Wednesday 11th August 2010 Haute Rives to Beaulieu. 8.8 kms no locks

Ecluse de l'Etang on the old canal leading to the Loire
crossing, made obsolete when Briare aqueduct was built.

Grey and overcast with showers of light drizzle. We set off at ten, shouting au’voir to the lady from the house as we left. Charley followed a bit later as they travel faster than us. Into Chatillon-sur-Loire. The first boat was moored well before the bend; Elizabeth, another péniche sized hotel boat, was almost halfway across the canal due to the sloping banks. More houseboats were moored up as far as the corner and the basin, where the small-boat finger moorings were. Most of these were occupied by permanent moorers. A LeBoat hire base was next to the basin and it had quite a few boats not out on hire, then there was a long line of un-named houseboats and “dead” boats all the way along the canal to the bridge and two elegant houses. To our great surprise the next cruiser then went past heading towards Briare was Lady Aberdour, the wreck that had been moored for years at Fleury on the Nivernais. It still looked in very bad shape. A string of hire boats went past, all in the same direction, heading for Briare. A white van was parked on the towpath between the new canal and the old one that leads down to the Loire (before the building of the aqueduct boats had the arduous task of crossing the Loire to reach the canal de Briare). 

Moorings at Beaulieu

A large flock of sheep were wandering along the towpath and a golden retriever was with them, also chewing grass and taking no notice. We guessed the shepherd was asleep in his van! At 11.30 a.m. we found an empty mooring just right for us and Charley (who had just caught up) so we tied up at Beaulieu. Cruiser Dreamcatcher was moored in front and the British couple told us that hotel boat Anna-Marie had left earlier, which was why there was a space. A notice on the electric box said they moor there every Tuesday. The Brits on Dreamcatcher also said the mooring with water and electric was free, which was good news as my ‘fridge had just finished defrosting. Mike went off on the moped to get the car at 2.15 p.m. and I made a start on sorting the log and stuff to blog. The Internet was infuriatingly slow on uploading pictures as it was EDGE = 2G, then it started dropping out and I had to keep reconnecting it even though it said it was a full strength signal. Finally it froze altogether which made the PC hang so I turned it off.