Tales from the riverbank: Back in MONTBARD, Thursday 29th June

Well so much for our travel plans!

I know it was extremely hot in UK last week so you can imagine what it was like even hotter (35C-39C shade temp most days) living in and on a steel boat which only cooled to around 30C at midnight.

So we had to stay a week at Pouilly-en-Auxois port, about ¾ mile outside the town, which was the only mooring within easy reach where we could guarantee to have electricity - vital to work the cooling fans in the saloon and bedroom. (We tried to buy portable aircon but by then the whole of France was sold out).

Other key elements for survival in the port, apart from plentiful water, were:

1. A Super U supermarket within walking distance, (also with bread and croissants, but fermé le dimanche unfortunately)

2. A shady area under the trees with picnic tables (have you ever tried sitting on a wooden bench at between 95 and 100 Fahrenheit in the shade for an entire day trying to keep a Border Collie entertained with a ball?)

3. Laddie’s personal swimming pool. A sectioned off part of the harbour with a launch ramp. He learned to dive after a while (see video clip but don't worry if it won't open - we are new to this!)

By day 3 we were going up the wall, tired, hot and irritable (more than usual in Sue’s case). And there’s only so many times you can throw a ball in a pool and then have to fetch it back yourself as Laddie is hiding in the bushes nearby while you’re out in the burning sun.

So we hired an air-conditioned car for 3 days from a local garage and toured the local beautiful green hilly countryside and ancient villages such as Semur en Auxois and Chateauneuf castle. Also into Dijon where we got horrendously lost looking for an electrical warehouse in the vain hope of finding some aircon.

Beyond the scary 3.3km long Pouilly tunnel facing us if we went further was the reputedly highly scenic Vallee de L’Ouche, (the Switzerland of Burgundy one book claimed) but on the downside very few moorings with power or shops and restaurants)

Also incoming travellers told us horrendous tales of weed in Dijon and 20 kms beyond which we would have to get through without tangling the prop and the rudder or worse, blocking the cooling system and stalling the engine (which we had already experienced to our cost).

So, discretion being the better part of valour, we decided to visit the hillsides and castles of the Ouche valley by car, and turn the boat round and head back up through the weeds we’d already met to our future base in St. Florentin, as soon as the heat wave eased off.

Tales from the Pouilly tunnel:

-A Dutch guy and his wife we had met before, were moored at the other end of the Port preparing their boat to go through the tunnel (for obvious reasons you have to have a pre-arranged time as it’s limited height and width and one – way). He was busy sawing planks of wood by hand and screwing large castors on the end and fixing the planks at deck level. He explained that if he strayed from the centre of the arch his cabin roof would hit the walls as it was a rather large barge, and the wheels on the end of his planks would run along the walls keeping him straight. Some people take their leisure very seriously. I’ve never seen him sitting on the boat relaxing with a glass of wine. His wife looks permanently stressed, never relaxed. Maybe they are if they survived the tunnel.

- On the other hand a motley group of Kiwis pulled into Pouilly on a group timeshare boat looking very tatty. Did we know anyone who could repair canvas? No. He hadn’t bothered to take down the Bimini hood and the tunnel roof had wrecked it. The next lot coming in would not be well pleased. Hey Ho.

Four days into that return trip brought us here to Montbard during which we only passed ONE boat going the other way. We were on our own in all 64 locks, and 57kms, and there were no other boats in the moorings apart from the odd long-term resident. Great for us and peaceful nights, too, but it felt very strange.

Now we are sitting huddled in the rain as the storms started Tuesday night after our arrival and are forecast to continue to the weekend. Happy days! Good job we brought some crossword books.

Just heard that one of the hotel barges (1930 built) has no customers for 2 months, but the ones we met have about 12 – 20 passengers or more, a mixture of Americans and Australians. They charge ‘from’ 6912 dollars per person for 6 nights, 7 days for the lowest category cabins!!Was a growing business but fear of terrorism seems to have had an effect, not the price.

For those interested, we pay around 300 Euros per year for our VNF (Voies Navigables de France) licence, like a car tax disc which lets us cruise all French canals and rivers, and pays for the éclusiers (lockkeepers) and frequently éclusières. These guys open and close the lock gates and you can help them if you want but you’re not allowed to open the sluices.

On the Burgundy Canal because the locks are sometimes in flights or staircases the éclusiers have scooters or mopeds and follow you for a whole series of locks working in teams to close the gates behind you and then race past you to open the next set which can be only a few hundred yards away in some cases. They can be a cheery bunch especially the young ones and you establish quite a rapport chatting while waiting for the lock to fill or empty. They check with you where you’re going to stop and what time you want to leave the next morning. They work from 9-12 and you have to moor up for lunch until they return at 1 o’clock and start again until 7pm if you want, although we’ve had enough by about 2 or 3, and you can’t leave it too late in the season like all the rental boats do, when there’s no space in the moorings.

You can also ‘wild moor’ anywhere as long as you’re not blocking any entrances or on tight bends. We can do this easily with solar panels and 400 litres of water on board, but you risk getting stuck in shallow waters on the bankside if you’re not careful and it’s not pretty trying to escape the mud and stones (and the weeds this year!)

Bonnet de douche! As Del Boy Trotter used to say in the bar.

If you’re still awake after all that, well done.