Winter-Spring update

We have all had a bit of a break over the winter from Riccall’s Ramblings – me from writing it and you from having to read it (or hitting the ‘delete’ button as might be your preference!).  But now the new season has started and if I leave it much longer I’ll never get started again (“Leave it longer” I hear you cry!) We have spent the winter driving back and forth from Toul to UK and visiting friends both in France and the UK.  We brought a van load of batteries (Wot, again?) for us and Peter and Nicci of AURIGNY and several other bits and pieces including a freezer and cooker for AURIGNY and three new PV panels for RICCALL.  Alex’s sister Julia kindly lent us her disability vehicle which is an ex-transport ambulance and even with all the stuff in it, it still had masses of room.

We had arranged to spend Xmas with Alex’s brother David and wife Bun in Somerset, then return directly from there to France for the New Year.  So, with the Clio fully laden we set off, visiting Will and Laura (Birmingham) Emily, Ric and Herbie (Bristol) on the way. The car had just been serviced before we set off but that did not prevent the clutch from failing in Bristol.  Amazingly we found a garage which would do the job on Saturday evening and Sunday morning – Xmas Eve!! – to allow us to continue to David and Bun’s.  A flat tyre discovered on Christmas Day was the icing on the cake!

Then, on our way to Dover to catch the ferry to France after Christmas, we had ‘the call’ from the care home to say that Louise’s Mum, Joan, was very poorly. So we turned left just after Stonehenge and arrived at the home five and a half hours later, just 5 minutes too late.  The carers at the home consoled Louise with the fact that nearly all their patients died either just before or just after the family were in attendance!  Joan’s death itself, though sad, was a great release for her (and for Louise herself) as she had become ‘lost’ to all intents and purposes some years ago.

Eventually we got back to RICCALL a couple of weeks later after the funeral etc and returned to the UK 2 weeks after that.  However, the Clio, which has been fantastically economical over the last couple of years, has decided to develop a whole series of electro-mechanical problems.  It got us down to Julia’s for Alex to fit a new utility room and to Mary and Martin’s for a break in Scotland, but thereafter was not going to be up to (or even ready for) our final trip to France.

So we went out and bought a Skoda Fabia 1.7DTi with only 23k on the clock which we hope will be a bit more reliable, if more expensive to run. Its first test from the north of England to Toul, then to the south of France and back to Toul, returned 50mpg overall at cruising speeds of up to 130 kph, so - could be worse.

We spent a few days doing last minute preparation on RICCALL then set off for Charleroi in Belgium where we have booked a dry-dock for insurance survey and blacking of hull etc as we periodically have to do:  the same procedure that we failed to achieve in Toulouse last year.

It is right at the very start of the season (a point made clearly by the weather – bright but with bitterly cold winds) so there are virtually no other boats about and mooring is dead easy: though the water and electricity often haven’t yet been turned on, but then nor have the mooring charges!

The first flight of 14 locks out of Toul are all linked so once started you have to do them all (or contact VNF to explain yourself). We didn’t get to the top until nearly 2pm and then the eclusier insisted we went through the Foug tunnel as well, before we stopped for lunch.  He didn’t want to hang about for us because afterwards he had to switch the tunnel lights off!

At some point we lost one of our ‘glissoire’ fender and despite walking all the way back through the 1km now-dark tunnel, failed to see it floating in the canal.  We knew of a local supplier but despite having given him a great deal of business during two winters, he was not prepared to deliver one 15kms to where we were moored.  Fortunately we caught up with AURIGNY at Commercy the next day and Peter offered to lend us a spare which he was not using himself.  We also had a great evening with them.

We spent the next night at St Mihiel and after that there is a series of 10 locks to Verdun (1 day) and 8 locks to Dun sur Meuse which are all manually operated, and we were accompanied by a roving lock keeper to help us through each one.  By the end of the second day we had got pretty friendly with ‘Lou’ our operator and gave him a bottle of wine when we made our farewells.

During the day, we had received a text from Mike and Sally of CHOUETTE to say that they were at Dun-sur-Meuse, there was room on the mooring for us, and would we like spag bol for supper?  Well, yes, thanks very much.  So another great evening.

The return match came the next evening when we moored alongside them at Alma, our absolute favourite mooring in this area.  And the next morning, as luck would have it, a paraglider took off from the opposite hillside and floated about in the upcurrents for an hour or so till we lost sight of him.  This was the very spot where we saw about half a dozen launching themselves from the same hillside nearly 4 years ago but in high summer that time. Great to see it again!

We had been contacted by Mary and Martin to ask if they could stay for a few days and so we were making plans to meet them at a convenient mooring.  This turned out to be Vireaux Wallerand where there was a good mooring spot and station, and where we were also joined by Chouette again.  Mary and Martin had left Scotland at 4am and arrived with us at four in the afternoon after a journey by car, by bus, by air, by bus again, by train, by bus yet again and finally by train again!!

Our first bit of interest the following day was the Ham tunnel, for which we’d been led to understand we would need to remove the roof.  But the moment we arrived the éclusier said, in a torrent of rapid French which brooked no argument, that he would lower the water level in the tunnel.

Fortunately Mary speaks fluent French, having lived in France as a child, so comprehension was not a problem: nor was the height of the tunnel or the depth beneath us (2m at least).  We stopped for the night in Givet and the following day entered Belgium and moored in Dinant.  The castle was well worth a visit and we had drinks and apéros in a pleasant café overlooking the river with even some sunshine to brighten the early evening.

A couple of days later and we turned off the Meuse and onto the Sambre.  The lady lockkeeper at the first lock gave us dire warnings about a strike ahead by some of the commercial batteliers and deliberate damage to locks, but assured us that the next two locks were OK.  So we were able to get to Aurelais to moor just above the lock and wave goodbye to Mary and Martin as they caught the train for Charleroi from the nearby station. 

It was lovely having them to stay (the longest of any guess so far) and they have even promised to return for another dose.  Great!

Later in the evening we were joined on the mooring by an 80m commercial which ‘parked’ just 2m from our stern.  Then later, another one moored in front of us.  Wow, we are back in commercial barge country now.

The next day the last lock before our destination was working fine and we got to the Vankerkoven boatyard just after they had all gone home for the weekend at 12.30 on Friday!  So we found ourselves a space near the narrowish entrance to the off-line port – a huge expanse of water some 100m x 100m – without blocking it, found a supply of power and settled down to wait till Monday.