We are moored for the winter here at Seneffe, as we were
last winter, except this time we are on the fixed quay on the other side of the
port which means we don’t have to shuffle about to get water and we also get a
bit more sunshine (as if!). The weather
is the usual winter mix of wind, rain, cold, snow then occasionally bright sun
for a few hours, sometimes all in the same day!
Our last posting left us just north of Reims back in
September. From there we headed north
as far as Berry au Bac on the Canal de l’Aisne à la Marne, which was familiar
to us from a previous voyage, or so we thought. We remembered that the last time we had done this stretch, back
in 2009, we had spotted an abandoned lock-side cottage which we thought at the
time was just idyllic. This time round
we could find no trace of said cottage but no ruins either! The tricks memory plays!
At Berry au Bac we turned left onto the L’Aisne Lateral
towards Soissons, whereas in 2009 we had turned right towards the Canal des
Ardennes –so new waterways ahead.
Our first overnight stop was at the junction with the Canal
de l’Oise à l’Aisne, where we found free water and electricity on a substantial
quay: and on a short foray to suss out the other canal were treated to an
impromptu viewing of the hydro-electric station by the young man who was in the
office there. We had wandered into the
building and seen him deep in a phone conversation through the open door of the
office, so we quietly waited behind the door looking at the explanatory
information posted on the wall. A few
minutes later he came round the door and saw us, and was so startled that he
visibly jumped! We all had a good laugh
which broke the ice, and then, despite the working museum not being ‘open’ for
visitors he offered to show us round.
Result! And very interesting.
The mooring further west at Soissons at first appeared to be
nigh on impossible but closer inspection revealed several hidden rings:
difficult bollards did exist and we were able to moor up reasonably well. It’s a shame that the moorings are so poor
because the town itself was well worth a thorough visit, particularly the
remains of the cathedral. Though most
of the site was in ruins the two high towers of the main entrance remain
standing. We dropped into the free
museum which had several lengthy descriptions (in English) of life when the
cathedral was in its heyday and what subsequently happened to it.
We also popped into an art exhibition (again free) which had
an interesting display of heavy stainless steel balls on strings and
springs. In one exhibit, a large ball
was swinging back and forth towards a huge concave mirror, so that it first
appeared the correct way up, then upside down as it swung away (or was it the
other way round?!). In another exhibit
a 6″ ball was trapped between the coils of a suspended spring about half way
up. The weight of the ball was causing
the whole spring to rotate on its suspension, but the ball wasn’t getting lower
in the coils: it looked like perpetual motion!
The picture doesn’t do it justice and the movie clip we shot was
completely out of focus! Impossible to describe properly! You’ll just have to take my word for it: it
was intriguing.
At Vic sur Aisne we asked if the fuel depot just 100m from the
mooring could give us white diesel (this was on a Saturday morning). ‘Yes, of
course, I come in one hour’. And sure
enough precisely one hour later a fuel camion arrived and we shipped 540 litres
of white diesel @ €1.34 per litre.
Later that day though, a VNF lock keeper came by and advised us to move a
few kilometres downstream to Attichy to moor overnight, as a boat had been
released from this mooring a couple of weeks ago by the local lads. So with some regret we did that, but the
mooring at Attichy was very poor indeed for us, and there seemed to be more
lads there than at Vic, but all was well overnight. This was helped by a local
fisherman who spotted the lads heading for the pontoon on which we were
moored. He gave them a Gallic mouthful
and told them to leave us well alone and in peace, which they did. Thank you Sir!
On our way to the Canal du Nord, we decided to stop for
lunch on a 60m mooring which was listed in our DB mooring guide. But as we rounded the bend where it was said
to be, we saw that the whole length of it was festooned with about 10 fishing
rods being operated by just two fishermen.
On this occasion there was a reversal of roles, with Alex all for giving
up and moving on but Louise was of sterner stuff (this time). An indication was made to the pêcheurs that
we were coming in, so eventually they marched around moving their rods upstream
to give us a space at the downstream end while Alex turned Riccall to come into
the mooring against the current.
Unfortunately, what we had failed to note in the mooring guide
description, was that the downstream end was very shallow indeed. We hit bottom at least 2m from the edge, so
had no chance of mooring and had to abort!
“Désolé, désolé, mes pêcheurs!
You can take up the whole quay again now. We’ll go somewhere else for lunch, anywhere else, away from your
black looks!”
By the next day we were back onto familiar territory on the
Canal du Nord, finding moorings at all our favourite places. We managed to stop this time at Péronne and
visit the First World War Museum which was well worth the effort.
We had an uneventful trip through the Royaulcourt Tunnel and
after a few days were at the penultimate lock in France just north of
Valenciennes before crossing the border into Belgium. The lock seemed to be taking an inordinately long time to pen
through the boats ahead of us, but eventually the gates opened and we entered
together with two other commercials. A
few moments later we understood the reason for the delay as we were boarded by
a member of the French gendarmerie. We
then went through a third degree interrogation, though it was handled politely:
ship’s papers, fire extinguishers, ICC insurance documents etc and then a
surprise question ‘Where is your list of requirements for navigating on the
French waterways?’ What list? We admitted we knew of no such thing and
certainly didn’t have it, but would acquire one as soon as we could and we’d
get our fire extinguishers up to date.
Then, feeling the rage emanating from the two commercials which were
also being held up, he left. But by
that time the lock keeper had also got fed up and started to lower the
lock, so as we were busy saying au revoir to the gendarme, we very nearly got
roped up! All in all, not a very good
display on our part.
A couple of days later, we headed into one of our favourite
moorings at the end of the Pommeroeul -Condé link Canal (closed because the VNF
will not dredge the French end of the canal).
On our previous three visits we’ve had this huge mooring quay to ourselves,
but this time two other British barges were there plus a small wreck of an
abandoned cruiser. Still, plenty of
room for us, so we moored up and introduced ourselves all round.
Diana and Chris on ESME and Dave and Carol on LA TULIPE were
very busy carrying out routine maintenance on both their barges but made time
for drinks and good chat with us and we with them before we set off after lunch
the next day.
After a night n the sand quay in Mons Grand Large we had
another solitary trip on the spectacular Strepy-Thieu Lift on our way back to
our winter moorings at Seneffe Yachting.
Now we are in the middle of our usual dashes back and forth
between Seneffe and Newton Aycliffe taking in family and friends as we travel
in each direction. On one of those
trips we came back in Alex’s sister Julia’s big van, because in it we had a
replacement fridge-freezer, sofa, washing machine and large roll of vinyl
flooring for us plus 4 PV panels for Peter and Nicci of AURIGNY. Getting all these into Riccall and installed
was quite a business, but helped enormously by Peter and Nicci. It had all been carefully measured up
beforehand, but it was still tight, in one case very tight, and entailed some
dismantling of the kitchen skylight window frame! But all went well in the end.
And this year for the first time ever, we spent Christmas on
Riccall, and were joined for the festivities by Paul and Diane of ELEANOR (soon
to be replaced by their new-build barge BEATRICE – well, in 18 months when she
has been built!). They had kindly brought the turkey from the UK, as you can
only buy small turkeys in Belgium, and also other goodies including delicious
home made Xmas cake, port and fizz. Thanks very much to them for that and for
their good company
So that pretty much sums up the final stages of the cruising
year and brings us up to date.
Our stats for the 2014 season are:
1678 kilometres
310 locks
12 moveable bridges
1 vertical lift
6 tunnels and
1550 litres of diesel (white)
