Tuesday 29th May 2018 Chevenon to below Guétin 17.5kms 1 staircase (2-rise) lock

Top lock of the Nevers branch

19.9ºC Sunny with hazy clouds, muggy, thunderstorm and torrential rain around 4.30pm. Mike turned the boat using ropes and the slight flow, then we set off at 10.55am to do the remaining 17kms of the 21kms pound. The cycle path was busy, as was the minor road on the left of the canal. The road went over a bridge to our right and was beyond the cycle path and therefore a bit quieter. Fed up with the amount of insect bites we’d had over the last few days, so we resorted to applying insect

Hireboat at the junction with the Nevers branch

repellent. It works very well and although the bugs still try to land they don’t like the smell and buzz off! Otherwise it was a good day for insects – ladybirds, black bees, and a bee hawkmoth took a fancy to the flowers on our pigeon box. We were overtaken by a Le Boat hire boat, first overtaking boat since leaving base. Ten minutes later we passed it circling round in the junction where the two lock branch descends to Nevers and the Loire (the river is inaccessible as it is un-navigable these days).

New VNF signs - not in kms now -
it tells hireboaters how many days!

There is a suspended pole to pull to operate the locks but as it didn’t seem to be working and it was 12.10pm we suspected that they would be stuck there until after lunch at 1pm. We took photos as we passed them. Under the motorway and there was an overpowering stink as we passed a field that had recently been sprayed with muck. Just beyond was the mooring at Plagny and people were sitting at picnic tables, eating lunch and ignoring the pong. One Nichols hire boat was moored at the corner of the layby, all of its ropes around one bollard, boat deserted, crew off to lunch. Looked like most of the Nichols boats were at base at the other end of the layby. An old yacht with a red hull was moored under walnut trees before the two bridges at Challuy. A DB was coming towards us so Mike slowed off for it to come through the far bridge as it was péniche width bridge, then we passed him in the wider railway bridge closest to us. It had a very smoky engine and a skipper who didn't seem too pleased at us passing under a bridge! Bags of room. Not often seen alongside canals, there was a large vehicle breakers yard at Le Pont Carreau. Several cars and vans were red rusty after being burned out. There was a roving bridge at Gimouille where the towpath changed sides. A large square-fronted hotel boat called Deborah went past, its

Old crane at Gimouille

steerer on the roof (must have to duck when they go under bridges – Mike said he thought it had a hydraulic wheelhouse). A DB was moored in the layby at Gimouille and a replica Loire sailing boat. Part of the layby was reserved for hotel boats. The water in the very wide section that followed was going every which way after the slow hotel boat had churned its way through it. Posts marked the fact that it was silting up. A sharp right turn, under a bridge and back to standard canal width leading to an aqueduct over the river Allier, a big tributary of the Loire, at the end of which is the deep staircase two-rise of Le Guétin. The light on the end of the aqueduct went to red. We hovered a short while, got a green and went slowly over the aqueduct by which time the lock was full and the keeper pressed the button to open the gates and we went into the top chamber. He asked where we were going – in the layby below, hoping the weather will be good enough to finish off our painting – he gave Mike the phone number for the next lock when we’re ready to move on. A man in a suit was

Aqueduct over the river Allier

taking photos of my roses! Rope on to go down the first chamber but the sloping walls on the lower chamber had no recessed bollards and neither of us felt we ought to climb the shiny new ladders, so we dropped down with a stern rope on the ladder, no problems. Waved Au’voir to our lock keeper. There was a trip boat waiting to go up as we left. We moored as far from the busy road bridge over the tail end of the staircase as possible (noisy) passing the DB from Southampton which had been moored in front of us a couple of days earlier. Three cruisers were moored in front. It was