Canal du Nivernais 4

We left the next morning, after another visit to the boulangerie, to make our way back up to the Etang de Baye.

As were getting ready to leave a Crown Blue Line hireboat sped past. Later, as the first lock came into view, we saw them just going in. The eclusier waited for us and we went in behind. The party on the hireboat consisted of two women, two men and a dog. One of the men got very agitated as we rose in the lock. He was shouting at his companions, at the lock keeper, and possibly at the dog. We couldnt catch all his French, but he seemed concerned for the safety of the boat and how the ropes were being handled.

Going up in the locks the front boat does get bounced around quite a bit and the two 14m boats, ours steel, their GRP, were a close fit. We shared the locks with this same boat for the rest of the day and the guy calmed down as the day went on and later on we even had some jokey moments regarding our rope throwing skills.

We moored for the night along the wall by the lake again, our lock sharers went along to the ‘port’ (boatyard) presumably for the electric hookup as the view from there was nowhere near as good as ours.

Sunset over the lake:

View across the lakeSunsetSunset
In the morning we got on the bikes again and cycled around the lake. The weather was a little cooler, which was a good thing.
After a misunderstanding with the eclusier over timing (he controls the tunnel traffic lights) we set off through the tunnels and back down the long flight on the other side.

A bridge which looked typically English, it wouldnt be out of place on the Macclesfield. Most of the bridges span the whole canal and dont have a towpath through the arch bridge
Cutting A long straight cutting with several bridges over
A lovely quiet country mooring for our last night. We were joined by a private French boat. The youngest occupants of which went swimming in the canal. Bearing in mind that most boats dont have holding tanks, and all waste goes straight intio the canal, it’s not something that I’d want to do! Last Night
The next morning it was overcast and raining but brightened up by the afternoon. As we approached a lock we could see two boats in there side by side. We thought that they must be narrowboats, but when the lock opened four came out! It was a group of Wilderness owners from Basingstoke. An odd sight

We had plenty of time to get back to the hire base so we stopped off at Chitry les Mines and cycled into the lovely little town of Corbigny.
As the eclusiers dont come on duty until 9:00 and we had to have the boat back by then we went back to Marigny-sur-Yonne and spent the last night there.

We had a really great time, the only minus point was that the boat was an absolute pig to steer. We are used to handling heavy, steel narrowboats, but this was much worse. Some other hirers who were used to GRP boats found the Euroclassics almost unmanagable.

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