Friday 29th April 2016 Givet to Vanne-Alcorps. 20.7kms 6 locks

A new gate going rusty 57 Ham

1.9° C. Sunny first thing but cold and windy, clouds gathering. Rain and hail later. We set off at 8.50am heading back upriver to spend a few days at Pont-à-Bar as the dry docking had been postponed by the yard to the 17th May due to emergency repairs on a commercial boat that took preference over our booking. What a difference going upriver, with revs on to do 7.5kph and doing 5 so the river was running at 2.5kph, so it had slowed down a bit from when we came downriver. Lock 58 Trois Fontaines was ready for us, the young lady resident keeper lowering a boat hook to take a rope for us. Mike asked her how she knew we were coming but didn’t get an answer, probably as she didn’t understand the question. Through Ham tunnel (spotted a bird’s nest built into one of the dished recesses in the stone wall) and up lock 57 Ham, again our lady lock keeper took our centre rope for us with a long boat shaft. A man in a van arrived at the lock house. Through the short lock cut and back on to the river. Men were cutting the grass at Aubrives, using mowing machines and strimmers.

No crossing lock gates! 56 Mouzon

Spotted an inflated rubber boat lying on the bank – health and safety now requires a rescue boat in case anyone should fall in the river, we wondered? Up lock 56 Mouzon. Still several VNF vans at the house/office. As the lock filled the top end gates made a loud screeching noise, sounded like a diesel train hooter. You’d think being right by a VNF inhabited lock that they’d slap some grease on it! I took a photo of a very old lockside sign forbidding the crossing of lock gates. An empty péniche called Pirate was moored above the lock opposite the building site

Lock house 56 Mouyon

where a new weir was under construction. On the next reach it was suddenly busy, first a two man rowing skiff went past heading downriver followed by three hireboats from Pont-à-Bar. The speed of the water flow increased to around 3kph as we reached the next lock, Mike had to increase speed to compensate. Up lock 55 Montigny without any problems. Noted that the passenger trip boat Charlemagne from Givet was behind us below the lock. Mike took photos of trees in the lock

Peniche Pirate moored in the lock cut abv 56 Mouyon

cut that had been chewed by beaver and I made sandwiches for lunch. Mike slowed off to let the tripper catch up and overtake at KP21 as he runs to a timetable. After Charlemagne cleared lock 54 Fépin we zapped, the lock emptied and then we went up. As we left Mike spied a white cruiser behind us also coming upriver. I took a photo of the old observatory in a garden at Haybes. A large cruiser from Wexford in Ireland was moored on the quay. Up lock 53 Vanne-

Beaver at work

Alcorps and as we headed for the bank to tie up it started hailing, big stinging lumps of ice! That was annoying, just enough to get us wet and the maps and guidebook. I got off on the hummocky bank and held the centre rope while Mike banged pins in behind the piling to tie to. While we were tying up an empty péniche called My Way from Dunkerque went past, crew waving, heading downhill. Bet they were thinking – what are those crazy Brits doing

Garden observatory at Haybes

tying up in a lock cut?? Well, it’s deep enough, very quiet, TV and satellite reception are OK and it’s free. It was 2.40pm. A VNF van went past and the lock lights had turned to en panne double red. The lockie had taken over as the cruiser we’d spotted coming up behind us must have arrived below the lock and zapped. As the working péniche has priority he’d reset it for him, gates opened and My Way went down. Shortly afterwards a very large white Dutch cruiser went past, followed ten minutes later by another very large cruiser going upriver, a German one from Düsseldorf, just as the tripper went past heading back downhill! That was a busy half hour! And it tested our mooring ropes. Mike went to look at the progress of the new weir, he said they’d laid some square tubes half way across the river - making a bridge so that their plant could drive over from one side of the river to the other, while the river flowed through the holes. After dinner, well after lock closing time, empty péniche Paraguay arrived. When we looked out later he was still in the lock chamber with the top end gates open and spent the night in there as there is nowhere to deep enough for him to moor above the lock.