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| Nuclear power station nr Belleville |
14.6ºC Lots of clouds with sunny spells, hot
again. A narrowboat went past heading uphill – its skipper just
about managed to return our waves after Mike hit the horn button. Comes to
something when the first nb we’ve seen moving in ages sticks his nose in the
air! The UK replica DB set off before
us, we left at 9.45am, 5kms to the first of only two locks. A British guy
returning from the boulangerie with a pain stuffed under his arm paused to chat
as we untied, his campervan was
parked with others by the silo. Took photos of
the steam rising from the twin cooling towers of the nuclear power plant at
Neuvy-sur-Loire. Only one boat on the moorings at Sury (water and electric free).
The canal was no longer hemmed in by trees with good views across the meadows
and cornfields. Through Belleville, mowing machines working overtime to keep
the grassy banks looking like striped lawns, lots of empty mooring and a
slipway – just one moored boat, a British replica barge. The DB
in front had just left lock 37
Belleville and a tjalk was about to come up. We
hovered until the DB left the lock then the very pleasant chatty bearded keeper
worked the lock for us – Mike shut one top end gate for him and opened a bottom
end gate. Sunshade up as it was getting very hot again and there was only the
slightest of light breezes. 3kms to our last downhill lock on the Latéral
canal. Photo of a big cornfield and barns at Cheneviers. Should have taken a
photo – our lock keeper at 38 Maimbray was thin, white-
haired and bearded, wearing shorts and
wellies (to guard against snakes??) and must have been in his eighties (we
thought all VNF retired at 55 with a decent pension). He had a bit of a struggle to
open a gate due to the flow of water that was running over a storm weir to our
right. I don’t think he understood our French, but he smiled when we thanked
him for working the lock for us and told him we were stopping before Briare and
setting off again next day at 9.30am. It was 11.30am as we set off on the 19 kms
long pound (what’s the opposite of a summit level?) which finishes on the far
side of famous Briare aqueduct. We’re not going that far today. The old chap
had just shut the gate behind us and we’d been going for about five minutes
when the next hireboat went past heading uphill, crew sitting out on the top
deck under an awning, all waving. At Beaulieu there was an old silo with quay
and weighbridge which didn’t look much used. In the town there were yet more moorings
with free water and electric, again didn’t look much used. Passed a winding
hole – which made us think – we haven’t seen
many of those on this canal. Then
we saw a very welcome sight – the first moorhen we’d seen this year – but it
quickly hid under the lower branches of an alder tree before Mike had even got
the lens cap off the camera. Still going through Beaulieu when the next vessel
went past, another cruiser. At the village of L’Etang there is
branch to the Loire, a crossing that was in use until they built the aqueduct at
Briare, a VNF sign said Navigation interompue – in other words it’s shut.
Through a bridge with flood gates and into a narrower, tree-lined section of
canal with stone walls along each bank and a long, repaired section of sloping
concrete. A bit further on we were swatting clegs (small horseflies) as hotel boat Horizon II (a
shortened converted péniche) went past, passengers and crew waving and shouting
hello. Still following the old canal, which was below us as there were several
locks down to the river, once past the concreted banks there were lots of places
where the banks were badly eroded. Two VNF houses stood by another bridge with flood
gates where the canal below us joined the Loire. There were moored boats on the
old canal at the junction and Mike spotted there were water and electric posts.
An Aussie-flagged cruiser went past which had just set off from the moorings in
Chatillon. The moorings were choc-a-block, loads of boats including tjalk Miss
Marple (seen years ago) and the new DB and widebeam Waterman (sheeted
up), plus there were now lots of parking places for campervans, most of them
occupied, then the Le Boat hire base with only about half a dozen boats missing.
On to an embankment and after a couple of bridges we moored at Les Haute-Rives,
site of the long-gone Berry Plaisance hire base. There were two permanent boats
moored there, a DB (lived on by the looks of it) and a cruiser
with a mailbox alongside it (not lived in, been left a long time by the looks
of it). There were convenient rings to tie to. It was 1.30pm when we tied up.
Mike got the shears out and trimmed the overhanging herbage to keep the
marauding ants off the boat. Hot and getting hotter.
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| Cornfield at Cheneviers |
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| Notice on lockside at 39 Maimbray forbidding the public access to the lock sides and gates |
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| Old lock to the Loire at l'Etang |
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| Hotel boat Horizon II |
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| A heron about to take off |
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| Moored at Hautes-Rives |
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