Wednesday August 1, Vandeness-en-Auxois

August 02, 2018

Wednesday August 1, Vandeness-en-Auxois

The delightful Lock keeper's cottage

We arrived back at camp this afternoon after a great 22km return cycle to Pouilly-en-Auxois and as we were unpacking I realised my phone was missing. My heart sunk, we searched everywhere but it definitely wasn’t there. We remembered I got it out on our return trip when we were looking for a local produce shop at Creancy that we had been told about, and we visited it. Felt that maybe I had taken it in with my wallet and left it on the counter as I paid. Forgot about the app find “iPhone” (Duh!), instead I got on my bike, put it on turbo mode and set off the 8 kms back again, going hell for leather, hoping that the store would still be open. It certainly was and as I walked up to the counter, the lady who served me smiled, reached under the counter and brought out my phone. The relief, I felt like giving her a big hug. It was a much happier trip coming home and thankfully it was all downhill. A valuable lesson learnt.
Woke to the humidity this morning and then the thunder and finally some rain. We had planned to ride along the canal to Pouilly for an explore and a lunch out but mucked around until the weather had settled and finally headed off about midday. A very pleasant ride following the canal up to a large basin where the big Hotel Barges turn around for their return trip. They can’t continue as the canal, at its summit then goes through a 3.3km tunnel which separates the Yonne and Saone river valleys. Amazingly this tunnel was completed in 1832. It was a great ride and passed many cyclists and a number with their families cycling as well, and by the looks of all the gear they were towing it is obviously a popular route to camp along. There are numerous locks along the canal, and beside each one is an old lock keeper’s cottage. Today the locks are manned by a centrally based team on scooters so these houses are now individually owned. Passed by a beautiful one today that had old equipment decorating the outside.
Found a really nice little café that Cliff had recommended for lunch and thankfully while we were there in the dry, the heavens opened for about 15 minutes. It was all over by the time we got back on our backs for a dry ride back to camp. Shame about the extra trip I made, but all ended up well. I will sleep well tonight.