We left the Canal Latéral á la Loire, dropping down through an automated lock to Decize, where there was a hypermarket nearby; ideal for restocking the food and beer.

One more lock took us onto the River Loire, and we stopped at nice moorings by the town for lunch.

Lunch was excellent, even if we were not quite sure what we were eating!

After a look around Decize, we joined the Canal du Nivernais for our journey north.

This canal is a bit smaller than the other canals we’ve used, and so far, we’ve yet to meet another boat.

Yet again, we’re now moored in the middle of nowhere!

17Km and 6 locks today.

A little bit cooler today, though still got a bit too hot this afternoon.

Another uneventful day, apart from leaving our hose adaptors behind – at least with a small boat and a wide canal, you can turn around almost anywhere!

We’re now moored up, yet again, in the middle of nowhere. We’ll be heading into Decize tomorrow, and from there onto the Canal du Nivernais, which is good as we’ve got a bit bored with the Canal latéral á la Loire…

27Km and 5 locks today.

An exciting start to the day, with a 9.8m double lock then the aqueduct.

Then it was a long section without locks until we took the branch to Nevers.

These were activated by pulling on a rope

All fairly straightforward…

We then moored at the end of the branch and walked across the River Loire into Nevers.

We visited the cathedral (bombed during the war and rebuilt), which had lovely contemporary stained glass:

Then it was time for lunch and an explore of the town.

We’re now back on the main canal, moored in a quiet spot in the middle of nowhere…

15Km and 6 locks today.

This is the aqueduct and River l’Allier that we’ll be traveling over tomorrow morning:

Certainly impressive on foot!

A relatively uneventful day today. The weather is good and the lock keepers were helpful.

We stopped for lunch at a small town that supposedly had a restaurant, but failed to find it (or it had closed years before). But we found a small shop that was open, and got some interesting bits for lunch.

The canal along here is pleasant rather than exceptional.

We’ve moored up for the night at Le Guetin, a small town but is very busy and has several places to eat! We’ve currently found a bar with good beer and fast WiFi – what more could a traveller need?

Total 32Km and 6 locks today.

A bit more progress this afternoon… As we move further south, the area is becoming much more rural, including vineyards by the canal:

We’re now moored at Herry for the night – a bit of a one horse town (but the horse has left!). But it is nice and quiet, even if the restaurant and shops closed years ago…

41Km and 8 locks today.

Another beautiful day… But not much progress this morning. We arrived at the first lock, no one around and no information on what to do next. Tried phoning the canal people; no answer.

Eventually the lock emptied, a boat came out and we went in. After discussion, what we should have done is to look inside a shed by the lock to get the phone number of the lock keeper…

We were then held up at the second lock because “another boat is coming”. Half an hour later, it arrived, but by then the next lock had closed for lunch so we couldn’t get to a restaurant!

Luckily we keep supplies on the boat!

We’re now on the Canal latéral á la Loire, which is a bit of a mouthful!

The canal route originally dropped down to the River Loire and then climbed up again, but now it crosses the Loire on a splendid aqueduct built by Eiffel (of tower fame).

We’re now moored for the night in the little French town of Beaulieu-sur-Loire, which has a nice church:

We had an early start so that we could get to the boatyard for some more fuel this morning.

All was well though the first automatic lock, but when we got to the second one, the gates didn’t open. After a while, the lock keeper appeared, pushed some buttons and all was fine. It turned out that another boat had snuck in front of us and had taken our place…

We continued down to Briare with no further problems until we got to the last set of automatic locks at 1150. As it was his lunchtime in 10 minutes, the lock keeper made us wait for an hour – he would only have needed to push one button…

Still we got here in the end, only to be told we didn’t need any more fuel anyway!

We had an early start so that we could get to the boatyard for some more fuel this morning.

All was well though the first automatic lock, but when we got to the second one, the gates didn’t open. After a while, the lock keeper appeared, pushed some buttons and all was fine. It turned out that another boat had snuck in front of us and had taken our place…

We continued down to Briare with no further problems until we got to the last set of automatic locks at 1150. As it was his lunchtime in 10 minutes, the lock keeper made us wait for an hour – he would only have needed to push one button…

Still we got here in the end, only to be told we didn’t need any more fuel anyway!