Gimme a ticket for an aeroplane...

And so the time has finally arrived for us to depart the city of Durban, to leave South Africa with our most dearest hopes that the forces of good will rid her of her parasitic president and his pestilent cronies, and to make our way to dear Elle, hopefully safe and sound in her winter mooring in Port Sainte-Marie between Nancy and Strasbourg.

All things being well we will do either Plan A, Plan B or Plan C or whichever Plan circumstances throw our way. All three planned Plans entail cruising from Port Sainte-Marie to Strasbourg on the eastern French-German border, then west to Nancy and south along the Canal des Voges and the Saone to Saint Jean de Losne.

Plan A is a mammoth cruise north on the Canal de Bourgogne, more north on the Yonne, then south on the canals du Loing, Briare and Lateral a la Loire, and north again on the Nivernais to Vermonton where Elle will be left for winter. I think that in order to do this our French tricolour will have to be flown sideways...

Plan A: 1,295kms, 609 locks, 19 'other' obstacles.

Plan B is also ambitious. From St Jean de Losne we head east on the Canal du Centre, north on the canals Lateral a la Loire, Briare and du Loing and finally south on the Yonne and a bit of the Nivernais. But pray tell, when will we ever do the southern reaches of the Nivernais as our plan for next year is to head directly to Paris?

Plan B: 1,168kms, 425 locks, 10 'other' obstacles.

Plan C is to muddle south on the Saone as far as Auxonne where we will hopefully pick up friends Darrell and Tessaa, then past St Jean de Losne to Chalon sur Saone (with possibly a quick detour on the Doubs Canal to Dole) and then in an easterly direction to Decize and finally a slow cruise up the Nivernais to Vermenton - this is looking more and more appealing but then I'm not sure when we will ever do the Canal de Bourgogne and canals du Loing, Briare and Lateral a la Loire as they are not on the radar for 2018.

Plan C: 990kms, 426 locks, 19 'other' obstacles

This is a lot of hire boat country and there are far more locks per kilometer that we have been used to so the going will be slower but we will return home much fitter - Boeuf Bourguignon, Burgundy wine and Crémant de Bourgogne permitting.

Totsiens aan al ons ZA vriende, groot geluk met wat voorle Suid Afrika, and Bonjour a la France!