Tuesday 12th April 2016 Mouzay to abv Alma lock. 21.4kms 4 locks.

 2.4° C overnight. Sunny start, blue skies with a few puffy white clouds, warm in the sunshine with a tiny breeze. Later black clouds and rain with distant thunder, then back to blue skies. Crazy weather. Nice to get going again after a rest on Sunday and shopping on

Hydroelectric power plant on weir at Stenay

Monday. Waved and said bonjour to a lady walking her dog in the meadow down below the canal. The lock light changed to green and the gates opened as we were getting ready to go (did Mike accidentally press the button?) but by the time we were about 15m from the gates the light changed to red and the gates closed! Fed up with waiting for us. Backed up to the zapper post, zapped and the gates re-opened on lock 30 Mouzay, Mike lifted the bar (I couldn’t move it) and dropped down 2.6m. The lock house, although nicely renovated with new windows and doors plus new varnished wooden shutters, remained empty. 3.3kms to the next, soon back on to a pleasant river reach which was flowing gently at 2kph as we went into Stenay. Birds a-plenty

Honey buzzard on a field post

this morning, buzzards, black kites, cormorants and ducks. There were several needle weirs with some of their needles out as we went into the town. Lock 31 Stenay had a good lock house on the slope up to the road which went across the canal below the tail end of the lock. The drop was supposed to be 1.8m, but Mike measured the depth of wet wall when the chamber was empty – 2.4m – then as the gates opened we saw why, the next reach had been lowered by 60cm. Passing through the town there were at least ten campervans parked in the camping area and three small cruisers had been left over winter on the pontoon up the mill stream arm. Just a short distance below the lock there was another needle weir with lots of needles missing, then we went through a flood lock on to the next canal length. 6kms of canal to lock 32 Inor. I took photos of a bird of prey in a tree (which were rubbish) and Mike took photos of one (a honey buzzard) sat on a post. There were fishermen by the

Caddis fly larva in a case made of tiny sticks

long wide layby in Martincourt and another car was parked on theriver side just beyond a sign that said VNF only. All along the canal there were masses of white flowers on the blackthorn bushes (there will be lots of sloes this year) and the grass was covered with yellow cowslips, more and more ladysmocks were flowering too. Really warm in the sunshine for the first time since we set off. Three buzzards were circling, searching for thermals to soar on as we arrived at Inor. Down another 3m. Took photos of a caddis fly larva that had dropped on the boat from the wet lock wall. This one had bits of stick attached to its body casing, my insect book says it does this to prevent being swallowed by fish. Clever bug. A pair of Great White Egrets were in the meadow on our left, they took off looking like herons except they shone brilliantly white in the sunshine. 4.3kms to the next, back on a river reach. An old Dutch steel cruiser was moored above 33 Pouilly, it had no name or licence and

Moored at Alma

looked permanent, it was tied to a very high eroded bank, someone had constructed a substantial wooden decking for access. The dog at the house barked all the time we were in the lock, but no one came out of the lock house. Mike put the caddis fly larva back in the edge of the canal above the lock before he lifted the rod as the lock walls were a bit too high for me to get off easily. Down another 1.60m, last lock of the day. 7kms to the next lock, 6kms of that was on the river again. A coot flew across, low over the river, then we saw the first pair of Canada geese, they are spreading getting further and further south on the Meuse now and becoming such a pest in some Belgian river towns that the authorities have put up notices forbidding people to feed them. A small herd of Friesian heifers watched us pass with great interest from the meadow on our left. Past a large tree covered island where we had to keep right to stay in the navigable channel just as another Great White Egret flew over. Mike remarked that the river was over 6m deep on one left-hand bend. A rough-legged buzzard circled overhead, he stayed with us long enough for accurate identification, white tail and pale head, wings outspread like a harrier. We kept right, on into the lock cut as the river went over a needle weir with many of its needles extracted. It was 1pm when we moored by the picnic stop above lock 34 Alma, opposite the ferme d’Alma. Hurried to get all the gear inside and the satellite dish up (no terrestrial TV here or SFR phone but Internet was good on 3G) as black clouds were gathering. Had some lunch just as it started to rain, the wind picked up and there was distant thunder. Soon the sun was out again. Mike got our little Honda gennie out to check it and, needless to say, it didn’t run smoothly so he had another job to add to the ever-growing list.