Canal du Bourgogne: Pont Royal – Pouilly-en-Auxois. Summiting.

5 June to 9 June 2019.  18 kilometers, 13 locks.

Thursday 6 June. Pont Royal to Pouilly-en-Auxois. 18 kilometers, 13 locks, 5 hours, 30 minutes.

Yesterday’s highlight was a meal at the local restaurant – steak, egg and chips French style!

Steak tartare avec frites.

The afternoon was spent making up two more bollard lassoing gadgets, one of which was given to the team on Mon Amie with whom we will be locking through again today, and one for use from our driving position. These locks are just a bit too high and the current through the lock just too unpredictable to make throwing a line around a bollard simple.

We have also moved our departure date ahead by two days; tomorrow it will be blowing a hoolie and spending four days in Pont Royal is a bit much especially as there are other boats around which means we cannot do any grinding and sanding.

The last thirteen locks of the ascent were quite exhausting. The locks are all about 2.6 – 2.8 meters high and a significant number only have two bollards on each side – one about five meters from the front and the other about two thirds along with a ladder about six meters further along. This is fine if you are locking through on your own but not such fun with two boats in the lock. Being the front boat all we could do was put a bow line around the front bollard and, with the wheel turned sharply away from the wall, power onto the line as the lock was filling. Mon Amie were okay as they had a bow line on the other bollard and our ladder hook attached to the ladder about two thirds down the length of their boat. At one lock we had four Dutch spectators watching proceedings and the lockie decided to give them a show by opening everything at once; Lynn, who had to hang onto, and shorten, the line as we arose, said that was the hardest lock of the one hundred and thirteen we have done on this canal. But not as bad as that Yonne devil…

A 1,130 meter cutting through a hill.

Another type of Cruiser.

A bright but very chilly day.

Low water levels contribute to bank washaways.

Lock dogs.

Lynn was hoping that this would be the result of the French Open.

The electric tourist boat - takes tourists through the tunnel and down a couple of locks.
That's us moored behind them.

Twelve ducklings! Must be an African Duck.

The tunnel tug from the end of the 19thC.

Mon Amie heading for the tunnel.

Our four days in Pouilly-en-Auxois were spent in R&R mode as well as provisioning (which included buying a sturdier trolley and using it to transport eighty liters of diesel, forty liters at a time, to the boat – our lighter trolley’s wheels almost collapse under the weight of twenty liters)

Those cans are full.

and on the final day, a bit of sightseeing. Pouilly-en-Auxois is an ideal place to relax after an ascent and to prepare for a decent; a big Super-U supermarket, two hardware shops, a fuel station and a Gamm Vert within three hundred meters of the port, and the center of the town one and a half kilometers away with a very adequate selection of boulangeries/patisseries (at least four) and cafes/restaurants.

Town center.

Town Hall.

19th Century church.

A view from the camping place on the other side of the port.

And then, in a real gesture of French hospitality, the chef preparing lunch on the electric tourist boat, La Billebaude, presented Lynn with two ramekins of the most delicious seafood creation. Our lunchtime braai was delayed.

Tomorrow we traverse the 3,345 metre long tunnel and turn eastwards towards Dijon.