Canal latéral à la loire, travel report 2003: prelude

It's half past eight as I grab my pen to write in my diary. Today we are going on a boating holiday of fourteen day on the Canal du Nivernais. We traveled by car to Dompierre-sur-Besbre with the five of us: our children Pepijn and Maarten, Marga, my mother and I. My brother Robert came by train. He will also be traveling with us for ten days.

The trip by car went fine. It is Eastern en there isn't much traffic. We have some time left as we arrive in the neighborhood of the base where we rented our boat.

	We even have a chance to take a look at the canal bridge across the Allier near Nevers. We can see it from our car on the left hand as we are on our way to it. It is a canal bridge with many arches in masonry. It looks as if the canal bridge ends nowhere but that's because of the double lock with a very great fall which is associated to it. I presume that the lock has a fall of more than nine meters right down from the canal bridge.
After that we drive a little bit further to the round lock at a branch of the Canal latéral à la Loire: Embranchement des Lorrains. The round lock has been built to make a connection between the Canal latéral à la Loire and the river Allier. There's a solemn lockkeepers house standing near the round lock.
	Just beside each other (ten past two as you lcompare it with a clock) are the robust closed gates to the Allier and the opened gates to the branch. There are no more openings in the lock. It was built in 1838. In the mouth of the Allier sand was gathered Flat-bottomed barges with each 50 ton of sand could navigate through the lock.

The flat-bottomed barges were towed upstream the Allier into the lock by horses. Later the horses were replaced by a tractor. Because of the drop of water-level in the Allier and other methods of gathering sand, the lock isn't used any more. In the middle of the twentieth century the round lock was transformed into a sediment basin. There is a wall now, right through the middle of the lock. Water is transported from the Allier by the Écluse des Lorraine and the Embranchment des Lorraine to the Canal lateral a la Loire. Though the boys didn't want me to stop to take a look at the round lock, I can hardly get them in the car again. They are hunting lizards.

We arrive at the base of the boat-renting company at five. There is a little port with some sheds around it. We pack our things from the car into the boat and get some instructions. Because it's already the fourth time we are navigating and we have rented this type of boat before, we skip the test-navigation in consultation.

At a quarter to seven we pick up my brother Robert at the station. He arrives in a modern little train of glass. Everything goes well and we decide to make al little trip. We don't want to stay the night at the base. We navigate on a branch , the Embranchment de Dompierre, to the Canal lateral a la Loire. The fist section is very narrow. I hope we don't meet oncoming ships here. At the bridges the canal is even more narrow, only five meters wide. As we reach the Canal lateral a la Loire we see a lock on our right side immediately and so we have to go left. The locks are closed of course at this hour of the day. At the northern side of the canal a very old abbey is situated, the Abbaye des Sept-Fons. At the southern side a black iron-foundry of Peugeot with large chimneys, railway carriages and the matching industrial noises. What a contradiction! We pass by both complexes and moor next to a fields with cole-seed. The banks of the canal are made of steel. I can see the fist signs of leaves at the trees but they are mostly bare. The tow path isn't paved and I can see that it's a long time ago since it rained. We eat on board the pre-cooked meals we brought from Holland.