There were three boats in port beside ourselves when we went to sleep last night, and they all had intentions of taking the bone in their teeth and charging up the twenty locks that remain to the top of the hill so that they could be through the tunnel first thing the following day.
We let them go at nine and waited till their wakes had long disappeared.
That of course left us alone. For the first time in several months without cruising company or friends aboard the boat seemed suddenly terribly large, and terribly empty.
We were in truth happy to be alone but sad too in a way, because the way ahead is hilly and twisty and beautiful, with valleys stretching on one side and hills coming down to the water on the the other and we would have no one to share it with. The others had helped us through the parts commonly described as “boring” though, so we could take some consolation in that!
We know this part of the canal is treated as a thoroughfare, we’ve come down thirty locks in a day here ourselves once in a commute to Paris, but there is too much to absorb to do that again.
Eight kilometres seemed more than enough, and at the end of it, a sit in the forest near Naix-aux-Forges was certainly a pleasure. We’ve never been to Naix before without at least walking to the village, or riding off in the opposite direction to try unsuccessfully to find the ruins of the ancient Roman town apparently nearby.
Today we were happy to just sit the afternoon away, quietly enjoying the mist and the moisture that never quite got to be rain, accompanied only by the sound of the odd fish splashing nearby.
We let them go at nine and waited till their wakes had long disappeared.
That of course left us alone. For the first time in several months without cruising company or friends aboard the boat seemed suddenly terribly large, and terribly empty.
We were in truth happy to be alone but sad too in a way, because the way ahead is hilly and twisty and beautiful, with valleys stretching on one side and hills coming down to the water on the the other and we would have no one to share it with. The others had helped us through the parts commonly described as “boring” though, so we could take some consolation in that!
We know this part of the canal is treated as a thoroughfare, we’ve come down thirty locks in a day here ourselves once in a commute to Paris, but there is too much to absorb to do that again.
Eight kilometres seemed more than enough, and at the end of it, a sit in the forest near Naix-aux-Forges was certainly a pleasure. We’ve never been to Naix before without at least walking to the village, or riding off in the opposite direction to try unsuccessfully to find the ruins of the ancient Roman town apparently nearby.
Today we were happy to just sit the afternoon away, quietly enjoying the mist and the moisture that never quite got to be rain, accompanied only by the sound of the odd fish splashing nearby.
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