundy on a barge built for six was easy to vote for.

We picked our Captain without rancour based on his having the greatest sailing prowess, even though said cousin John (C - as in captain, silly - J) has complained ever since of suffering frequent bouts of mutiny from the unruly crew (even before we get on board). The captain’s wench, Jolly Janet (JJ) is the French linguist amongst us, CS is the unofficial ‘tour guide’, PP the navigator and IT operator and intrepid Jane (IJ) and encyclopaedic Bob (EB) are full bodied and able (able bodied?) to do most anything that they may be called upon to do (if they feel like it).

So, enough - we are away my hearties!! Watch this space.

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Comments

[Hanne Worsoe]

Dear Cruisin Susan and Pilot Pete
Sounds like a perfect holiday you two, in one of the most wonderful wine regions. Enjoy! Sorry to miss you both at Bev's in June - see you when you return from your marvellous adventure! - Hanne PS - I am not a native of Copenhagen, but both my sister and I would agree with you, Copenhagen is as wonderful as the song abut it - although Paris is hard to argue about, you have to admit...