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5.7 days, dry & warm to hot & windy pm, hazy later
203 km – 127 ml – 41 locks – 37 hrs
17 April (pm): Today we move onto the Canal Lateral a la Loire, and share several locks with some first-day hire-boaters who have clearly been given no instruction at all and are, understandably, clueless. Howard calls them bumper boats for good reason. Colin won’t easily forget the sight of a middle-aged Spanish guy on the large cruiser behind us prodding it away from the slippery lock wall with a boat-hook then literally running across the cabin roof in order to save it from touching the other wall – caused by him pushing it that way in the first place. Back and forth he runs, never was there anything quite so dangerous in a lock. He doesn’t seem to realise that if he just stops, everything will be fine! And his skipper, back up on the flybridge, interprets Colin’s ‘take it easy’ gesture as a request for him to whack it into reverse and head for the top gates backwards. Oh mon dieu moi.
The two lock-keepers here are absolutely useless too, cramming us all in tight but offering not a word of advice and allowing the hirers to ‘attach’ their boats with, for example, a single rope from the bow looped over some hand-rails. No wonder the boats are all over the place and threatening to collide with ours. And they are bigger than us. Sorry, no pictures were taken of this pantomime as we are too busy preventing the others from bumping into us or getting caught up on the lock-gates. Then, amazingly, the keepers prematurely unloop everyones ropes and throw them down onto our decks before we’re all the way down. More chaos. C’est la vie.
The lockies back on the Canal du Centre were helpful, and generally very nice too, as well as letting us manage our own boat.
When we reach our planned stop at Diou, we are disappointed (again) to find the water supply has been capped off. However, Richard does find a good boulangerie for tomorrow morning.
18 April: Easter Monday. Reinforced with croissants etc and now clear of the hirers, we make good progress, partly because the locks are farther apart on this canal. We are also blessed for 4 locks with a lock-keeper who is friendly and helpful and speaks good English. Followed by another one for the next stretch! One more stark contrast, compared with the previous lot, in a growing series of contrasts this trip.
We have to take care that the flotsam doesn’t jam the stern thruster or clog the strainer but it clearly doesn’t impede fish growth.
During the lock-keepers’ lunch-time, we stop for a sunny snack by some camper-vans, having manoeuvered round several large fishing poles. A lock-keeper had assured us that the boats have priority; after all, the boat owners pay a large licence fee. But we don’t want to upset what remains of the post-Brexit entente cordiale do we? We are rewarded when someone lands a big fish. believing it to be a carp, it comes as a surprise when one of the gathered children hands dad a piece of wood for him to whack it hard on the head and cart it off, presumably to be eaten later. We are pleased to be able to fill the water tank here too.
As we leave, Colin suddenly hits reverse gear for an emergency stop, spotting a barely visible fishing-line running across our bow from a rod that was sitting 20 metres back from the river. Thank goodness for cataract operations. Its owner proceeds rather gracelessly to shift it out of the way. Not quite so cordiale in fact.
At our overnight stay at Gannay-sur-Loire, we find a village quay with water, electricity, cut grass and well-spaced bollards. That’s a first in this trip, after a fortnight’s voyaging. Next to us is a couple fitting out an ancient Dawncraft by the side of the canal. Language is a problem but they are keen to offer Colin a guided tour. Allons-Y it is not, but jolly good luck to them! It has been a really nice day.
19 April: Another lovely morning and a pleasantly uneventful cruise in the sun today, marred slightly by seeing some dead animals in the cut from time to time. They varied from coypu to small deer and possibly badgers. Presumably they have jumped or fallen into the water and couldn’t climb the mostly shuttered banks to safety. Sad.
Our stopping place is another super mooring near to a small village which has invested a lot of time and money in facilities for boaters (and a few camper vans, in season).
Puzzled at how to make the smart-looking quayside water and electricity point work, we discover up on the road the most sophisticated hook-up system ever! Multi-lingual, it invites you to select and pay (by card or cash) for the service and location you want, then switches it on for 24 hours, indicated by a telltale light next to the selected tap or plug socket. Fantastic. This should be a model for other places wanting to attract boaters and/or campers, not only in France but anywhere including the UK. If they can do it here, so can others.
There is no trace of the signposted, but only half-expected, restaurant, not even a building site. A casualty of Covid perhaps, but why leave the signs up? Never mind, Marie’s ham omelettes go down extremely well. And a young guy is running a boulangerie just up the road in the village, ready for tomorrow’s breakfast, courtesy of l’homme de pain. We could cope with more of this..
20 April: Another nice, slightly hazier, day for a cruise, and we are seeing seeing more dead carcasses as well as several boats coming the other way.
Having failed to book ahead to cross the impressive Guetin aquaduct, we have to wait half an hour for someone to let us through. Not a problem as we have longer to enjoy the view of the River Allier far below us.
Although there is plenty of weed in the cut, we have seen a couple of lock-keepers heaving it out of the water with long hay-forks.
We are also pleased to see that animal escape ramps have been installed quite frequently along the canal sides from this point on, after which we notice significantly fewer dead animals.
After a longer but stress-free day, we pull up at Cours-les-Barres, a village with another excellent canal-side quay, albeit with a shortage of mooring bollards. We are grateful when offered a proper lump-hammer to bash a mooring pin into the hard ground, but slightly embarrassed that it is a German chap on a bumper boat who is clearly taking pity on the poor English boaters who don’t know how to equip their sea-going boat properly for a canal journey. Anyway, thanks.
We enjoy our first meal out for 4 days as the only diners in the village bar-restaurant. Not fine dining but very acceptable. We’re amused to see such an impressive Mairie (town hall), which are so common over here, although we don’t try the shower and toilet, which are in a rather smelly and fly-ridden brick out-house.
21 April: The day dawns bright and we can’t help admire the outlook from the breakfast table.
We make good progress to our chosen stop-over at St Tibault, which looked attractive in the guides…
… but we are so saddened to find a semi-derelict cul-de-sac with jagged banks, no sign of the capitainery office and now home to some semi-derelict and wholly-derelict barges. What a let-down, and such a contrast (another contrast) from recent days. We search up and down the canal, eventually finding a lock-layby pontoon half the length of Allons-Y to tie up to for the night, fully two hours after not stopping at St Tibault. So no facilities once more, and eating on board again too.
22 April:
Yet another fine day and we stop at a pretty quay next to a road-side cafe-restaurant for a panini lunch before pushing on towards our destination, and the end of this canal, at Briare.
Approaching Briare, we cross the fabulous historic Briare Aquaduct. At 663m, this was apparently the longest canal aquaduct in the world until recently.
Finally, reversing into our allocated berth in Briare, the couple in the adjacent rather smart Stevens steel cruiser offer to take our lines: “Hang on, I know that boat, it belongs to – what’s his name – Howard!”. Such a lovely couple, a huge concidence and a very suitable end to an enjoyable cruise along the Canal Lateral a la Loire.
Progress so far
793 km – 496 ml – 117 locks – 114 hrs