The Pont Canal at Briare was doddle without the ferocious wind last time around, and the canal de Briare itself is wide and deep compared to the Canal Laterale a la Loire of the last few days.
We got into the chains of automatic locks having been warned that staff numbers are now reduced so we'd not be accompanied the whole way, but that proved something of a challenge; even with the fly bridge we have, when you drive into the bottom of a 4m corridoor, its hard to see the bollards you're hopefully throwing ropes at, so much ingenuity was needed. Efforts had to be doubled in one lock where the bar activator wasn't working at all and A had to climb off the boat to push the button!
Having been told we'd catch up with a keeper halfway through the cycle we were surprised to make it to the end without sight nor sound of a professional; we've put it down to our obvious skill, but truth be told its low man power combined with long lunch breaks ;-)
We reached the summit, and again the wind is blowing a hoolie, so not helpful that the lock wasn't ready for us - with a huge Restaurant barge coming up the chain from the other side it was all toomuch for the brain of the system, but eventually it gave in as we went through the sensors first. At the next a good old fashioned kick was needed to persuade the gates open was the way to go, and the restaurant boat, also all over the place despite weighing probably 40 tonnes, remebered us from last time, commenting that then too the wind had not been in our favour. Was it so recently, or was he bowled over by the suave lines of the Goodbye George?!
As planned we were battling on with our ambitious itinerary, reaching the 4th to last at 16.30 to find no-one in sight. With a mooring back a mere 100m we reversed onto the quay and settled in - it seemed a reasonable time to stop afterall. The lock keeper eventually burned up in his van, aggressively defensive, expecting an earful for not being there when we arrived, and was quite deflated by our own lack of aggression. This was indeed a lucky turn of events as we would never have made our planned destination - an elderly Altzheimers patient had gone missing the previous night and the last lock on our itinerary was closed for dredging in case the worst had happened. Delighted to hear the next day that said gentleman was retuned home safe and sound.
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