In The Beginning

A few years ago some friends and ourselves decided to hire a 'barge' and do a trip on the French canals. Unfortunately this fell through but the idea remained in the back of our minds.

One of the couples actually did the trip and came back from the Nivernais bubbling with enthusiasm, which reinforced our motivation to do something similar. So in 2012 we booked a Corvette class canal boat through Le Boat and did a seven night trip from Gray to Brange along the Saône.

We were hooked!

So in 2013 we again hired a boat, this time a Crusader class and did a 13 night trip from Montauban on the Canal de Montech, via Valence-Sur-Baise on the Baise river and finishing at Le Mas d' Agenais on the Canal de Garonne.

We were very lucky with the weather on both trips - beautiful sunny days, mild evenings and no wind! And what a fabulous lifestyle; great food, superb wine, interesting people, and very different to Africa in all respects. We had to find a way to spend more time exploring the waterways of Europe without the experience bankrupting us...

Some background...

We are two recently retired South Africans.

"Elle" is a 12.25m De Ruiter Dutch canal cruiser, built in 1975, which we acquired in 2014. This is how it happened.