Tuesday 3rd August 2010 Abv Gazonne to Ouzouër-sur-Trèzée 4.94 kms 6 locks

DB moored above Gazonne lock 12

Cool night. Lots of grey clouds first thing, clearing later to become hot and sunny again. We set off and ran down to the lock for nine. Nothing else stirred. Amazing! There were loads of hireboats moored above the lock. The neighbours were staying to do some painting. Two feeds from the reservoirs were running into the canal’s summit level above the top lock. Spoke to the guy off Lara as he was on his way back to his boat. A very affable middle-aged resident keeper told us to hit the green button (we knew that already, OK) and when he asked if I wanted a rope on a bollard and I said no, not really, he said OK. So away we went, downhill, ropeless, slowly down lock 12 Gazonne (2.20m). It was very still and quiet in the morning cool. House martins were nesting under the bridge over the tail end of the lock and several herons flew over the misty water below the lock. Just 900m to the next lock. A new Halte Nautique had been made on the left bank and a full length Dutch Barge called Katarina-Elizabeth was moored on it, filling it, with a large campervan parked next to it.

Lock house Petit Chaloy lock 11

The empty lock house at lock 11, Petit Chaloy (3.50m) still looked very smart. The lock had a metal liftbridge over the tail end. As we were leaving two VNF man in a van arrived and lowered a hose (which was too short) into the canal – must be watering the gardens. We took bets on whether they would refill the lock! Lock 10 Notre Dame (3.90m) had no house on the lockside of the new canal – it was set further back on our left alongside the old canal. The VNF van arrived on the lockside as we left. Lock 9 Les Fées (the fairies) (3.40m) had another lovely old house and ancient outbuildings (we couldn’t decide if they were the original lock house or not) again empty, uninhabited. It also had a metal liftbridge over the tail end. A longer pound of 900m took us to lock 8 Moulin Neuf (3.60m) where we had a short wait while uphill boats cleared the lock, a small tjalk and a large yacht, both British flagged, then we went down. Another one which still had its metal liftbridge at the tail end. 1.8 kms to the next so I made a cuppa. Just had time to drink it before we arrived at lock 7 Ouzouër; two boats had just come up, a small British yacht and a hireboat. 

Notre Dame lock 10

I pressed the button to set the lock working then went a walk into the town to get a loaf for lunch. Met Mike bringing the boat in to moor on the quay below the lock. DB Corita was still moored at the top end of the quay below the road bridge and, after a gap, the hotel boat Anna-Maria was still moored there too (both had been there the day before when Mike left the car there). We went beyond them to the end of the quay. In no time the moorings filled up with hireboats in front of us and a small yacht and cruiser side by side behind us. The latter pulled our electric connection out while we were setting up the satellite and put a splitter in as only one of the two sockets worked. It would have been polite if they’d had said they were going to do that. After lunch we put the PCs on. 

17th century lock house at Moulin Neuf lock 8 on the old canal

Still no Internet. It loaded up on 3G and dropped out, wouldn’t work in the open on the roof and so we gave up. The lunchtime hireboats left so Mike decided to move our plug to the next post back up the quay next to the hotel boat as there was a spare unused socket – it didn’t work! The two behind us had gone and we never noticed them remove their splitter. Mike got ours out so the boat which had just moored in front of us could split with us. He asked them if they were going into the town would they ask at the Mairie for someone to reconnect the two sockets which don’t work. They said they would. Within ten minutes a lady from the Mairie arrived and reset the breakers in the locked boxes.