Thursday 24th May 2018 Pierrefitte to Abv lk 10 Rosière 24.2kms 6 locks

Abbaye de Sept Fons through the trees

10.1ºC Misty first thing then sunny and hot, blue skies, white clouds building up late afternoon. The Aussie boat that moored behind us overnight (a widebeam made in the UK that they bought in Briare) left at 8.40am heading uphill. Mike managed to stop a VNF man in a van to tell him that we were leaving Pierrefitte, see you at the next lock at 9.30. We set off at 9.15am. The only boat left on the moorings was a smart French cruiser. A short distance to lock 4 Theil. The keeper in a blue van was chatting with the guy who was cutting the towpath grass. We had one gate open for us (they do talk to one another) and he wound the

The PSA foundry at Sept Fons

bottom end paddles – then we spotted that a top end paddle was still open and water was shoving the boat off the wall. Our lock keeper swiftly shut it. 2kms to the next lock, winding through cattle country with trees along both banks as is often the case on this canal. A stork flew over and minutes later an egret. The same keeper worked lock 5 Putay for us, then bid us au’voir as his colleague would be at the next lock. 6.5kms of meandering mud-coloured water to the next. A big project was underway building a new railway bridge alongside the old one across the river Loire,

Lock 8 Beaulon

getting ready to slide the massive structure into place. Would be great to see that done – maybe it will be on TV. Into Diou. Barge Aurigny was moored there, its crew waved – looks like they were preparing to paint their roof. Lots of yellow iris along the canal banks and masses of acacias, lots of its white flowers floating on the canal in big floating mats blown by the wind. Crossed an aqueduct over the river Besbre, straight into lock 6 Besbre. A new man in a VNF van worked the lock for us, dropping 

Boats moored at Beaulon

down 3.2m. Below the lock an arm on the left takes boats into the town of Dompierre-sur-Besbre. On past the PSA foundry (still working, making crankshafts and brake parts) and past the Abbaye de Sept Fons, surrounded by parked coaches. 3.6kms, the last 1.5kms dead straight, to lock 7 Bessais. It was nearly midday so we half expected our keeper to have gone for his lunch, but no the lock was ready for us and he worked it. We left the lock at 12.05pm so he wouldn’t be very late for his dinner. 4.9kms to the next so it should be after l’heure à manger by the time we get there. Mike pointed

The Lighthouse at Garnat

out that we no longer had a metalled cycle piste for a towpath. We could hear the song of a rarely seen bird, golden oriole, in the woods alongside the canal. A new man in a van greeted us at lock 8 Beaulon. He said Ghengis Kahn! How about that, very few people know that Temujin was the name of the famous Mongol warrior – he didn’t know it meant man of iron though! There were four campervans and four boats moored in the basin at Beaulon, still loads of space for more. Not today! 2kms to our last lock of the day and our chatty keeper was there to work lock 9 Clos du May for us. Two boats were moored below the lock in the shade, a small DB and an ex-hireboat with silver reflectors in its windows (we do that when it gets unbearably

Moored in the wilds before lock 10 Rosiere

hot, only 25ºC today with a cool breeze). Took photos of The Lighthouse by the moorings in Garnat-sur-Engievre, now shuttered and empty it used to belong to some English friends Roy and Audrey who had a narrowboat but settled there and converted the old wine warehouse into a large and comfy house. An ex-hireboat was moored (looked permanent) with its bows on the empty pontoon. 5.7kms to the next lock and we’re not going through that until tomorrow so we have loads of choice for a wild mooring. A tractor towing a grass cutting machine was heading in the same direction as us. We stopped short of Rosière lock and tied up using pins on the non-towpath side. Had to spray our ropes and fenders with bug killer as an army of large black ants decided to invade. It was 2.30pm

A golden oriole - not my photo (I wish!)

and typical – we had not seen another boat moving all day - and a large white cruiser went past as Mike was knocking pins in the corners of the piling to tie up. Peace returned after he’d gone and the grass cutter had trundled on towards the next lock. Set up the satellite dish and then looked for French TV (not a good enough signal here – middle of nowhere).