13th - 19th October 2017. Having loaded our wood on to The Puzzler, we continue along the Canal Latéral à la Loire, and then the Canal de Digoin à Roanne.

At least half of our logs are now covered on the roof of The Puzzler, and Shannon is trying to uncover them again. We had to offset them to the port side, so that she could still walk up and down the boat.

After an extremely misty morning, the sun has suddenly broken through, so I needed the bridge as a sunshade! Some more wood is here in the cratch, while the rest is safely inside the boat. If it were all on the roof, we would be very top-heavy, and rather unsafe!

These trees have suffered from being hosts to the large balls of mistletoe, and are now dying because of this.

On reaching the start of the Digoin to Roanne canal, we feel as though we are nearly home, although we still have over 50 kilometres to go.

Here are some thirsty young charolais cattle.

Shannon and I are walking between the locks at Chambilly. The trees are just starting to turn yellow, as autumn approaches.

On to Artaix, where there are as many camper vans as boats! Shannon loves the leaves.

Our canal travels parallel to the river Loire, and the Loire valley is quite wide here, with small villages along the top of the surrounding hills.

Every time we pass  near to Iguerande, we see this sign directing us to the donkey farm.

It is possible to take one of their donkeys out for a walk, as this family are doing.

Autumn is coming, and the canal above the lock at Briennon is full of leaves!

Our last lock of 2017, as we enter the Port of Roanne. We have been through 672 locks this year and travelled 1756 kilometres (1098 miles).

We have the same place in the port as we had last year, though we must vacate it for the next couple of weeks, while we are away in England. This is the first time that we have seen the fleet of day boats in residence here.

18th - 30th September 2017. Along the Canal de Loing and the Canal de Briare, to join the Canal Latéral à la Loire. We harvest walnuts and sloes, but buy wine in Monetréol-sous-Sancerre.

To the south of Souppes the Canal de Loing has a very attractive section through the trees.

By lunchtime Sally is on the roof again, collecting some more walnuts.

The bottom gates at lock 35 have been damaged by a peniche, which must have come up underneath the walkway. It was lucky that he did not lift the gates too!

The approach to Montargis reminded us of Utrecht, in The Netherlands. We are now on the Canal de Briare.

At last we have found some sloes! Andy is going to patent our “sloe pricker”, which makes the job much quicker than by using the forks.

Shannon has spotted a cat in a tree by a lock.

We had to wait over lunchtime at Rogny-les-Sept-Ecluses. The mooring on the other side was a bad height for us, but this side was shallow, so the plank did a good job. The swans were very hungry.

These are the original seven locks of Rogny, while the new flight of six, starting to the right here, each rise over 4 metres.

We had a proper walk round Briare this time. We were here two years ago, but did not stay here then. The church of St. Etienne is lovely.

The rose window, situated behind the organ, is very unusual in that it shows all the signs of the zodiac.

We are leaving the Canal de Briare as we cross the aqueduct to join the Canal Latéral à la Loire.

The river Loire is far below the canal here. We will travel near to the Loire all the way to Roanne.

Forty kilometres further on, we find vines again, near to Sancerre.

Monétréol-sous-Sancerre is an old village in the heart of the vineyards, with wine 'caves' to see. Both the ones we visited were based in farmyards, but we preferred the wine tasting room of Lepresle, which was a basic outbuilding of the farm. His wine tasted better too!

Looking back towards Monétréol, the hill town of Sancerre can be seen above it. We visited Sancerre in early September two years ago, and really enjoyed it.

Someone needs a haircut!

By the weekend the sun was hot enough for sunbathing, although the mooring was a little rural.

22nd - 26th October. Engine problems on the Canal Latéral à la Loire, then deep locks on the Canal de Roanne à Digoin.

While moving on towards the end of the Canal Latéral à la Loire, the engine started screaming, so we stopped in the middle of the canal! The alternator belt pulley had fallen off, to land under the engine, so Andy replaced the alternator with our spare one, and we were off again. We had informed the next lockkeeper of our problems, and he had been to see that we were OK, which was nice of him. Just when we were ready to set off, two boats came past us, so we expected to have to wait at the lock until they had gone. However, our lockkeeper beckoned us in as well, saying “ Peut-etre, peut-etre pas!” We managed to fit all three boats in, moving forward as we rose in the lock, so as not to be caught under the walkway on the bottom gates.

Here The Puzzler has turned right at the junction from the Canal Latéral à la Loire, on to the Canal de Roanne à Digoin. The junction is near to Digoin, so we are now on the last part of our journey to Roanne, our winter mooring. This canal is described as “l'atout des voies Françaises”, which translates as “the trump of the French waterways”.

This canal was upgraded to Freycinet standard gauge in the late nineteenth century, and some of the locks were combined then. This lock, Chassenard number 8, has a rise of six metres.

This is when a long rope at the bows is essential!

Continuing beside the river Loire, our next lock is even deeper at 7.19 metres. To enter the lock we pass under a solid metal framework, which holds the lock walls safely apart.

The valley of the river Loire stretches away to our left. Here the river is nearer to the canal, but it meanders to and fro across the valley.

There are still many charolais in the fields here, with this fine bull looking very calm today.

Some trees are still green, while others brighten the canal with autumn colours. Our flowers on The Puzzler are still blooming too, later than in any other year.

The leaves, however pretty, create a problem for the lockkeepers. Our engine isn't too keen on them either!

Wild moorings can be found all along this lovely canal. Tomorrow we will reach Roanne.

12th - 21st October. On to Decize on the Canal du Nivernais, then to Beaulon and Pierrefitte, on the Canal Latéral à la Loire, .

The canal du Nivernais is widening out, below Cercy.

At Decize we reach the end of the canal du Nivernais, and are briefly on the River Loire, before rejoining the Canal Latéral à la Loire. In Decize the old citadel greets us, as it lies on the confluence of all three waterways.

The clock tower, which was built here in 1848, is 33 metres high. It is in the main town square, standing proudly in front of the town hall. It also has three bells in the bell tower at the top, one of which weighs 1300kg.

Moving on, our next port was at Beaulon, where we found Nico and Ianne on Liane again, and met Mary and Brian on Kyrenia. All three boats are heading for Roanne for the winter. The others left the next morning, but we stayed at Beaulon for three days.

This street sign in Beaulon is typical of French towns, telling us where to find all the points of interest. If it is near to lunchtime, when all shops close for a couple of hours, at least, this can be very useful, finding them before they close!

Further along the canal, we came to Pierrefitte-sur-Loire, and spotted this woodyard, near to the canal. Our negotiations at the adjoining house found us with two cubic metres of wood promised.

Our man delivered one load later that afternoon. It was a great relief when he offered to cut it up for us, as well as bringing it right to the boat. We had had visions of moving load after load on our small trolley!

It was nearly dark when the second boxful arrived. The woodman had cut it all to our specified length of 25 cm, so that it would fit into our fire.

Philippe and Pierrette were next to us on Dream's Rivers, a lovely cruiser. We spent two enjoyable evenings with them, which was very good for our French, as that was the only language we were using!

On Wednesday we stacked all of the wood both inside, and on top of The Puzzler. With so much wood, it is a question of keeping the weight as low as possible in the boat, and also balancing it, to keep The Puzzler level.

Thursday was spent in recovery time, along with a couple of walks around the nearby lake, where Shannon loved chasing anything that moved, on the beach there. She followed it up with a dip in the water, so was not too gritty when we returned to The Puzzler! Here she is later on, having dried off, with her little friend, another Shih-Tzu.