Life is lunch in a lock

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We are now in a Halt Nautique outside of a village called Mailly le Chateau. Most of the halt nautiques along the canals provide free electricity and water! They are usually close to a town or village; all of the ones we have stopped at so far have been delightful, including this one. We have been moving along at a fairly fast pace of 6-8 klm per hour and have had some long days, starting at nine , compulsory 1 hour lunch stop when all the lock keepers stop and then a another 3-4 hours in the afternoon before another compulsory stop for sundowners, between 1600 and 1700 hours( we are getting used to French Time) usually outside a town along the canal bank. A very hard life!

We did have one day where we did 27 locks! All downhill including a staircase series of 16 nonstop. Marg cycled all the way helping the lockkeepers to open and close the gates.

We met a young Tasmanian guy who was rowing a mirror dinghy from Rouen to Roanne, shades of Jack de Crow. He was having a few issues with officious lockkeepers when we last saw him saying he couldn’t take a small boat through the lock, this despite having done hundreds.

We were a little concerned that we may dawdle too much and get snowed in for the winter but so far the weather has been cool in the mornings and sunny and warm for most of the day. We toyed with the idea of rushing to Paris for the winter season but luckily the marina was fully booked up so we have slowed down and will end up wherever we end up for the winter, possibly Briare on the Canal a Lateral a Loire.

The Nivernais canal is one of the prettiest we have been on, gorgeous countryside with some splendid scenery and villages. We have found at least 5 places we would like to live! The area from Baye to Clamecy is much forested and the canal goes through some very narrow stages and is covered by trees. (See extra photos) We went through 3 tunnels which is a bit disconcerting especially as our security light thought it was night time and came on and dazzled us, bumpity bump!

Steering vintage cru is a challenge after a long keeled yacht which has good directional stability, let go of the wheel and off she goes towards the banks. It took a bit of getting used to but we seem to have got the hang of it now although the fenders do get used a lot. Some of the people driving charter boats give us few worrying moments, especially one who hit the bank and spun around right in front of us. Met our first Aussie lot on a charter boat, bit of a surprise to see a blow up kangaroo steering the boat ( we think there may have been someone down below steering as well. Lots of Aussie cheers and G'days as we passed.

Touch wood (not much on this plastic boat) everything seems to be going well with vintage cru apart from a few more plumbing leaks here and there. Our engine-heated hot water supply is great, long hot showers whenever we want, a change from deck showers on Swara.



We should be in Auxerre in next couple of days when we may make a decision as to where to go next.

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Comments

[Home and Away]

Much more interesting canals...
than the ones we "barged" in Holland.