What Goes Up.....

The main reason for the construction of the Canal du Nivernais, over 200 years ago, was so that timber could be transported from the Forests of the Morvan into the centre of Paris. In order to achieve this, they needed to find a navigable route to connect the Loire to the Yonne and then to the Seine.
If digging a 180 km canal was not hard enough, the problem is made more difficult by the fact that you have a significant change in levels to overcome as well. They only way this could be achieved was by building something like 150 locks along the way.
Since we began our ride in Joigny we have been steadily gaining elevation. Each lock enabled a passing vessel to gain around 2 to 3 metres of height. As we rode out of Corbigny this morning the early conditions were ideal. Once again there was not a cloud in the sky, although we could feel that the temperatures were going to steadily rise. For the first half of the ride, the locks certainly did rise. In places the gradient of the land was so steep that the locks would have been no more than 100 metres apart. This would certainly make hard work of getting through this section.
After about 15 km we reached the highest point of the canal and then started to find locks where the elevation was going down. This felt like a significant milestone had been reached, and reminded us that our time on the Nivernais is rapidly drawing to a close. In fact, tomorrow we will reach the end of the Nivernais at Decize. At the same time we will meet the famous Loire River which will be the recurring theme of our ride for the next 1000 km or so.
Our home for this evening is the stangely named Au Foudre de Bazois. As I have mentioned in an earlier epistle, the route we are following is actually a pilgrim route, withj the end destination being Santiago in Spain. Although we haven't seen many pilgrims (actually only one), the hotel has obviously been designed with pilgrims in mind. My room actually is two rooms, with a total of 5 beds ! By the time we arrived, the temperature had risen to around 30C - a bit hot for riding, but ideal for drying our washing. My own washing is now happily drying on coat hangers suspended by the curtain rails. It will dry in no time.Read more