After just over 7 weeks we have completed the eastern loop of our Burgundian canal adventure. We left Joigny on May 21 and returned on July 11, traveling 920 kilometers, and traversing 431 locks. We had three sets of visitors and numerous adventures. Some involved bruises. We traversed the entire length of the Canal du Bourgoyne, had a lovely sample of the Saone River, travelled west on the Canal du Centre (doing a side trip down to Roanne) , then north on the Canal du Nivernais and back to Joigny on the Yonne. Thank you to all our visitors… Francis, Emilie, Richard, Jackie, David, Emory, John, Christin.. you all made the adventures more fun!
The Locaboat folks have been uniformly helpful and responsive. Our lovely boat, “Bray Sur Somme” has performed flawlessly, with not a single mechanical problem. None of the problems my inner engineer envisioned have come to pass. We have learned that our boat uses about 2L/hr of fuel, that we can go 4-7 days without filling our water tanks, and that we almost never need electricity. Truth be told, we can easily go a week without any outside services. Which suits us just fine. Our favorite moorings are the wild ones, in the river or on the canal, away from the towns. Okay, still within biking distance of a boulangerie, but far from the lights so we can see the Milky Way on moonless nights.
Today we began the western loop of our Burgundian adventure – the smaller of the two. We look forward to another 5 weeks of fun and (mis)adventures. Emerson and Linda join us in a week and we are very excited to have Martini Night people joining us (okay, to be honest, more crew!). We plan to reach Sens for Bastille Day (when everything, including the locks, shut down), hoping they will have good fireworks!
Our Adventures 