Day's Progress: (back on track now!!) 35kms : 8 locks (Total 243kms : 135locks)
We are now heading north and the countryside is changing again.
Some observations:
§ Huge maize fields
§ We saw 2 herds of Frieslands and the good old Charlolais. Some of the Frieslands were brown and white.
§ I think the reason for the enormous barns is to store fodder for the cows during the winter months.
§ The bales of fodder we see in the fields here seem to be from wheat or barley.
§ The maize still needs a bit more growing time till it can be harvested.
§ There is wheat or barley in the fields that still needs to be harvested.
§ There are beautiful green pastures for the cattle.
§ The cows spend a lot of time lying down – some of them lying on their sides with their legs sticking out.
§ Lots of oak trees lining this section of the canal.
§ There are large areas of planted forest (Including oak)
§ There are also areas of natural forest – very thick and I am sure that you would ge
t hopelessly lost within a couple of meters.§ There are inhabited lock house again possibly because the locks are not so close together. The inhabited lock house are usually well kept and have pretty gardens.
§ Even on this northern route, there appears to be a fondness for garden ornaments – and lots of them!
§ We went through our first automatic lock today – there is a chain hanging over the canal, which you pull. This sets off and electronic mechanism that opens the lock gates – inside the lock is another lever, which you pull when the lock is full (or empty) and the gates open.
§ It gets very hot and humid late afternoon. Despite bad weather reports we have been lucky and missed the bad weather. There have been dark clouds but no rain so far.
§ The edges of the canal today were covered with wild flowers of all colours. The one I fancied was bright pink a bit like cosmos.
§ There wasn't a paved cycle path on this stretch of the canal. The grass was neatly mowed and there was a narrow rough double track.
§ Surprisingly there were a lot of cyclists. Some had little trailers hitched to their bikes – I suppose this helps take care of luggage for touring. We have seen a few bikes pulling little baby carriages and some have had really tiny babies sprawled out in them. The mother or father then has the other bike laden with gear!
§ This is tree huggers paradise – the trees are amazing and all over the place. The French must have good forestation policies that encourage farmers to plant and maintain the forests. There are a remarkable number of new forest plantings. Alongside the canal, new saplings replace the old trees that are removed. The blobs in this tree photo is mistletoe.§ We went through a really torrid section today with whooping great horse flies. I had to “doom” Steve with insect repellant before he got eaten up. It reminded me of one of the fields on my old aunts farm in Zimbabwe. The farm was called Amatava and there was this one field called June field, that had a gum plantation next to the road – and this is where the bloody horse flies lived – as kids we sat in the back of the truck and we dreaded going past June Field!
The canal to the city of Nevers branches off the main canal…we took a right turn. This canal is dead straight and about 3kms long. It is lined with gorgeous trees and cycle/walking paths. The trees are fabulous and they are large and very tall – it is a very impressive entrance into the small harbour.
We arrived in Nevers late afternoon and found a good mooring – the harbour was busy and I was glad we arrived when we did – an hour later and we would not have been able to get a mooring with water and electricity.
Next to the harbour was swimming and water park complex. The complex had about 5 pools of varying sizes and depths. Some of the pools clearly marked as training pools and some for toddlers. Apparently, these pools were built from some old locks that lead to the river – when we stood on the bridge overlooking the complex you could see the outline of the old lock system. It was sunny day and even late in the afternoon there were a lot of people at the complex – lots of small kids and they were well supervised by a good number of lifeguards. Music was blaring and they all seemed to be having a good time.
We took the bikes into the town which was a couple of kilometers away. We had to cross a bridge and the town nestled on top of a hill. We did a quick ride around and then found the restaurant that was recommended by the harbour captain for our dinner.
The restaurant was in the old part of the town – old stone walls from fortifications and old cobbled roads and buildings surrounded the restaurant. It was a lovely place…lots of old silver and glass and beautiful tables and gardens. Steve had fois gras and then steak tartare. I had a lardon and mushroom salad followed by a grilled steak. It was an excellent meal.
We left the restaurant at about 9 and rode back to the harbour via old fortress gardens and river road. The bridge crossing the river must have been about 200 m long.
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