Canal du Nivernais, travel-report 2003: third day

It is three o'clock in the afternoon as I write this. We have just arrived at the highest point in the Canal du Nivernais. We are moored at a quay between the Étang de Baye and the canal. It is pouring with rain at this moment.

As usual we left at nine o'clock this morning. We get off just ahead of an other boot and are in front in the first lock. We see a French couple on the other boat. They use only one rope during the locking and they are floating slantwise in the lock. As the gates half opened they already are speeding up while I am still rolling up a rope. They almost navigate into our boat. I can only avoid an accident by dropping the rope and speeding up myself immediately. Out side the lock I let them pass us because Marga and Pepijn are still in town shopping.

In the next lock and all locks there after, they surprise us. She is standing at the bow and is singing (falsely) al the time with a walkman on her head. She is hanging at the ropes in the locks that way. Meanwhile he sits at the kitchen table reading a book with a cigar while his boat is bumping at the chamber walls. Even the two double and the triple lock they pass in this nonchalant way.

At Chavance he bumps almost at another oncoming ship. He is navigating with full speed into the lock and then discovers the oncoming boat out of the lock at the very last moment.

The lockkeepers are pretending not to see what happens in the lock. They look in the opposite direction making fun with each other. Meanwhile they take care that nothing seriously will happen. I ask one of them about the whether forecast. He says some 'éclaircissements' are coming but until this moment I haven't seen them.

As we reach the summit level-pound the lockkeeper asks whether if we travel on or stay here. I tell him we want to continue at the moment it stops raining. That does not seem to be possible for him. We have to name a particular point of time. So I decide to stay here and navigate through the tunnels tomorrow morning. It would be disappointing to pass the summit level-pound in the rain. This section is supposed to be extraordinary beautiful.

At four o'clock in the afternoon the rain stops. Pepijn, Maarten, Robert and I decide to take a look in the tunnels by foot.

We are walking along the section of the canal leading towards the tunnels. The canal is sinking next to us in the landscape. Then we see the entrance of the tunnel. By a little footpath we can go down. At the right side of the canal is a towpath through the tunnel. With the four of us and three pocket lights we walk into the darkness of the tunnel. We are pleased with a rail fastened to the wall. The first tunnel is long and very dark. It has three airshafts but that doesn't give much light. The second and third tunnel are much shorter. Between the tunnels we walk in a kind of groove with high walls made in masonry.
	After the third tunnel we can't go any further. We intend to walk back over the hills but there isn't a footpath upwards. So we have to go back the same way we came, through the third tunnel. We can go upwards between the second and third tunnel and so we do. From above we have a nice view on the deep groove between the hills.
We take a look at the air-shafts above the first tunnel. There are three of them. They are covered up by a grid. We climb on top of it and look down. Way down we see the water sparkling. We walk on and pass by some abandoned service-buildings which used to belong to the navigating-service of the tunnel. 'Bureau' is written on it in large letters above the door.
	As we walk back to our boat the wheather is fine again. The sun is shining on our boat in the distance. Marga and I decide to take a walk along the lake while my mother is baking pancakes. There are lots of fishermen around the lake. Close to our boat a section has been appointed for night-fishing carps.