Seascapes Travel Log
Michael Grew
Fri 2 Jul 2010 17:17
Another very hot day. Cycled into the town of Nevers and spent the day sightseeing using the tourist walk guide which combines a map with a blue painted line on the road. Very interesting , it is another fortified walled town on the banks of the Loire with lots of 11th and 12th century buildings. One of the churches we went in (Greek style) had the most superb acoustics. It would have been wonderful to have heard something like a Gregorian chant being sung there. Had a light lunch in the square. Back on the boat by mid afternoon too hot to do anything except read and try and keep cool. You can see why the siesta is so important in hot countries
28/06/2010 49:50:16N 03:19:33E
Yet another very hot day. Had breakfast in the cockpit while it was still relatively cool, then took the laptop computer and cycled into town and found a free WiFi connection in one of the cafés in the main square to update the diary (I hate the word “Blog”). Called in at a mobile phone shop and got the staff to add the credit to Maureen’s phone and then picked some shopping from the supermarket. Had lunch on the boat and then slipped the mooring at 13:00hrs travelling 19 kilometres (and 5 locks) stopping at the town of Fleury-sur-Loire, joining “Do Littles” and “Bella Vista” spent the evening the sharing nibbles and drinks with them.
29/06/2010
09:00hrs slipped the moorings intending to potter along with “Do Littles” however as we approached the first lock of the day there was no sign of them following us so we hung around in the shade of some trees and waited for them. When they finally caught us up they said their boat had been well and truly stuck in the mud, the water level having dropped almost 6 inches. It had taken all the crews of the other boats pushing to get them off. A few days ago Maureen remarked that although we had seen dozens and dozens of adult herons we had seen no young ones. Since then of course, we have seen nothing but young ones. Today we saw three Red Kites circling low over the canal and seemed totally unconcerned as we chugged slowly underneath them. At 11:00hrs we stopped on the main canal outside the town of Decize leaving the “Do Littles” to carry on. We then walked up the short way to the supermarket and found that they sold Camping Gaz. Just as well as we were down to our last bottle and even that was running low. Every other place we had been to seemed to have five or six different types of gas bottles but no Camping Gaz. Had a long lazy lunch break under the Bimini trying to keep cool. 15:00hrs we pressed on to Gannay-sur-Loire where we intended to spend the night. As we approached the mooring two guys from different boats came out on to the quay to take our lines, one was English, Mervyn and other a Dutchman. Mervyn and his wife invited us to have drinks on their boat. (everyone is so friendly and helpful here). It turned out that Mervyn was a retired detective chief inspector from Suffolk Constabulary. A very enjoyable evening swopping yarns from the old days.