Here we go, on another trip to Belgium to another dry dock in the hope that we can get the bottom cleared of molluscs, painted AND antifouled. Problems beset us - an unforeseen error downloading GPS maps used up most of our Internet gigabytes AND we forgot to check the stoppage list online. Gross error, the locks on our local canal, the Aisne a la Marne - which provides easy access to the Ardennes canal and a sixteen day trip to Charleroi was closed on the 29th March for a month. Idiots! Now we had no choice but to go the long way round....... Watch this space.
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| Tent in the park ready for rock concert |
4.7°
C Sunny start that soon turned to grey skies. Mike was up at 5.30am, went to the
boulangerie when they opened at 7.30am to get the bread he had on order, then
he got everything ready on the boat and
set off at 7.40am. I was slumbering on and the engine starting woke me and I
got up and had breakfast just in time to help out at the first automatic lock,
11 Vraux. An enormous volume of water was pouring over the long high weir to
the right of the lock chamber. Twisted the pole, lock gates opened
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| The National Circus School buildings in Chalons |
and we went
in. I lifted the bar and the lock filled in no time. 2.7m higher we continued
up the next long straight pound - most of the pounds of the Latéral à la Marne
are dead straight. A VNF van with headlights on came down the towpath towards
us, driver waving cheerily as we passed. Through the bare trees we could see
the distant plumes of steam from the McCain chip factory on the RD3. Up another
2.2m at lock 10
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| One of several permanent circus tents at the Circus School |
Juvigny, its ancient lockhouse shuttered and empty. I phoned
the lock controller at Bar-le-Duc to book the locks out of Vitry for the
following morning as they have to be programmed by the office in Bar-le-Duc. On to
the 7kms long pound into Châlons. Mike called the lock keeper at Châlons lock 9
on VHF channel 22. He said we were programmed, so just come in the lock and
lift the bar. OK. The lock light was green and the gates were open, so no need
to twist the hanging pole. The keeper came out of his office to say bonjour as I
lifted the rod to start the lock operating. As the lock filled
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| Grain silos and the long straight Lateral canal at Chalons |
I dropped a
centre rope on a hook on the lockside. The keeper came out again and asked the
usual questions, where had we come from, where were we going, etc. Friendly
enough, but not as chatty as Madame who was the usual keeper at this lock. As
we passed through Châlons we noted the new Capitanerie (office) was closed and
that there were two cruisers on the pontoon plus an over-wintering hotel boat
called Princess was moored towpath side with its engine running. A big-top tent
had been erected in the park and was surrounded by caravans and a big silver
Winnebago. I’d seen
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| Lock house nameplate St Germain lock 5 (was 6) |
posters that there was to be a rock festival to be held by
the circus. Passing the Circus School and its permanent tents, then the grain
silos, we were soon out of Châlons and into the countryside again. 6kms to lock
8 Sarry. The towpath edges were carpeted with cowslips, violets and red dead
nettle. As we were still near the city there were one or two dog walkers and
cyclists on the towpath. Sarry’s lock house had long gone, it was very quiet as
we rose another 2.5m. Almost 5kms to the next and dead straight. St Germain
lock 7 still had its lock house but it was shuttered and looked empty, unlived
in. I made lunch as we went along the 6.5kms unusually winding pound through
the little town of Pogny, closely following the river Marne, to lock 6
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| Old lock house at Soulanges, long disused |
La
Chausée-sur-Marne, a lovely village. Its lock house looked very forlorn, empty,
boarded up and sadly deteriorating. A harrier flew overhead passing above us as
it followed the canal back towards Pogny. Hadn’t seen a harrier for a long
time, not since the flat lands of the northern Netherlands. A shorter pound,
3.6kms to lock 5 Ablancourt, which had lock walls that had been raised, several
times by the look of it, to accommodate the rising levels of water in the canal
above in times of flooding. There was a feeder paddle open to run water through
the lock as well as over the weir. Up another 2m, passing, as we left the lock,
an open run-off weir a few feet above the Marne. In times of flood, which are
frequent, water from the river would come into the canal through that open weir.
Another short pound of only 2.3kms and we were at our last lock of the day 4
Soulanges, another lovely village on the banks of the canal and river. Up just
1.6m and we moored on the left by a long row of cherry trees in flower. It was
3pm, the church clock was chiming as we tied up. Mike set the satellite dish up
then I gave him a hand to get the moped off the roof and he went to get the car
from Condé and move it on to our next stop, Pargny, on the Marne-au-Rhin canal.
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