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| Fountains in Le Guetin staircase |
Still chilly overnight. Hot and sunny with clear open skies. When we rolled out of bed at nine there was just us and a péniche houseboat called En Route from Dorinchem on the quay. We untied and winded at 10.15 a.m. as the staircase lock, 21-22 Le Guetin (8.80m), started emptying. We went into the bottom chamber and a friendly resident keeper lowered a rope and hook for my rope, which he dropped on a bollard for me. Then he pressed buttons in his control cabin to close gates and open paddles. The bottom chamber filled gently and he even opened gate paddles to make a spectacular double fountain (for the benefit of the gongoozlers). Repeat performance on the top chamber, except the single ground paddle is on the left (the bottom chamber had two – must remember the top has only one and on our “wrong” side) so the boat gently moved over to the left hand wall as I left the rope slack to let it go – no use trying to stop it, it would just list heavily as the water took the hull sideways. The keeper, of course, knew all about this and so did we – except we forgot! No problem. He gave Mike a “customer satisfaction” survey form to fill in for the VNF. A man on the bank said he’d seen us on the Saône last year at one of the locks when he was fishing there.
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| Aqueduct over the river Allier |
A lone LeBoat was waiting at the far end of the single-boat-width (péniche, that is, 5,30m) aqueduct over the river Allier and getting twitchy. Even on a Thursday morning with the kids back at school now, there were still people walking the path across the aqueduct, 343m long. Down below the Allier runs fast in places, between banks of sand and man-made training walls built with rocks. Now we were on a long pound, 20.7 kms, of winding canal passing Nevers (which is accessed by a branch down to the Loire where there is now a new port de plaisance - we stayed there for free in the winter of 1994, just us and three yachts – now it costs 125€ a month + extra for water and electricity).
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| Old crane at the port de Gimouille |
We paused just after the aqueduct at Gimouille where there was a long quay along a wide section of canal and an old crane on the quay. Mike winded and went back for me to step off and take photos of the old crane which was cranked by hand and had a chain mechanism. I went in the cabin to make a sandwich for lunch and, as we went through one of the new wide bridges on a bend, a hireboat went past – far too fast and on the edge of being under control, almost banging into the piling with its stern end. At 12.45 p.m. we passed the Nicolls hirebase at Plagny, where most of their hire boats were attached to the pontoons and not out on hire, plus a couple of cruisers including an old Dawncraft. A little further on there was a strange looking craft moored which might have been some sort of trip boat.
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| A trip boat? Plagny. |
A very pleasant day, sun shining, hot but with a refreshing breeze. Mike put the sunshade up. A Swiss cruiser was moored by the first of the two automatic locks on the arm down to Nevers, built to access the Loire. The locks were switched off over the VNF staff’s lunch break! The fancy new tarmac cycle piste, which started at the aqueduct, finished by the Nevers branch and returned to being a wide stony, grassy path. I made a cuppa, nice refreshing decaff Earl Grey for me (makes a change from coffee). Took a photo of derelict houses (lengthsman’s?) around KP98.5. A hireboat was catching up as we approached Chevenon where we planned to moor. Instead of overtaking they stooged along behind us through the bridge then they stopped, presumably to take a look at Chevenon village.
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| Derelict canalside houses. |
We continued about 500m to the stone quay with mooring rings where we’d moored previously. Across the river is the busy little town of Imphy so we guessed we would get the Internet. We did but still only EDGE (2G) but workable. No TNT digital TV but a good strong analogue signal from the transmitter on top of a hill far away in the Morvan. It was around 2.30 p.m. and getting much hotter. The British hireboat crew spoke as they passed us, on their way to Fleury. It was getting very hot until the sun went behind the trees on our right. A large square looking steel cruiser moored overnight behind us on the other stone quay.
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