Rangali Adventures: Châtillon-en-Bazois to Ecluse 24/Ecluse 24 Ansty to Cercy La Tour

Friday 2^nd May

Châtillon-en-Bazois to Ecluse 24

8 Locks

20km

We set off at 9am; it was quite busy with hire boats going off in opposite directions after the holiday yesterday.

We had a good trip, but we had quite a bit of rain, we shared locks most of the way, but all ok. There were loads of lock keepers on duty today, probably because yesterday no boats could move they knew most would be today. We are now moored up just above Ecluse 24. Just after the bridge there is a wide section where we moored last year, its very quiet and rural. We have knocked some pins on to moor up to.

As we arrived we noticed some chaps fishing, so we moored a long way away from them. A while after we had moored a lady walked up to our boat and saw us sitting on the back deck, she called to the chaps who had been fishing, they were about 50m from us. It sounded like she was speaking Scandinavian. Shortly after two young guys around 13-14 years old knocked on our door and asked if we spoke English. They explained that we had “cut” across the pound to moor and ruined their fishing lines and what ever was attached, around 14 euros worth. They said they were on a weeks fishing holiday, and now couldn’t fish anymore. You can imagine Kev giving them a piece of his mind, saying that they were sitting in their car not taking enough care of their lines and that we did take a wide berth to avoid their rods. They said that all the other boats they had seen today had gone straight through to the lock, on the opposite side of the large pound and were taken by surprise at us coming into moor. They were nice lads and we ended up giving them 20 euros to go and buy some more stuff to fish with, Kev must be getting mellow in his old age! The lady who came to look at our boat, we now think was their mother telling them to come and speak to us; I think they were quite brave to do so!

The weather seems to be improving, and set to be better for the weekend, hurray!

We had company for some of the journey

A very energetic, lady lock keeper

Lunch in the lock

Last bridge of the day just before Ecluse 24

Our mooring at Ecluse 24

Saturday 3rd May

Ecluse 24 Ansty to Cercy La Tour

6 locks and 16km

We had booked the lock we were moored near by for 9am, the lady lock keeper was dead on time and she took us through 3 locks. She was lovely, she lives at the lock keepers cottage, it has really well kept gardens, and a massive vegetable patch.

We had a really great trip to Cercy La Tour, the canal has quite long sections in between the locks. We travelled through beautiful pastureland, with grazing Charolais cattle and calves, sheep and lambs and horses. All the farmhouses look very affluent in this area.

We saw quite a few Black Kite, they were circling high above and we saw some diving steeply to take fish from the canal.

We are moored up now in Cercy La Tour exactly where we were last year, on the floating pontoons, with free (6A) electric and water. I wonder whether we will hear the same owl hooting tonight that we heard last year?

We walked to see if the small supermarket that is mentioned in the fluvial guide was open. It was shut, permanently, which is a shame. We found a newsagent open that sold bread, and the butchers near our mooring was open so we bought some long life milk, eggs and sausages. We do have enough food in stock but its good to support the shops that are open. There is also a new shop selling local specialties, such as Honey, chocolate, olives, walnut oil, etc. We bought some nougat and what we thought were some hazelnut chocolates, they were hazelnut but more like a boiled sweet, not so nice, but I am sure we will manage to eat them!

We are coming to the end of our journey along the Nivernais Canal; next stop is Decize and then we will join the Canal Lateral a la Loire. We have really enjoyed the Nivernais. It’s a beautiful canal. The lock keepers have been fantastic; nearly all of them have been really friendly and very helpful.