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| Houards lock 36 |
Very heavy rain in the night, followed by a cooler, sunny day with grey clouds, turning to white ones and a light breeze. Mike went by car to Belleville for some bread and I got on with the last few chores. He found a lady in distress – a student trying to start her moped. He said it was so badly flooded petrol was running out of the exhaust. He helped get it started for her – then the exhaust pipe fell off! She was in a panic as she had to get to Cosne, so spanners out and fixed it back on. We set off at ten after Mike refilled the water tank and reeled the electricity cable in. All the hire boats had gone (we’d had two behind us and three in front overnight) leaving just the ex-Rive-de-France cruiser, Gipsy, on the quay. An ex-hireboat Bermuda was moored by a house next to the gendarmerie a little further down the canal. A converted péniche called Andanto from Gent was moored by the silo quay in Léré and two ex-hireboat cruisers were moored before the hut with the electricity sockets and taps in Léré (we presumed they no longer worked). When we arrived at the first lock,
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| Weather cats!! |
36 Houards (1.90m) there was a hireboat in the lock about to go up but the blonde lady keeper reopened one bottom end gate for us, so we went in (a tight fit) and she filled the lock. The hireboat had a gaggle of Italians on board – at least I think they were Italian as some spoke French, especially a red-haired lady who seemed to be constantly on the ‘phone. I got off and opened a top end gate for our chatty lady keeper who asked if we’d come up a lock today – no, we set off from Sury. She said it was a nice spot and I said yes, and it even had free WiFi which was faster than my Bouygues. She asked if we wanted to buy any wine and I had to say no, the cupboards were full. 3.9 kms to the next. We followed the hireboat which was steering all over the place but soon disappeared into the distance. It was already in the next lock, 35 Peseau (2.30m) when we arrived. The resident keeper, a man in his thirties, asked if we wanted vegetables, no thanks, eggs – yes, a dozen. He came back with nine
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| Silo at Les Fouchards |
little multi-coloured eggs and charged me 2€. A British replica DB called Amity and a small French cruiser were waiting above the lock to go down. The hireboat we’d locked with went for the bank, we thought they were stopping early for lunch, then bounced off with engine at full throttle! A van full of VNF men went past waving as they did so! A Dutch cruiser went past heading downhill as we passed the silos at Les Fouchards. The hireboat had tied up for lunch below the lock, 34 Bannay (3m), so we did likewise. At 1.00 p.m. I walked up to the lock with my locking rope and Mike took the boat into the lock. The elderly gent in charge of the lock spent most of his time on the phone or in his posh new wooden lock cabin with a curly roof. It was a tight fit in the lock as the bollards the hireboat was tied to were set further back than the previous lock, so we had less space behind them. One hireboat was waiting to go down as we set off on the 9.5 kms pound. The hireboat crew stopped by the picnic tables after the first bridge.
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| Old house at Les Fouchards |
A large Dutch Barge moored at Bannay was just starting to untie ropes as we passed them. They followed behind us for a short way. It was a boat called Morgenster which had tried to moor the day before at Sury and Mike had heard the woman shout that there were only two mooring posts left, not enough for them, so they had continued. (They have no mooring pins and hammer?) We were already doing 7 kph – 1 kph faster than they were officially permitted to go as they were obviously over twenty tonnes, but they wanted to overtake. The woman was on the bows and asked Mike if he would move further over so they could overtake. He replied that he wasn’t moving over any further (they had three quarters of the canal, which was getting narrower and had lots of bends) as we would be on the bottom and added they should be OK as long as their steerer could steer! He came past at full throttle with blue smoke curling over his cabin roof and water washing the towpath. Mike was
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| Mairie (town hall) at Bannay |
right in not moving over any further as the passing boat pulled about two feet of water from the canal edges. I steered and Mike took photos! No signs of Barley at St Satur and nobody else moored in the wide section beyond the silos so we continued. The DB gradually disappeared. Mike slowed off so he would be well clear of the next lock by the time we got there. A small DB called Final went past heading downhill with a for sale notice on its roof. A large motor yacht was catching up fast. It came past, Fandango from Porthmadoc, and the skipper said hope you don’t mind us overtaking. Mike said no, not at all, see you at the next lock. He got a strange look. The look was explained very shortly after as the yacht pulled into the last mooring on the quay at Ménétréol. That’s OK, we weren’t stopping. Hotel boat Hirondelle and a hireboat filled the rest of the space on the quay which was right next to a busy road. Morgenster was still in lock 33 Thauvenay (3.6m) when we got there and we could see a péniche called Elizabeth right above the lock.
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| Barn-door type floodgates. St Thibault |
A young student lad emptied the lock for us and we went up. Mike asked if the pound below remained full of water during November and December. Immediately he replied “There is no navigation allowed then”. Mike asked the question again and he said “Yes, it stayed full”. (That’s interesting, because they seem to drain every pound that has no “approved” mooring). An elderly man came by car to chat to the youngster and helped him open the top end gates. The péniche above the lock was a hotel boat we’d see earlier at Chatillon, it was moored 2m out from the bank with its passerelle out for its passengers to get on and off. A long row of bicycles stood beside it. 5.2 kms to the next lock and it was starting to get hotter. A hireboat was coming down in La Grange 32 (1.8m). The keeper, a man in his thirties, closed the left hand bottom end gate before we were in the lock! Unusual. He must have been in a hurry. He indicated that he needed both top end gates opened so I opened one for him while he did the other. 5 kms to the next lock.
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| Trimming Sancerre vines |
We passed Morgenster moored on the quay at Champlais, with just one other boat - a Dawncraft cruiser called Dixie - moored at the uphill end. The steerer was moving ropes on his deck, when we passed he looked the other way! A loaded Dutch péniche called Anti-Lope went past heading downhill with two boats behind it, the first was a Dawncraft going like a train to overtake the loaded boat but making hard work of it as he was causing so much wash he was having trouble steering it (can’t tell them that if they slowed down the boat would go quicker and would be easier to steer) and bounced off the bank, fortunately the far bank! He was followed by a large hireboat. A British yacht called Saradon was coming down in lock 31 Prée (2.10m). Another student lad worked the lock for us. Told him we were stopping at Herry. A couple on a large motorcycle stopped on the lock side to have a good look at the boat. Another LeBoat was on its way down to the lock; we decided we were going for the bridge as we were closer to it than they were – it slowed off to wait - another one that had been travelling down the cut in a series of S-bends. Moored at Herry in front of Barley at around 6.30 p.m. Two hireboats were moored nearer the lock. We chatted with the neighbours as we tied up. I gave Mike a hand to get the bike off the roof and he went to get the car. Later Mike had a look at Jupiter using his binoculars and saw four of its moons.
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