We left the Pouilly pound on at 0900 on Friday 3rd June and commenced our decent to the Yonne River. You will all remember from a previous lesson, that we have to descend 298 meters through 112 ecluses.
It is now Wednesday 8th June and we are moored at Venarey les Laumes. We arrived yesterday forlunch and since starting our decent we have passed through 55 ecluses, descended 136 meters over a distance of 40 kilometres.
At times on this trip, the ecluses are no more than 200 meters apart and are one after the other as we rapidly descend down into the valley. Look closely at the above photo, click on it to enlarge it. You will see another boat in the second ecluse down. The stretch of the canal from Marigny-le-Cahouet to Pouillenay was the hardest we would want to travel. The ecluses are very close together and our eclusier had to travel ahead and fill and open the gates for us. The canal twists and turns as it winds around the side of the hills. It was extremely hard work. We went through 19 ecluses in about 6 kilometres. If you have Google Earth, check out this reference then travel north on the canal and you will see how much it turns and twists.
We met an Australian couple in Pouilly, vets from South Australia (retired) who plan to spend summers on the canals here and we have found them good company. Their recognition of the qualities of Foxhounds as pets of course was a major factor. We will cross paths again further down the canal.
We leave Venarey tomorrow morning and head for Montbard where we will spend a week or so. We are expecting visitors. Penny and Craig, friends from Perth will be joining us for a few days. They are coming from Paris by train and we will walk the short distance to the station to meet them. We are looking forward to the arrival of our first guests since the Captain (guinea pig) left us at the end of March.
Montbard is also quite a large centre and we will be able to restock on things essential to modern life. We will report again soon.
So, keep in touch.
No comments:
Post a Comment