The Journey -
Rosy Sets Off

Yippeeeee!!  We're off!!

On Monday 17th June, we cast off from the Port de Plaisance de Briare, worked up through the first lock, and filled up 400 litres of diesel.  Then on up through the other two locks, to gain the Canal de Briare, and turned left to head north towards the Seine.

Over-wintering in Briare was fine.  I had a great time, and made lots of friends, but it was still a relief to be on the move once more.

By chance it was a hot day.  I mean H O T!!!  Very.  35 deg C plus.

The canal closes for lunch, and, fortunately, and cool, shady mooring was available.  Absolute bliss to have bread, cheese and tomato salad for lunch, watching the birds on the canal - swallows and house martins swooping down onto their prey, whilst the wagtails do impossible aerobatics as they play tig with theirs.

The afternoon continued through a series of rising locks, where I successfully trialled a new method of dealing with locks - ignoring them!!  I hovered, ropeless, right down near the back, and had no problems at all.

I passed the spot where, on the evening of 29th September 1999, I spent the night on Falcon with David Long.  We ate, as I recall, some rather scrumptious pork chops (that I had managed to acquire from a near-dead village) accompanied by a most excellent apple sauce, made from apples scrumped from a deserted lock-cottage.  A large hotel barge occupied this rather nice mooring, so I went on through the next lock, up onto the canal summit level, and moored, in open countryside, next to Teal - an ex-Thames tug, currently in the temporary care of a couple of Aussies who had some cooling cans of beer ready.  In the evening, a hot air balloon took off a few hundred metres away.

The next day we were away by 0815, and had another glorious day's cruise, downhill.

Lunch was spent at Rogny.  When the canal was first built, with barge-sized locks, there was a seven-lock staircase at Rogny.  These went into use in 1642, more than 100 years before the opening of the Sankey Canal and the lockless, narrow, Bridgewater canal!!  The Rogny Seven were worked, pretty much unmodified, for over 200 years.  However, they caused hold-ups on the busy canal (boats could not pass in the staircase) and used a lot of water, so in the 1880s they were replaced by a flight of conventional locks.

Then on to Chatillon-Coligny, a small village with FREE water and electricity and pontoon moorings.  John Douglas was idling away there, on Trillium (an old, 22 ft Freeman Mark 2, with a petrol Ford WaterMota engine).  He was on his way back to Briare from Paris.  We drank a few beers, and agreed to have a GOOD MEAL the following evening.

The next day, Wednesday, I did not very much.  Teal appeared in the evening, and John and I went out for our meal.  Most excellent ham, followed, for him, by kidneys, and for me, by the roulade de veau.  Then a monstrous cheese board, followed by apple pie and ice-cream - the whole washed down by a St Emillion grand cru.  Totally brilliant, so much so that the next day I did not very much - except visit the rather good 'depot vente' - junk-shop.

On the Friday, Chattillon-Coligny has its street market, so I bought and ate half-a-kilo of cherries.  I left after lunch, and had a gentle cruise for a few hours before mooring in some shade, approximately in the middle of nowhere.  The following morning, there was another gentle potter down to Montargis, where I expect to stay for several days.  I'm expecting a visit from Stan and Judy Voets, so Sunday (today) has been spent cleaning and hoovering.

Gosh!!  It's a hard life.

Toodle pip!!

Bill