8
May Courcy
So finally on 8 May we are hopeful that the locks on
the Marne-a-l’Aisne canal will open north of Rheims. The work team arrive back at the last lock
promptly at 07h00. The supervisor says
he is confident it will all be open by midday.
Some pictures tell the story.
HaGe and shipmate in the foreground, Stephen, Chris and Fawnia in the
background, watch as the VNF team starts work
Women in charge as the team manoeuvres the crane into place
The diver is in the water to fix chains to the underwater barriers
The first barrier rises
The supervisors supervise – very thoroughly
The first gate to the lock is open
The second gate is freed up as the supervisor’s dog also checks on
proceedings
Water finally enters the lock
The frogman has finished his duties
Of course the commercial goes first
Finally we are off – hooray!!!
Completing
the Marne-a-l’Aisne
We actually get off before 11h30, so VNF have done
us proud, despite their initial overrun. We take the 8 locks down to
Berry-au-Bac, locking with HaGe and his new colleague in the Gehuny. They are very helpful. Some locks have
limited bollards and we have to make do together. Getting out of the locks in time is a bit of
a rush. They are time-limited and
getting ropes off the two boats from down in the lock takes some time. As the second boat twice we have to belt full
steam out of the lock to avoid being trapped as the gates close. Finally at lock 2 we do not make it, and the
lock gates close with us still in the lock.
The ever helpful and friendly HaGe turns his boat around however and
gets hold of VNF to explain our situation which gets us released.
So at the next and last lock we wave a long goodbye
as they head up the Aisne to the Canal des Ardennes and the Meuse and
Holland. We turn south down the Aisne to
the Oise.
Down
the Aisne
No sight of the others behind us as we take the
first Aisne lock at Berry-au-Bac. We
share the lock with a French boat on its way down to Soissons. He is lighter and faster than us, and quickly
disappears as we take the long 20 kms pound to Bourg-et-Comin. We debated – but only a very short moment –
whether to take this today, but we really do need to get on.
As we approach Malzy about 15kms of the 20 we see a
boat in front of us. It is the
commercial who left Courcy ahead of us.
Do we try to overtake, or de we just follow it the last 5 kms.
We decide to follow and hope he will continue down
the Aisne towards Paris. He seems to be
doing this, but then suddenly, almost at the last minute swings right into the
Aisne-a-l’Oise canal. It is getting late.
We won’t make the first lock behind him before they close for the night.
We look at the small port at Bourg-et-Comin. It is full and much occupied with very big
barges. Nowhere for us to moor, and no
double mooring possible.
We nudge up the lock pound hoping to find a
sympathetic bank near the lock. There is
one nearer but occupied by a fisherman.
Nothing in front of the lock we slowly reverse half a kilometre as we
see the fisherman packing up. His turns
out to be an idyllic mooring, where the dogs can freely and we are safely tied
up.
Andrew from the Capricorn calls. They have moored up alongside one the big
barges at Bourg-et-Comin. They are high
enough. Martin and Diane in the China
Bird decided to stay at Berry-au-Bac.
We say we’ll see them in the morning.
9
May - Over the Aisne-a-l’Oise
We all set off at 09h00, but the Capricorn
moves faster than us so they go first.
We will follow and it is easier not sharing locks.
After a few locks we reach the tunnel at Bray. There is a beautiful herd of cows just
passing over the entrance to the tunnel as we arrive. A fantastic bucolic picture, but sadly by the
time we can take a photo they have almost all passed by
.
Cows above the tunnel at Bray on the Aisne-a-l’Oise
We pass by Pargny-Filain which had been one of our
planned stops, but no time for that now.
Pity. It looks really nice. We think we might have a lunch stop at Guny,
but while it is a clean mooring it is really bare, and we decide to get to
Chauny on the Oise.
We get there and the Capricorn has also stayed
there. Even better they have recce’d a
good spot for us to moor. We settle in
for a nice evening.
Bad weather threatens for the next couple of
days. The Capricorn decides to stay at
Chauny to see how it develops. We feel
we have to push on, so set off early up the Oise to Tergnier and then the St
Quentin canal.
10
May - Up the Oise and the St Quentin Canal
There are big automatic locks on the Oise, but it is
possible to get off the boat before them so that we can get our ropes on from
the quay. But there are also VNF agents
around, always willing to help us.
Up the Oise from Chauny
And so the St Quentin canal. Here we have to work the locks
ourselves. They are landing stages in
front of the locks as we go upstream, so Linda can get off before we go into
the locks. Or so we thought! They are in a terrible state of disrepair,
and some are downright dangerous, with rotting wood collapsing as soon as you put
any weight on them. We begin to approach
with very great care.
We moor up for lunch just in front of the Jussy
lock. The picnic spot given in the books
is not really there, but there are bollards along the bank – though at 25m
intervals a little too far apart for us to use two bollards. We moor the bow to a bollard, and the stern
we moor fast with pins. Some nice
walking for the dogs, and gentle lunch and a quiet snooze, then we will be off
again.
A
Lunchtime Shock
Not quite. As
we are resting an industrial barge comes out of the lock at some speed. The channel narrows to where we are moored
and he has to come over to us. Suddenly
we are moving. At his speed our pins are
just lifted out of the ground and the stern swings out. We hear a loud clack as his stern passes
ours.
He has actually hit us. We are so lucky. It is only the anchor mounting he has hit,
and this has saved us. It is very badly
bent, however thick the steel, but no other damage. We quickly learn that in this territory
mooring on pins is not a good idea, however many and however firmly bedded.
We call the VNF agent who has kindly helped us in
the morning, to explain we have been hit, and does he know the name of the boat
which was heading his way. He arrives
quite quickly, but as we are not “en panne” (broken down) and he says he knows
nothing about the barge going the other way.
We clearly will get no information, so have to just accept our very
lucky near miss.
Overnight
at Seraucourt
We set off for the afternoon quite chastened. But we are now in a very lovely stretch of
water, and that helps the anxiety flow away.
The woodlands and island at Avesne, where the old Somme canal used to
join the St Quentin, are idyllic. We are
tempted to moor there for the night, but feel we have to move on, and finally
moor on the side of the canal just alongside the Seraucourt inlet. As we walk into the hamlet we see the
moorings at the end of the inlet are quite wonderful, but the guide book said
they could not take boats more than 10 metres. This turns out to be not true. But we are settled for the night now, so
leave it at that.
11
May - Onward to St Quentin and the Summit
Three days and we only have five to get
Cambrai. It is Sunday, and need to get
to the summit by the end of the day. We
set off leisurely and through the morning glide gently on through St Quentin
itself. It would have been nice to
stop. It looks a lively and interesting
town.
Passing St Quentin on Sunday Morning
With rowers in attendance – of course they overtake us
We stop for lunch at Lesdins before its shorter
tunnel over the summit, so that we can make the 6km Riqueval tunnel which will
take us next day to the top of the Escaut (Scheldt) river.
It is very peaceable here. Good walking and good scenery.
Horses at the summit
And a beautiful oak tree - somewhere
The Lesdins tunnel is just 1 km and then another 7
to the Riqueval. When we get there we
are on our own. It is quiet, beautiful
woodland, but very shadowed beneath the high banks.
Waiting lone at the Souterrain de
Riqueval with the electric tugs which will pull us through
An hour or so later we see a boat approaching. We thought it might be the Capricorn,
but not it is the China Bird. But Martin
and Diane assure us that the New Forest Doctors are not far behind, and they
duly arrive a little later. We have
drinks together later on and discuss the progression tomorrow. We will be towed by an electric tug, and will
have 30m tow ropes between each of us.
The China Bird arrives
12
May – The Riqueval Tunnel and the Descent to Cambrai
This is actually a very gentle procedure, though
luckily there are no commercials and indeed it is only we three. The tug crews check our boats, ropes and
papers, and off we go. They will send us
will back in England. Maybe it is
waiting at home for us!! The passage is easy and takes about an hour and a
half.
Setting Off in a Towed Convoy
There are 17 locks down to Cambrai, but of course
now they are all downhill, so for us a great deal easier. We stop for lunch at Crevecoeur, and after a
long day we arrive at Cambrai at about 16h30.
Waiting for the lock at Crevecoeur-sur-Escaut on the descent to Cambrai
Finally reaching Cambrai
Our day is not over though. There are almost no moorings at Cambrai. The Capricorn has double moored and the China
Bird is still somewhere behind us. We
look at every possibility, and finally have to double moor against a
permanently moored narrowboat. It is
impossible to get off, but somehow we scramble it, though cannot. We see the stand-in harbour master, and after
much negotiation get a scratch mooring against some railings at the entry to
the port. No water, no electricity, and
no reduction in the €17-a-day mooring fee.
But we are tied safely for 3 days, and should be grateful for small
mercies.
We end the day, and five long days, with a lovely
supper (home cooking is the best) and then Glyn and Topsy disappear for a long
hour to discover the town and the station.
13
May – The Return to Reims
The next day Glyn returns to Rheims to collect the
car. Although the train involves three
changes it is relatively easy and quick.
The changes at St Quentin, Tergnier and Laon are never more than 15
minutes, and in 2½ hours he is there.
The tram across town is quick, but alas a hold-up at the terminus means
he missed his bus. But an hour in the
sun is not too bad. Linda meanwhile has
explored the town, the bakeries, the greengrocers and the supermarkets, and we
are well restocked. On the drive back
Glyn realises he has now seen this part of the country, however speedily, by
rail, road and water.
14 May – Exploring the Escaut (French Scheldt)
We use our last day at Cambrai to explore the Escaut
or Scheldt down to Valenciennes, the Grand Gabarit Canal to the Belgian border,
and then onward down to Tournai and Antoing where we will leave the boat until
June.
We are glad we explored it. The moorings given in the guide book are
either not there, or not suitable. We
can have one stop at Estrun (Ay-tra) where the canalised Escaut joins the Grand
Gabarit, but after that we will need to do it in one journey. We also look at the possible moorings at Antoing. We decide to switch plans to the Peronnes
Yacht Club which is a friendly little place and quite unpretentious. So while we have to change our plans a
little, it was a good investment of time.
Discover the actualities of the Escaut and the Grand
Gabarit in our next post (Down the Escaut to Belgium) coming shortly.
