Canal latéral à la loire, travel-report 2003: first day

I woke up early this morning to get some bread. I cycle back to the village Dompierre. It's more than three kilometers and I get warm. The wheather is fine and there is some haze just above the water level. We leave after breakfast and turn the boat. We navigate once more along the abbey and iron-foundry. We see a carriage on a turning disk going into the factory. I know this kind of thing only of de toy-trains from my youth.

Surprisingly we are not the only ones to navigate in the direction of Digoin. There are already two other houseboats waiting in front of the first lock, l'écluse de la Bêbre, The gates are already open and we navigate right into the lock. Just behind the lock is a canal bridge. In the depth I can see the small river.

We navigate all morning. In one of the locks we see a pike-persch laying on a beam of a gate. He didn't lay there for long and as we are locked up he is swimming again slowly. We reach our fifth lock (Thaleine) just before the lockkeepers lunch. Now a section of five kilometers to Digoin follows . The next lock is situated just before the canal bridge across the Loire in Digoin. That's also the reason why I navigate in this direction. We have to go the other way to go to the Canal de Nivernais. I am very curious about this canal bridge. We are navigating very close to the Loire at some points. Alas, there is also a 'route nationale' close to the canal. It disturbs the tranquility of the canal.

As we arrive at Digoin the lunch-break of the lockkeepers is already finished. We can be locked up right away. The lock has a considerable fall (4m). As we are locked the canal bridge across the Loire is just in front of us with a little widening just before it. We decide to wait some time to cross the canal bridge and to have lunch first. After lunch Marga decides to look in Digoin for some nice shops and supermarkets. Some time later Pepijn, Robert and Maarten also decide to take a look in the village. Robert promised the boys to buy a cd for them. We have found a cd-player in our boat and so they are looking for a cd-shop in town.

I take my chance to take a shower and look at the canal bridge. The canal bridge is 243 meters long and has eleven arches in masonry. The valley of the Loire is magnificent here. The water-level of the river isn't very high at this moment but the green outer marches are beautiful. At some signs on the bridge-head I see that the water-level can rise extremely sometimes.

I see some canoeists coming on the Loire. Right after the canal bridge is a kind of weir. At the southern side a small opening is free for the canoeists to navigate through. From upstairs My mother and I see the canoeists going through the rapids.

In the afternoon we navigate to the port of Digoin. There's a supermarket close-by and we are overloading our shopping-cart. We have done enough shopping for three days now.

After that I cycle on along the canal. This isn't the same canal. The Canal latéral à la Loire ends in Digoin and continues as Canal du Centre. The Canal du Centre links the Loire with the river Saône.

Just outside of Digoin a narrow canal is discharging into the Canal du Centre, the Rigole de l'Arroux. It was constructed especially for a steel factory in the neighbouring village Geugnon. The small canal was just wide enough to let through a small barge towed by donkeys. There also were about twenty places where the barges could pass each other.

Close tot the Canal du Centre I find a little counterpoise-bridge, a canal bridge and a lock.

The lock is just 2,50 meters wide and has only one door on each side. It is only 17 meters long. Alas, the dike just before the canal bridge over the Bourbince is burst so there isn't any water left in the Rigole navigable de l'Arroux. It must have happened recently because a pedestrian with a dog tells me that recently the little canal was a favorite spot for fishermen. There is another lock some five kilometers further but I decide to turn my bike because the towpath isn't very good.

As everybody is back on board, we navigate back. We are locked down near the canal bridge at six o'clock and we navigate on to the second lock in the Canal latéral à la Loire (Thaleine). The Canal latéral à la Loire remembers me of the Canal de Bourgogne near Pouilly: a wide valley with green meadows with white Charolaise cows. The plots are separated by hedges. Also the busy motor-way at some distance is the same. We moor close to a weir. Alas the noise of the falling water isn't loud enough to drown the din of the lorries on the N79.

We eat French fries, salad and fish-sticks. The whether is still fine so we can eat in the open air.

After dinner the children play football with Robert in a meadow close to the lock. A young couple with two young kids live in the lockkeepers house. The children are cycling on the lock quay but they are well looked after by their parents. As it darkens Pepijn, Maarten and Robert walk back. Pepijn gives a kick to the football and provokingly slowly the ball falls into the lock-chamber. We are looking at the ball somewhat defeated. Then the lockkeeper comes out of his house. He has seen what has happened en fills the lock-chamber especially for us to get out our ball.