Riccall Rambling: On The Somme

It’s impossible to separate the words “The Somme” from thoughts of mayhem and slaughter, but now the Somme is a (generally) quiet, leisurely river which makes for a very pleasant cruise.

The Somme meanders in, through and round old peat workings, now reedy pools, such that the whole area is one marshland. The canal is now run and maintained by the ‘county council’ and as such it is thoroughly service-oriented. The lockkeepers are unfailingly polite, helpful and often can manage a smattering of English, which with our smattering of French, goes a long way to ensuring effective communication. It is, however, still necessary to ring to arrange passage through locks and bridges and there is no doubt that operation would be easier, and enjoyment enhanced, if the whole system were made automatic. Of course, many redundancies would result and that is NOT the French way!

Anyway enough! Our trip downstream from the main line the Canal du Nord, was without incident. Moorings were reasonably plentiful and by and large empty at this early stage of the season. There were two notable exceptions: at Cappy, where we needed to moor for the lunchtime ‘fermeture’ from 12.30 to 1.30, the only possible space was taken by a fisherman – not at one end or other of the 30m gap, but bang slap in the middle. He showing no inclination to move along, Louise let fly her best (or worst) French! We managed to tie up to an English-owned, Dutch boat of similar dimensions to RICCALL to save the day.

Onward to our first overnight mooring, which we approached as luck would have it, in the teeth of the worst storm we’d had on the Somme to date, and there had been a few. Louise did her best in the downpour to get a rope onto a bollard already tangled up with the washing line small boats tend to use when mooring, but this was a really bad example of mooring, and by a work boat at that. Eventually we managed to attract the attention of the adjacent council gardener, resolutely strimming through thick and thin, or wet and wetter, and got him to attach our rear line, which we had NO hope of doing, being 2m off the shallow bank.

Louise got wetter and wetter herself, with Alex saying “There’s no point in me getting soaked as well!” which may have been true but . . . anyway, laughter ensued and photos were taken to prove Louise’s magnum opus!

The drowned rat!!

Our friends Mike and Sally, moored up some 50kms away on the St Quentin Canal, drove over for a lovely catch up and overnight stay. They’d been hoping to paint the roof on their boat but had been stopped by the stormy weather, so were happy to drive over for a bit of R & R.

And then we were off again. Stopping briefly at Chippily, we again cycled the 3 kms uphill to visit the 'Belvedere' overlooking the Valley of the Somme, scene of that most horrendous fighting. But next to the little car park was a meadow in the old style:

On the way to Corbie and our next mooring, hoping to top up our tanks and have a night’s electricity, Louise heard a bang from somewhere below, as of a door slamming shut, but on investigation she discovered water pouring out of our filter cupboard, fortunately straight into the bath and away. One of our filter housings for our sterilised water system had cracked and come apart. Alex shut off water to that part of the system and on we went, space at the quay in Corbie having just become more urgent. But no! Totally packed! : one boat taking advantage of cheap water and electricity for, as they freely admitted and in the face of a 2 day limit, for 2 weeks. ASLAUG, also moored, offered for us to moor alongside but by that time, we were well past her so we moored a little further on and considered our options!

In the end we discovered from Nick on ONDERNEMING (apologies if that’s not quite the right spelling Nick) that there were now more water points along the canal than had been there in 2013. So, it was decided, we’d move on next morning to the next possibility for topping up the tanks.

LES CHARMES – a 39m hotel barge arrived shortly before we left to use the lock and followed us in the next locking. Once we were safely moored up at Lamotte-Brebiere and taking water, LES CHARMES passed us on its way down to Amiens. Lamotte-Brebiere is a lovely mooring with an invisible railway line alongside on the starboard side and a fast- flowing river on the port side. At the lock there is the strangest set-up. The former lockhouse is now a cafe of sorts, but in its grounds are its other ‘attractions’: a night in a tepee at €50, a night in a gypsy caravan €70, in a yuurt €80, hire a pedallo €10 for half an hour, a canoe €8 etc etc. All of the above were in a precarious state of dereliction. Bizarre!

So, we got our fill of water and Alex replaced the broken filter housing with a spare we happened to have putting us back to a normal situation, and then it was on to Amiens. We had intended mooring not on the quay for the ‘port’ but round the corner above Amiens Lock and we spotted that LES CHARMES was moored on the quay, but with its engine running. Were they going back upstream, or following us downstream? In the event they passed us once again, RICCALL now happily moored up above the lock, and proceeded into the lock. The lock operated as normal until they needed to exit. And then there was a problem. At 1.15pm they hit something underwater on exit from the lock and had to abort. So there they stayed all afternoon,

LES CHARMES in the lock - spot the diver!

till a diver from Paris arrived at 4pm or so. We watched for a short time, while the diver retrieved several stone blocks from the bottom of the lock and then we went into town looking for a post box.

This endeavour failed, but at least we had a nice wine and beer with Amiens Cathedral in full view.

A cool day but still a nice apero!

Returning to RICCALL, we discovered LES CHARMES moored on us, above the lock of course!

39 metres moored on 19, but it worked!

They’d been raised in the lock and had exited it backwards so that the diver could fully investigate the depths and retrieve whatever he could find. The rocks so retrieved had been thrown in no doubt by some malcontents, but it must surely have served as a warning to the lockkeepers that storing blocks of stone just 5 metres from a lock in the centre of a city, was asking for trouble! Eventually at around 7pm all was declared clear and the hotel barge moved cautiously back into the lock and downstream, their intended cruise all the way to St Valery – 60kms west – curtailed. Concerned though we were at their wasted and fraught day, we were glad it had all been sorted before we used the lock. And that was the mission for next day.

Well, the lock was safely negotiated the next morning, and after a further foray for supplies, we set off downstream for Pont Remy, 40kms and 6 locks.

We (sensibly) decided to grab a mooring some distance upstream of the lock at Ailly, as we had doubts as to the likelihood of adequate mooring closer to it, and were glad we’d done so. The pathetic little 3m pontoon at the lock would have been no use to us and then what? However, it was early in the day and needing to send a birthday card, we went into the local village. Card duly posted (yes, we know there are other ways to send cards now via the internet!) we investigated the village of Ailly, and there came across without doubt the WORST church in all of France. Photo follows:

Hugh Mc Knight in his book ‘Cruising the Waterways of France’, says

“Ailly’s church is an unusual modernistic structure, its roof looking like a ship’s sail.”

That is NOT what it looked like to us: now redundant, it has had but a short life.

Compared with the thousands of amazing religious buildings in France from earlier centuries, it is an aberration, but has now clearly outlived its usefulness. Thank goodness!

And then at 12am it started! The worst storm either of us has ever seen. We had constant lightning, thunder and then RAIN you wouldn’t believe! All very exciting, yes, but, the downside was evident the following morning.

Once again, uncertain of the moorings available at the next lock, we moored at a former silo quay; still working, but no longer using the canal. This trade ceased long ago. The silo receives grain from local farms and stores it for onward distribution which of course, is effected by lorry.

The rain had made some difference to the current but it was after Breilloire Lock that we were onto a fast flowing stream and once the River Nièvre had joined the Somme, we were in the thrust of a really swollen river. The Nièvre cascaded out from under what would normally be an inconspicuous opening in the bank, but on this occasion a terracotta-brown eruption joined the Somme! Conscious that the écluse at Long was the next obstacle, as it is round a very left hand bend, we were a little concerned but in the event made it safely enough. We’d have liked to moor up at Long, but there was simply no possibility, with the river running as fast as it was.

Long flashes by - no chance to moor up

Apparently, the lock had been originally destined for another site on the river, but the local mayor and chateau owner had it moved to its present position so that he could watch the boats from his chateau! How 39m fully laden barges ever made the turn into the lock with a downstream current drawing them sideways onto the weir beggars belief.

Having been swept along for the next 2 kms, we decided that enough was probably enough, certainly for that day. We moored up with a little difficulty at Cocquerel and heaved sighs of relief. What had been a swift descent would on our return be a slog. With Alex’s family due to arrive in a day or two, we needed to find ourselves a good spot to meet them.

A 4km ride down to Pont Remy convinced us (well Louise at least) that onward progress was pointless. So the decision was made to turn tail in readiness for an early start upstream the next morning. Alex assessed the width of the river at that point, declared it wide enough (just) and the turn went surprisingly well.

The brown river was flashing by as we went off early to bed, small logs, greenery of all kinds and highly topical – plastic drinks bottles – all on their way out to sea at St Valery - and you get the picture! but our mooring was solid and we passed a comfortable enough night.

We’d hoped the river would have calmed down by morning but no, so we spent a long day, for us, of 19kms and 3 locks (travelling upstream at just 5kph) and reached our destination to meet our visitors. With them we aimed to cruise to Amiens, just 15kms and 2 locks, with hopefully a little less flow against us!

All ready for visitors . . .

. . . and the sun out for once

Well the flow was still in evidence, but Amiens soon appeared. The afternoon was spent by Richard in retrieving the car, a little food shopping, an ice cream at the little cafe in Long, a quick peek at Long Chateau (through the railings!) and later a lovely meal prepared by Alice and Richard.

Then it was the morning in Amiens – unfortunately the cathedral tower wasn’t available for climbing until much later in the day, so instead we had a leisurely lunch in one of the many restaurants on the St Leu waterfront. (The St Leu area was once the living area of the working people and is like a mini Venice dissected by many small canals. The small houses are built in terraces, and many are wooden fronted. Looking a little down-trodden now, it is a gem and surely the burghers of Amiens must see its potential!)

It was a pretty cold day so we chose the restaurant which had its terrace heaters on! We generally think that it is madness to heat the great outdoors, but on this occasion . . .!

So off we went after lunch to our final mooring with Alice, Richard and Bea

Bea keeping Grandad right

but were disappointed to find a little boat hogging the middle of 3 mooring platforms and the electricity and water bourne too of course. There are two other quays at this lock, but both were too shallow, so we moved on another 2kms only to find that mooring too was even shallower. Ah well, it was only sand under the boat so it would do: after all, hardly any other boats were around to shuggle us on and off the sand.

Our visitors had to have an early start next day for their ferry, so we waved them off and moved on slowly to Corbie where the éclusier kindly drove up the canal to ensure there was enough space for us on the pontoon and yes! We could have a few hours electricity and fill up with water.

We’ve looked at most of the places of interest on the Somme in the past, so decided just to move on and get out of this still fast flowing river.

But we didn’t expect quite the problem we encountered with weed in the canal though. At several points, our speed was down to 3kph, and our lock keepers had probably been waiting some time for our arrival, but such is the quietness at this time of year – boat-wise- they didn’t seem to mind, mostly.

We’d had unfailingly pleasant, kind and polite éclusiers every day for the previous two weeks and on our penultimate and last days, we got M. Glum! We couldn’t get a smile from him at all and that’s such a shame. We‘d donated a 12 pack of beers and a box of nice biscuits to the éclusiers’ depot in Amiens, but clearly M. Glum hadn’t been invited to the party!

Ah well. All in all it had been another interesting 2 week trip – good and bad in parts!

And so we move eastwards, to our next pick-up of visitors.