Friday 24th June 2016 Pinon to Berry-au-Bac. 39.6kms 9 locks

Threee noisy dogs in the garden at lock 7 Chaillevois

18.3° C Grey clouds and sunshine, no rain and not quite as hot. Surprise! Vage (the péniche we were on dry dock with in Pont-de-Loup) came past, loaded, heading uphill. Looked like the skipper and his daughter were running the boat. Asked where they were going and she said Reims. We set off after them at 8.15am. As we left, the Dutchman on the tjalk in front of us asked Mike what time the locks opened, he thought it was 9am. Mike told him he wasn’t sure, might be 7am, 8am or even 9am. A VNF man in a van was at the lock and Vage had just gone up lock 6 Pinon. The Dutch cruiser

Braye tunnel

came up to see if the locks were open and went back to get the tjalk moving. We zapped, the lock emptied and the VNF man came and lifted the rod for us and we chatted as the boat rose 2.3m. He gave us the stunning news that the UK had decided to leave the EU! Gobsmacked at that, we never thought they’d do it! Our VNF man had relatives in Ilkley and Nottingham. He said Scotland had voted to remain and would be having another referendum about leaving the UK so that they could remain in the EU! What interesting times we live in. Now the fun will start. 5.1kms to the next. We found Radio 4 and listened to Anne Widdecombe being interviewed. We were catching up with Vage, so

The other end of Braye tunnel

we slowed down, but they slowed down too and called us past them, which was very nice of them. We’ll see them again no doubt. Up lock 7 Chaillevois (3.25m) with a red kite circling overhead. There were three very noisy dogs in the garden of the lockhouse. We passed a downhill Dutch “narrowboat” on the 2.6kms pound to lock 8 Chavignon. Up another 3.25m. The lock house was shuttered but looked lived in. Along the well-mowed towpath there were tall blue bell flowers growing right along the water’s edge. Just 1.35kms to the top lock 9 Pargny-Filon, up another 3m and we were going to write

Old engine sheds abv Moulin Brule lock

down the phone number for the itinerant, but there was no notice in the cabin window of the last uphill lock. A houseboat péniche called Harmonie was moored in the layby by the pontoon, a cruiser was moored on the pontoon - it was sheeted up and looked permanent. As we left the lock a loaded Dutch boat called Roxana from Terneuzen arrived going downhill. We set off on the 7.5km long summit level. Through Braye tunnel, which was very wet in places with water pouring through the roof. It was lit throughout on the left side with round energy saving bulbs backed with big reflectors. There was a green light on the towpath side as we neared the big fan and the drop-down door at the far end and another Dutch loaded boat was waiting, Nadenos

Feed paddles abv Moulin Brule lock

from Nijmegen, its skipper was untying as we passed him. It was 11.20am. He said hello in English. The lady keeper was in the tunnel control cabin, her mowing machine temporarily abandoned while she attended to boat traffic. She also sets the four downhill locks so our zapper was now declared redundant. A couple of kilometres to the first lock and the towpath was covered in vetch, flowers of deep blue and pink. The first lock of the descent, 10 Moulin Brûlé, was ready for us, green light and gates open. The lock house looked empty but refurbished, as were the next two. Two sets of rods in each of these locks, so Mike lifted the blue rod at the uphill end and we dropped down about 3.5m (all four locks were about the same depth). Gaps of less than a kilometre between the locks. Down lock 11 Metz. A fisherman had set up a BBQ by the lock

Hydro-electric plant at Bourg-et-Comin

and turned his back as Mike was about to wish him bon pêche – a sign of attitudes to come? Nice. Charmed I’m sure. The canal was getting weedy again as we ran down to lock 12 Moussy-Soupir and on to the bottom lock 13 Verneuil-Coutonne whose house was derelict, windows boarded up and the front door bricked up. A British cruiser was waiting below to go up. We asked if he was on his way home now – nooooo, the skipper said. Join the club! It was 12.10pm when we left the bottom lock, 3kms to the junction with the Latèral à l’Aisne. Decided to run all the way to Berry as it was a dry day and not too hot. Tried having a look online using the tablet for info about the referendum

Moored in the large at Berry-au-Bac. Berry lock 3 behind the boat

results, but could hardly see the screen as, although the sun was hidden, it was very bright. Gave up. Over the aqueduct crossing the Aisne and past the hydro-electricity plant, where water was flowing in as the canal is fed with water from the Aisne up at Berry. Tug Château Thierry and a decked pan were moored by the VNF workshops and there were three boats on the pontoon at the junction, all of which looked permanent. An empty péniche had gone past heading uphill on the Latèral and loaded péniche Edi-Fra was moored above lock 4 Le Cendriére and busy washing down after loading. There was a good 2kph flow on the canal as we set off on the 20.5kms pound to Berry. The other half of the push-tow, Edi-Fra I, had just loaded at the silo quay at Oeuilly and was setting off

Tjalk entering Berry lock 1 at the start of the Marne a l'Aisne canal 

downhill. We carried on listening to Radio 4 for more news of the aftermath of the referendum result. Another loaded boat went past, Cari II, also heading downhill at KP29. After that it was very quiet. There were a few fishermen, all friendly and waving as we passed them. Damselflies were hatching out, beautiful deep blue ones, and big yellow dragonflies. The mossies and horseflies were out too, so on with the repellent again. Lunch, listening to music as the news was the same stuff repeated over and over. Mike put the sunshade up as the sun came out of hiding and the temperature soared up into the 30s again. The VNF man this morning said thunderstorms were possible later. Hope we get tied up before that happens. A DB called Linquenda was moored at the end of the quay below Berry lock 3. Mike called on the radio and the lock was ready for us. We rose about 60cm and then topped up the water tank (use your own hose now) and the pleasant but shy lock keeper took our redundant zapper. He asked which way we were going as he has to set Berry 1 at the beginning of the Marne à l’Aisne. Mike told him we’d stay in the corner of the large (big wide open space above the lock, built as a gare d’eau – a waiting place for boats, nowadays it’s not much used and gradually silting up) for the weekend and leave on Monday. OK. As we left the chamber we spotted the Dutch cruiser that had moored by us the night before, arriving below Berry 3. We picked our way through the thick weed to the overflow weir into the Aisne and then bow-hauled the boat back towards the lock as the corner is silted up. Moored with pins (they took all the bollards away years ago) and set up TV etc. It was 5pm. The cruiser and its companion tjalk went on up Berry 1 towards Reims at around 5.30pm. One loaded boat came down Berry 1 and went on down Berry 3. No signs of Vage, the flow on the long pound probably slowed him down a lot.