Saturday 23rd April 2016 Vanne-Alcorps to Givet. 20.7kms 6 locks

Tree felled by beaver near Montigny

5.6° C After heavy rain overnight it was grey and chilly when we set off at 9.40am. Zapped and the lock lights went to red/green - then double reds, out of order – what a good start. Phoned the controller at Quatre Cheminées (the last lock on the French Meuse just downstream of Givet) the lady said she’d phone an itinerant for us. We tied to the rails around the intake for the old hydro-electric plant as the banks are far too shallow to get close to as they still have the original, as-built underwater

Northern entrance to Ham tunnel

sloping stone walls. A cheery grey-haired man in van arrived just after ten am and reset the lock for us, working it from the cabin. We were soon down 2.15m in 53 Vanne-Alcorps lock, back on the river and flying along past the little town of Haybes. Just 3.24kms to lock 54 Fépin, which worked OK, no house, very quiet. Dropped down another 2.10m on to a 5.2kms reach. We passed two cruisers heading uphill, the first one was British-flagged – first one this year – and the one

Northern entrance to Ham tunnel

behind had a large flag all folded round on itself that may have been Canadian. Another weir was being reconstructed at the entrance to the lock cut leading to 55 Montigny. We thought we were going to have to phone again as the bells started ringing and the lights flashing on the top end gates, then they stopped, but then they started again and, once in the chamber, the top end gates closed behind us very slowly. It worked OK, down 2.5m and the wind picked up as we went north on the river reach

Steam from cooling towers at Chooz

through Villers-Wallerand making it very cold and choppy. Another new weir at 56 Mouyon, where the VNF have an office in the former lock house and they must have all been at lunch, judging by the number of vans and cars parked there, as it was just after midday. No one about and the lock worked perfectly. Down 1.6m and down a wide windswept reach, we could see steam rising from the nuclear power station at Chooz beyond the hills in front of us. On past the statues along the bank at

Long empty commercial quay by huge slate quarry, Givet

Aubrives and into the shelter of the lock cut, entered via a set of flood gates with a little liftbridge on top. The next two deep locks have always been keeper-operated and the same young lady that worked them last year for us was there again today. Down lock 57 Ham (3.20m) and she drove off in her VNF car down to lock 58 Trois Fontaines while we went through the 565m long tunnel (an unusual one for modern-day France as it had no towpath, lights, emergency phones, etc, just plain rock walls with brick lined entrances) Down another 3.28m and back into the bitingly cold north

Moored on the quay in Givet

wind again. I made a cup of soup to warm us up as we did the last stretch of river for the day. Moored on the upstream end of the quay at Givet. It was 1.45pm and immediately there were gongoozlers to watch us tie up. Mike attached ropes around the timber baulks (saves having ropes being lifted off bollards by passing youth on a Saturday night) and took the mast down and all the flags into the engine room, plus the mop and boat shafts. On the far bank down by the road bridge there were five or six parked campervans. Lunch. The sky brightened up and the sun came out so Mike decided to go and get the car from Pont-â-Bar rather than leave it until the next day when the forecast said it would be colder with a chance of snow! A British guy from one of the campers had wandered over to chat with him while he was getting the bike ready to go, that took an hour longer than it should have! He went to retrieve the car a little after 4pm. When he returned, just after 8pm, I gave him a hand to put the bike back on the roof. It had poured with rain while he was away but, fortunately, he didn’t ride through more than a few spots of rain. He said he was very, very cold when he got to the car – even though he’d got a microfibre vest on and a pair of my thick tights he was shivering! Still not warmed up when he arrived back at the boat an hour later after having the car's heater on full blast. Now we have a few days to wait before continuing downriver into Belgium where we know there will be commercial traffic, only more four moves to the dock.