Monday 5th May
3 locks and 16km
We left Cercy la Tour at 8.10am and arrived at our
first lock at 9.25am and our lock keeper was waiting for us, perfect! It
was a beautiful sunny morning, with clear skies, and mist rolling off the
water. We arrived at St-Lédger-des-Vignes for 11.40am, getting through
our last lock of the day before the lock keepers lunch.
We did a major shop at the supermarket located a
few steps from the mooring. There is a Leclerc and a Carrefour, so there
is a good choice. Kev also did three fuel runs with 2x 20litre diesel
cans. We are fully stocked again, food, wine and diesel!
When we entered our last lock a mother duck and 8
ducklings jumped in with us. All very sweet, but sad to say when we went
for a walk after dinner she now only has 7 babies. Nature is tough.
Yesterday we went for a 14km bike ride from Cercy
to our first lock; it was another lovely sunny day. We saw a white Stork;
we were surprised how big it was. It flew away before I could get a good
enough photo of it, which was a shame. We've not seen any Storks before
in this area, we will have to keep our eyes peeled from now on.
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| It was a beautiful morning the day we left Cercy It was the longest section of canal without a lock we'd experienced since we left Auxerre And this section was the straightest! |
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| We decided to let this lorry go over the bridge before we went under it! |
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| This mum and babies jumped into the lock and went down with us We were sad to see she had lost one of her brood by the time we saw her that evening |
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| A big shop at the local supermarket, a very handy mooring |
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Tuesday 6th May
2 locks and 3.5km
We had an easy morning, it rained so we planned to stay put. At lunchtime the sun came out so we changed our minds and decided to move to the Decize marina. We rang the lock keeper at 1pm and we were moored up at the marina by 2.30pm. To get here we went along a short section of river Loire, the flow was very quiet.
We are now safely moored at the marina, we are perched at the end of a pontoon; on a short finger again, with half the boat hanging off the end! We are staying here for two nights, costing just under 20 euros.
The forecast is supposed to be good tomorrow. It is pouring down at the moment but very mild.
We were very sad to leave the Nivernais and we will certainly be along that way again, maybe next year. The canal has been very kind to us, friendly lock keepers, putting up with our poor French, and we always managed to moor where we planned. There was also free Wi-Fi at most ports along the way on the Nivernais, which was very much appreciated.
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| There were loads of herons at Decize, this must be because we are close to The Loire this is our last bridge on the Nivernais |
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| Our last lock on the Nivernais |
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| Sunshine has disappeared Decize and the River Loire |
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| The blue rope hangs down from the metal structure You pull the cord and it sets the automatic lock into action |
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| Very convenient slidey pole for the rope, no need for bollards |
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| The Blue pole needs to be pushed upwards to set the lock into action |
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