Pre-cruising in 2024
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After spending almost three months in the Alps, Nicki and I returned to Shensi at the start of April, excited to get our water-based home all shipshape and Bristol fashioned for the start of our eighth year of cruising. Sadly almost as soon as we arrived we were hit with one problem after another, the primary one being that the engine refused to start! Mind you, even if it had been working, we couldn’t have left the port in Mailley La Ville – heavy rain for quite some time had resulted in high and fast water levels on the Nivernais canal, and in order to manage the problem the VNF were not opening up locks for the time being. And then we found out that our intended journey upstream on the Nivernais canal could not happen as a lock near the end of the canal was out of action until mid June. Ah well, best laid plans etc. etc.
After many calls and conversations with various engineers, and with much help from Krishna, the port manager, we finally got Shensi working again – hooray – and then just had to while away our time until the locks were operational again and we could leave. In the meantime we were able to concentrate on the many and varied jobs that had accumulated over time, so it wasn’t all bad.
Eventually on 13th April the VNF engineers began returning the public mooring pontoons to their usual positions just ahead of the lock, so we decided to move Shensi out onto one of them for the remainder of our stay in Mailley La Ville as it would be much more convenient with getting the dogs on and off, plus we had free water and electricity available there. With the potential for moving on now in sight, and with Krishna confirming with the VNF that the locks and canal might be re-opening around 15/16 April (about two weeks later than we’d anticipated), on 15th I drove the car up to Reitdiephaven and parked it up for the following seven or eight months until we arrived there for wintering at the end of the year.
The drive there was an exhausting ten hours to the outskirts of Groningen and an overnight stay in a hotel, followed by another hours drive the next morning to drop the car off. a quick walk to the nearby bus station where I caught a bus back into Groningen to the rail station. Five trains later, and after a total of fourteen hours travelling on the second day, I finally made it to the station in Mailley La Ville late that evening. (There was a slight panic at one point when I realised that I couldn’t book the Eurostar from Amsterdam to Paris but in the end I managed to book two different stages.)
