DBA Rally to Diksmuide

On the way back north from the DBA rally in Auxerre, and realising we had plenty of time before winter mooring, we had been going to go up the Ardennes Canal, down the Meuse and on via Charleroi to Diksmuide.

However, we soon learned that Lock 56 on the Meuse was closed (supposedly until 4^th September) so instead we decided to explore the Canal de l’Oise a l’Aisne and the southern side of the closed Sambre a l’Oise, as far as we could up to the closed point.

Lovely lock cottage en route

While on the Oise a L'Aisne, and moored at Pinon, we decided to take the train into Laon, a town/city we had often seen from afar from the A26 motorway. Laon's picturesque old town is situated on the summit of a scarped hill, and stands high above the new town. The haul up the steep hill from the railway station was demanding but its little streets were lovely, the cathedral glorious, and we had a very nice lunch outside a tiny side-street bistro.

Moving on we were pleasantly surprised to find good moorings at Chauny and stocked up at an edge-of-town Lidl for the journey into the unknown! We even managed to buy some lock-side vegetables from an elderly couple selling from their own patch – almost unheard of now on the canals.

Chauny Hotel de VIlle

Excellent mooring at Chauny

Our next mooring was at La Fère – a lovely mooring. Would that we had known, there was a HUGE new Lidl only half a kilometre away and an enormous l‘Eclerc just 500m in the opposite direction!

And now we were into the Canal Sambre à l’Oise proper. But it was Sunday and we realised that we would only be able to get through a couple of locks as all the ones further upstream were closed on Sundays. Why so? Well it became clear later that afternoon as we passed two péniches moored abreast and waiting for Monday to take on gravel. They need the locks downstream to be available 7 days a week, but not the ones upstream of the gravel yard. (However, on our return journey, and to our surprise, we discovered a péniche above Lock 28 waiting for grain loading, so the canal is not completely unused.)

However, the closure was fine for us as we had earmarked our possible mooring from the DBA’s moorings guide, just downstream of the first closed lock (No 33 if you are following this in Fluviacarte!!) This did not prevent a long one-sided but cheerful ‘conversation’ from the VNF éclusier all about the fact that the locks were closed on Sunday and an almost unintelligible explanation of where we could moor for the night. On reflection, we think it was possibly where we did in fact moor, but his verbal description and strange hand signals had left us in some doubt! It was a lovely rural spot, a good long quay with small ring holders set into it that would once have held proper mooring rings but now only two full rings were left. The remaining ring holders were enough to get a shackle or rope through and as there was NO other traffic, all was well. We spent the rest of the afternoon cycling 20kms along the excellent towpath, just to see what was what.

The only downside of the mooring was a generator at the downstream end, pumping water into the nearby lake for some reason, which appeared to be set for 24 hour running. We moved as far along the quay as we could and had a fairly peaceful night – even a little sun filtered through the trees allowing for drinks on deck.

The next day we set off and the first lock worked fine, but we soon learned that there is a VERY long delay between pressing the button on the telecommand and anything actually happening at the lock!

The next lock simply would not respond. We tried VHF10 and no response. We rang the number we had taken note of on all previous locks – no response. So we managed to get near enough the bank for Louise to get off (no mooring bollards of course) with her phone to see if there was a different number on the lockside. There was, and the VNF eclusier said he would see to it “toute suite”. 10 minutes later Louise was back on board and the lock was operating.

The next lock also failed to operate on the telecommand signal but we had the right telephone number now and again 10 minutes later we were going through.

Finally we got to Origny-Sainte-Benoît, the head of navigation and there was a plethora of places to moor.

We chose the silo quay mooring as the bollards were well spaced for us and the quay at a good height. 

Another fantastic mooring - until 10pm that is!

There is a huge sugar beet refinery and a malting operation in Origny together with a chemical works and sewage farm, so it’s all a bit industrial but there are a couple of restaurants (one being refurbished) a bakery and a Carrefour Express, so not entirely remote from civilisation.

All was quiet until about 10pm at night when the cooling fan for the grain silo started up right outside the boat. Oh bother! But never mind; the weather was still pretty cool and inclement so close the portholes and block it all out.

The forecast for the following day was for cloud but no rain with a bit of sunshine later, so we packed a picnic and set off for the closed section, on our bikes. The overcast sky was a blessing as we had a very long day ahead up-hill-and-down-dale, although we hadn’t realised this when we set off: the ‘towpath’ only stretches for one more pound, after which it was unsuitable for bikes and it was necessary to use the local roads and ‘find’ the subsequent locks!

Actually the next three locks above Origny ARE operational and there was a VNF working boat above the first of them to prove it, but the VNF éclusier when asked, refused to let us go any further in the boat. How mean is that? He had nothing else to deal with! We haven’t seen a single other plaisance boat up here since we started.

So, bikes it was, and we inspected every lock up to Vadencourt and the two aqueducts which we understood are not usable because of instability. In fact, they have been entirely de-watered and the water from the pounds above is led through two large-bore pipes. We made notes and took copious pictures of all there was to see.  Here are a couple.

Sad sight - a dry canal bed

'The canal' !!!!

It has to be said, it is a lovely canal – a little straight perhaps on the southern side of the closure, but very rural and very tranquil. None of the villages en route are actually on the CANAL. They are all to one side or the other, mostly on the river Oise itself. Most have suffered the depopulation that so many villages in France suffer from but Vadencourt was quite nice, charming even, in a slightly dusty way!! It even had a small Proxi supermarket, post office and bar.

There was a bit of weed to contend here and there but we didn’t find it a major problem and it seemed to be confined to certain biefs.

So all in all, a worthwhile exercise we think and a surprise for some of the locals who have not seen a barge up as far as Origny for years!

So to our European boating readers, we’d say, why not try to include it in your cruising plans? The due date for re-opening is now said to be 2020, but that date has changed many times and we feel it would show real interest if more boats and barges made the short deviation – it could easily be done in only 2 days if you literally wanted to ‘tick the box’ but the canal does offer a very pleasant longer sojourn and is surprisingly deep and wide throughout.

After all, USE IT OR LOSE IT, as they say!

We had a long chat with a professional bargee when we got back to La Fère, all in rapid French (his, not ours!) about the state of the Nation and the number of unemployed who just took state benefits and spent their days fishing!! etc. etc. (Great fun, if a little mind-boggling trying to keep up.)

Then we headed off to revisit St Quentin, last seen 8 years ago.

Lovely St Quentin - Grand Place

It seems so  much better now, with good moorings adjacent to the VNF depot – a kilometre upstream from the 'port' which has poor ratings. We stopped at the island mooring at the junction with the now-

closed Somme short-cut both on the way to St Quentin and on the way back. 

Idylllic island mooring

But in the night Louise was woken by the sound of tiny feet on the deck and after having investigated from the wheelhouse and seen nothing, she went to the loo, only to find a large rat on the shore staring in through the porthole! Thank goodness there is no way into our actual living quarters, so long as they keep their distance, good luck to them – or so says Alex. Louise thinks differently!

We wended our way south and west eventually back onto the Canal du Nord for our route back to Diksmuid for our winter mooring. (We have done the Riqueval Tunnel north of St Quentin once before and as far as we are concerned, never again, thank you! Hence the long way round.)

The sapeurs-pompiers on a training day!  In the lock!

A few days later we were heading up the Canal du Nord lock flight toward the summit when we noticed PASSE LAGOM was showing up on the AIS few locks ahead of us. We couldn't contact Nils and Torild on Channel 10 on the radio so had to call mutual friends by phone to alert them to our presence behind. We ended up both moored at one of our favourite moorings at what we call the Bois be Vaux before the tunnel itself. A jolly evening ensued but while they decided to stay on the next day, our itchy feet persuaded us to motor on.

Passe Lagom's Nils and Torild wave us off

We had time to spare though and had decided to take a couple of diversions; the first up the Scarpe Superiore to have a look at the town of Arras.

The first lock presented a problem as we didn't have the requisite remote, so we turned RICCALL and headed back to the lock on the main line where you are supposed to pick it up! (We didn't see any info to alert us to that.) They saw us coming and had it ready as Louise mounted the steps, but not before the éclusier had given her a quick tour of the control tower with all its monitors and bird's eye views.

We only had to call the engineers a couple of times over the next few days to get the locks going as we travelled up to Arras. We moored at the last possible place for us (and for everyone else as the canal is closed to all traffic upstream) opposite the kayak centre and cycled the rest of the way into Arras town and what a treat!  We think the two main squares (one in particular) are some of the very best we have ever seen in France.   See what you think.

Lovely Arras Grand Place

Alex went up the tower for magnificent views over the town while Louse enjoyed a coffee in the sunshine and watched the wedding parties emerging from the town hall. Great fun!

Wedding balloons

The port you can't get to in Arras - what a shame!

The next day as we prepared to turn round to re-trace our steps a dog-walker warned us that there was a shopping trolley under the water just where we wanted to make our turn. Good info: we fished it out with the boathook so it didn't get caught up in our propeller.

Our next detour was to Lens. The first mooring on this dead-end canal is one that we have used once before to get off the Canal du Nord highway. It's not so very peaceful though, as the wash from the big boys going past the end makes the mooring staging surge, and of course the boat too. This time we stopped about half way to Lens on a good quiet mooring beside a pleasant park. We knew that the end of the canal was a no-go area so we cycled the rest of the way into Lens and found it decidedly forgettable! To cap it all ,when we finally sussed out the true 'head of navigation' it was within the purlieus of a chemical works and Alex had to talk the gate guard into letting him in for just a second to take one photo of the head of navigation!

The end of the line in Lens

When we got back to the boat, and needing only half an hour for a leisurely lunch in the all-too-rare sunshine, we discovered that the strimming squad were out in full force attacking the grass right next to the boat! 

The strimmers at work - no peace for our lunch!

Louise's entreaties fell on deaf ears, and now that it was no longer peaceful we beat a hasty retreat back to the Canal du Nord main line. We spend the night in another favourite mooring - the Gare d'Eau near the junction with the Dunkirk-Escaut Waterway.

Then we headed north to Dunkirk, took a detour through the first lock onto the Lys for a quiet night's mooring then back onto the main drag for a rather long slog into Dunkirk.

The following days we had trouble with locks and bridges that needed engineering help to operate but finally got to Veurne, where we arranged to leave the barge for a week while we returned to England.

One night on this lovely free mooring then into the port.

Lovely Veurne - a good city to spend tine in

This gave Diksmuid time to ready itself to actually receive its winter-moorers! The problem was, it turned out, that the refurbishment/replacement of the floating pontoons had taken longer than anticipated and there really had been NOWHERE to put RICCALL!

When we returned from England we had another lovely night at Finetelle before finally mooring up on the new pontoon in Diksmuid.

So, with apologies, this blog has been very delayed in its production, mainly due to our efforts on the house in Kent, but here it finally is!!!

Our stats for this year are:

2024.4 kms      292 locks    39 bridges    7 tunnels