Saturday
16th May
Montbard
to Venarey-les-Laumes
13km
9 locks 4.5hr (including 1 hour for lunch)
We
set off from Montbard to be at our first lock for 9am, a hire boat followed us
into the lock and they travelled with us through the 9 locks to Venarey-Les Laumes. It was a beautiful day so we had perfect
weather for seeing the beautiful countryside surrounding us on our trip.
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| Leaving Montbard |
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| We had company for all the 9 locks |
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| Lovely open countryside on this stretch of the canal |
We
moored up just along from the hotel barge Elisabeth, luckily there was space
for us on the quay, there is electric and water at the mooring, no one came to
take any money from us.
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| Venarey-Les Laumes |
Sunday
17th May
Venarey-les-Laumes
to Pouillenay
4.5km
10 locks 2 hours
It
was another beautiful day, perfect for travelling up the hill to Pouillenay. Last year we undertook some epic days travel with
lots of locks on this stretch of the canal, but we decided to slow it down this
year to make the most of appreciating the fantastic scenery. The photos don’t really
convey how fabulous it is, and it is an absolute must to do it on sunny days,
otherwise it’s a waste.
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| Pouillenay The bollards are very widely spaced apart and the ground was too hard to bang our pins in, we couldn't even bang in our spirofix ground anchor. |
We
moored up in Pouillenay before lunch so we were able to walk the short distance
into the town to buy some bread from the supermarket, which luckily was open, even though it was Sunday.
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| Sunday evening we were serenaded by a young man practising on his accordion in his garden just across from where we were moored He was really good |
Monday
18th May
Pouillenay
to Marigny le Cahoët
6.5km
19 locks 3.5 hours
Another
fabulous day, with efficient lock keepers taking us through the 19 locks to
Marigny. Last year we only moored here
for lunch, but it’s a nice place to stop overnight, except for the bells
chiming on the church clock on the hour every hour and half hour. If you’ve
missed it, it repeats the chimes, so at Midnight you hear 24 chimes! There
is a small supermarket/bakers in Marigny but it was closed today (Monday).
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| A small selection of photos of our trip up the hill to Pouilly |
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| Out of one lock and straight into the next |
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| Marigny is a very nice mooring between lock 27 and lock 26 |
Tuesday
19th May
Marigny
to Pouilly-en-Auxois
34.5km
25 locks 9 hours (including 40 minutes for lunch)
At the first lock of the day we
were asked where we were heading by our lock keeper; we were undecided whether to stop at Pont Royal or to continue all the way to
Pouilly. We wanted to see how we felt at lunch time. The lock keeper didn’t understand
our French, when we tried to say we weren’t sure, so we made the
decision, due to the poor weather forecast for Wednesday (thunderstorms) we’d go to
Pouilly. Our lock keeper was operating
the locks on his own so the going was a little slow, but he was great. The last lock that he was responsible for was
AFTER Pont Royal, but because he had to have his
lunch we had to stop at Pont Royal. This was a shame, as after the Pont
Royal lock there is a 10km stretch with no locks.
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| Lock keepers assistant |
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| He was very cute |
We
arrived at Pouilly just after 6pm and we were pretty tired. 25 locks are a lot of locks! We were pleased to see Quercy (55’ Piper)
already moored up. We’d
corresponded with the new owners a couple of days ago as the canal jungle drums
had told them we were on our way up to Pouilly, so we planned to meet up. They had just arrived from the opposite
direction, having successfully come through the Pouilly tunnel.
We plan to stay here for a few days. There is a great supermarket near the mooring, plus a fuel station (Kev's already completed a few fuel runs with his 2 x 20l canisters.)
The forecast rain has arrived today, but no thunderstorms as yet.
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| Quercy and Rangali getting to know each other |
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