July 2023 – Part 2
0
0
The second half of July saw Nicki’s 68th birthday ushered in on 15th, which seemed to surprise her a little!
We were booked in on a day trip with other rally members to visit Guedelon medieval 21st century castle, and set off on the coach for our 30 minute drive over. Tim and Glynis had kindly said they’d look after Casper and Pip for us while we were out, so we didn’t need to worry about them being locked in the boat all day.
The partly-built castle is in the Guédelon forest in an abandoned quarry, where a team of craftsmen is building a 12th century castle from scratch. Quarrymen, stonemasons, carpenter-joiners, woodcutters, blacksmiths, tilers, carters and rope makers are all working together to revive heritage craft skills and to shed light on construction in the Middle Ages, so it was a very interesting (and tiring) day looking around the site. For the first hour or so we had an English-speaking guide talk us through the various areas and aspects of the build, which was useful, and then we were left to our own devices to wander round and spend more time.
That evening we went into Auxerre with Tim and Glynis, Diana and Chris, and Debs and Howard for a meal, followed by a drink or two on Moondance before heading back to Shensi.
On the final day of the rally we said goodbye to Tim and Glynis as they had to return to the UK, and then we were taken by coach to a local Sunday market in Chablis to have a browse, returning in time for our daily picnic in the park, and then followed by a DBA forum held in Auxerre Abbey. Nicki and I managed to find time to make our own short tour of the town, something we’d been promising every day since we’d arrived in Auxerre.
And last but not least, there was a farewell dinner at the local Espacio Piscina for us all, another enjoyable social event with everyone from the rally.
With the rally now over, we took the opportunity to dismantle the bimini (too many low bridges on our next journey) before we departed Auxerre on 18th, and headed off to a new (for us) waterway, the Canal du Nivernais. It all started well on a gorgeous, sunny morning, entering the manned locks smoothly, until at just the second lock we came to, Casper jumped off just as the boat was exiting the lock! A slight panic ensued but fortunately we managed to encourage him in our direction and got him back on board.
Later on our journey we came across a nice mooring along a large grassy stretch, near Pont de Vincelottes, with a campsite on the opposite bank, and some nice walking areas nearby. It was all very serene and peaceful …… until early evening when the campsite’s live entertainment started tuning up their instruments for a gig that evening, and then continued playing till maybe 11pm. Still, after that it was all peaceful again and we did have a restful night. Waking the next morning we prepared for the off again, enjoying a nice quiet waterway for a few hours before we were constantly crossing paths with lots of hire boats and whilst that’s not normally a problem, the Canal du Nivernais is pretty narrow at times and hire boats aren’t always the most considerate. Still, we managed to pass them all without incident, and half a day of travel later we fetched up in Mailly le Ville, passing by our winter mooring port as we neared the town pontoons. Happily there was plenty of room to moor, and the free water and electric made it even more of a treat. Mailly le Ville seemed to be a sleepy little town, and we enjoyed our short time there.
The next day was just a short cruise to our next destination at Chatel Censoir, and the first lock out of Mailly le Ville was prepped and ready for us as we started our engine. The trip was only about four hours – an hour of which was lunchtime for the eclusiers, as per usual – and immediately on exiting the last lock we took a sharp right and cruised into the port de plaisance in Chatel Censoir, and snagged a space for the night. After roping in, chatting with other boaters, giving the dogs a quick wee-break and then taking shelter from the very hot sun for a few hours, we took ourselves across the canal bridge for a walk into/up the town. The walk involved a very steep hill past some lovely old properties, and was well worth the effort for the views across the countryside.
Now (on 21st July), we continued our journey towards Clemecy, passing some VERY narrow stretches and on occasion passing VERY close to weirs when the canal ran almost side by side with the Yonne river (in some instances separated by just a low wall or even railings). As the journey was proving more stressful than we’d expected, and with the next potentially difficult stretch looming, we decided to call it a day when we spied some metal posts at the side of the canal at Pont de Pousseaux. Once again we waited for the evening to cool down a little before walking out with Casper and Pip, crossing bridges over both the canal and the Yonne river and into the small village of Surgy. Back on board we ended our day working out the next day’s itinerary when we were due to make what appeared to be quite a tricky crossing of the Yonne.
However, we woke on the morning of Saturday, 22nd July to find phone messages from Stuart – at 5am Sara had gone into hospital in mid-stage of labour, three weeks early than her 10th August due date. Immediately our plans changed and it was time to head back to the UK – we now had to get back to our winter mooring as well as get the dogs sorted out with passport checks etc before we could even think of catching the Eurotunnel. Somewhat disappointed at curtailing our boating season even earlier than planned, we returned to Mailly le Ville for our winter mooring and to prepare everything for our departure – unfortunately we couldn’t get a vet appointment until the following Monday, but at least we could then return to the on Tuesday with the boat winterised and the dogs checked and good to travel.
And at 2.33pm on 22nd July 2023 Sara and Stuart became parents to the beautiful (but about three weeks early) Isabel Nancy Phillips, weighing in at 7lbs and already much-loved by the whole family.
So, that’s our cruising for 2023 finished whilst we go home to spend time with the newest member of the Phillips family, and to catch up with friends and family back in the UK …. but we will be back for more adventures in 2024.
