Wednesday 13th
May
Chambilly to Briennon
3 Locks 16km
We set off at 9.30am,
sharing the first lock of the day with a small hire boat. We continued to
share all the locks with them. We had a lovely trip to Briannon, noting
some places we want to stop at on our return journey. As this canal
is a dead end, terminating at Roanne we will have to retrace our steps.
There is a nice marina at
Briennon, its quite small and busy and no room for us, so we moored up on a
grassy bank; there was only one bollard so we used our pins and spirofix to
make sure we were secure.
We had been told about a
very annoying church clock at Briennon that chimed twice on
the hour and half hour 24/7. Someone (an insomniac maybe) must have
sabotaged it as there was no chiming clock during our stay!
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| Most of the locks on this canal have a fast flowing outlet of water just in front of the entrance to the lock, you maybe able to see it coming out of the wall on the right |
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| Interesting lock gate mechanism |
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| One of the deeper locks 6m |
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| The lock keepers help with the ropes and the lock chamber fills very sedately |
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| Beautiful scenery |
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| A large restaurant boat that sets out from Briennon Luckily we met it on a wide section |
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| Black clouds looming behind |
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| Our mooring at Briennon |
Thursday 14th May
Briennon to Roanne
3 locks 15km
We woke up to a beautiful sunny morning, but this unfortunately disappeared to become a cloudy, chilly, very breezy day. We got to our first lock for 9am as arranged. The lock keeper was a little late and we were concerned we wouldn’t make the last lock into Roanne marina before they closed for lunch, but we made it with 30 minutes to spare and we were moored up by 12 noon.
The Roanne lock keeper kindly rang the Captainaire of the marina called Hervé to say we had arrived. Hervé walked round from his office to speak to us while we were still in the lock to tell us where to moor. We had booked online on the Roanne website so he knew we were arriving. At our first mooring we found that we didn’t have an electricity point that worked that was close enough; so later in the afternoon we changed to a mooring with electric. Kev did a magnificent job of mooring up in a very tight space with very strong winds. We moored up perfectly; he says it was more by luck than judgment!
We were told about a regular Thursday drinks party at a bar overlooking the marina and we invited to join the group. We had a great time meeting people many who are long-term residents at the marina. They were really friendly, so much so they invited us to join them for a Chinese lunch buffet tomorrow.
Briennon to Roanne
3 locks 15km
We woke up to a beautiful sunny morning, but this unfortunately disappeared to become a cloudy, chilly, very breezy day. We got to our first lock for 9am as arranged. The lock keeper was a little late and we were concerned we wouldn’t make the last lock into Roanne marina before they closed for lunch, but we made it with 30 minutes to spare and we were moored up by 12 noon.
The Roanne lock keeper kindly rang the Captainaire of the marina called Hervé to say we had arrived. Hervé walked round from his office to speak to us while we were still in the lock to tell us where to moor. We had booked online on the Roanne website so he knew we were arriving. At our first mooring we found that we didn’t have an electricity point that worked that was close enough; so later in the afternoon we changed to a mooring with electric. Kev did a magnificent job of mooring up in a very tight space with very strong winds. We moored up perfectly; he says it was more by luck than judgment!
We were told about a regular Thursday drinks party at a bar overlooking the marina and we invited to join the group. We had a great time meeting people many who are long-term residents at the marina. They were really friendly, so much so they invited us to join them for a Chinese lunch buffet tomorrow.
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| Leaky lock gates and a very active water outlet on the left. |
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| Our second lock of the day just about to depart. |
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| Our last lock of the day coming up only 0.6m a fairly brisk wind blowing as you may see with the flags The wind got stronger later in the afternoon |
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| A large expanse of water in the marina |
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| Our final resting spot. We hope we will stay here for at least one week, if not two |
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