15th - 21st May 2016
The 3rd week of the season and what an adventure we've had these past few days. Due to heavy storms over the weekend plus the light showers during the previous week, the Canal du Nivernais and the river Yonne have been forced to close because of flooding. This however was no deterrent to our fearless Captain, who bravely and instinctively decided to head north, away from our usual haunt of the Nivernais canal, and into the safely enclosed and river free Canal de Bourgogne. Now of course we very rarely navigate other canal systems and as such we are not familiar with the Bourgogne, hence the feeling of adventure.
Captain Francisco and Matelot Tom consulting the map every 10 minutes, trying to work out where it's possible to moor for the evening. The navigation was hugely successful though, bar the 2 hour wait for a lock keeper, the rest was perfectly smooth. In total this week in 5 days we covered 125km and passed through 55 locks, so double the distance of our regular cruise of around 60km and 30 locks. We arrived on friday evening to the fairly sizeable and very nice town of Montbard, closer to Dijon than to Auxerre!
We were very fortunate to be joined by some wonderful guests this week, half English and half American and with an age range of twenties to our very youthful Charlie Boy of 92! Thankfully all were very happy with the change of route that allowed us to navigate and gave us the chance to explore a bit more of Burgundy and it's wonderful landscapes. Thanks to them it made the week as smooth and enjoyable as ever, A different week of curious happenings, but a week that certainly won't be forgotten in a hurry.