We got back to Conde sur Marne with the car heavily laden with batteries: in fact so much so, that every time we went over a speed hump the tow bar went aground!
The following incredibly hot day, Ray and Rachel of BANDRA (we met them in the old lock at H2O last winter) arrived in their camper van to help move the batteries into position in the bottom of the boat.
During our month or so at home in the UK Alex had managed to add a cracked bone in his left hand to his disintegrating right hip, so help was going to be essential. As it happened, BANDRA’s dry docking had been delayed by a week so Ray and Rachel took the opportunity to spend some days away in their camper van and also to help us. What stars!
Ray puts his back into it!
We spent a few days sorting everything out in RICCALL before setting off. On the evening before we left, MATILDA arrived with Bruce and a guest Julie. They came for drinks that evening and Julie agreed that sailing in the Med was very nice, but barging was almost better! A little later CASA NAUTICA arrived with whom MATILDA was cruising à deux.
We let them both go ahead of us the following morning as we knew we were going to stop for the day at the top of the flight. Near the top lock there was a malfunction of one of the locks so MATILDA and Co were held up as we arrived behind them. They said they would go through the lock and then stop for lunch before doing the final lock on the flight. We decided to have lunch where we were, but then Alex noticed a barge approaching the locks from upstream and realised we would have to go through the lock ahead of us as it was on a green light for us, and hanging fire would cause delay for the barge. So we stopped halfway through lunch and set off again, passing MATILDA et al who were happily eating their own lunch just above the lock.
Now here is the thing - Alex at this point had a senior moment and having not passed anything in the opposite direction for some months (yes, honestly, it had been months) got to the left of the canal instead of the right! (We all have these worries when driving between the UK and Europe and keep reminding ourselves which side we should be on.) By the time he realised his mistake, it was too late to steer across to the correct side so continued VERY VERY slowly hugging the left hand edge. The captain of APOLLO, the commercial coming the other way was incensed, shouting and yelling obscenities as he went past. There was never any danger but if Alex had thought of it sooner he could have deployed his blue board, but hey ho!
We stopped for lunch on the long quay before Sillery and lo and behold! who should come past but APOLLO. We stepped out onto the back deck to apologise for our recent mistake, but he entirely ignored us, refusing even to look in our direction.
A couple of nights later, we had decided to moor up at one of our favourite places, St Leonard’s, just south of Reims. We pulled into the set-back mooring but only one bollard was visible. We put the forward rope onto that and Alex held the boat in tickover while Louise changed into jeans and shoes to see if she could locate one of the other five bollards we knew were there somewhere, now hidden by a mass of undergrowth which had appeared over the years since our last visit.
It was just too impenetrable so we cast off and motored on. There are lots of bollards on this stretch into Reims all along the eastern edge of the canal but there were also many fishermen or large bushes meaning two suitably spaced bollards were hard to find. At last we saw two perfectly placed bollards and moored up. Unfortunately, what we hadn’t realised was that we were right beside what turned out to be a 24-hour glass recycling plant. So we spent that night listening to broken glass being tipped from on high onto the conveyor belt. Lovely!
We headed off into the chain of 3 locks into Reims. As we approached the middle lock, we could see the stern of the hotel barge NENUPHAR not quite entered into the lock. We watched and waited well back and after about 15 or 20 minutes, the gates finally shut on her and she started her descent. As we slowly approached the look, we suddenly saw one of the crew running back from the hotel barge towards us. He said the captain apologised for the delay but they had had a medical emergency of some sort in the lock and here was a bottle of premier cru wine to make up for our delay. Well! That’s a first, and how kind1
NENUPHAR moored up after the third lock and we carried on to the industrial quay to the north of Reims where we know of an excellent mooring with a Lidl just half a kilometre from the canal. An hour later NENUPHAR appeared and as they went past, offered us a bag of cheese and ham! Alex, who was on the back deck, accepted gratefully and the matelot threw it over. Alex just managed to catch it as it headed for the side of the boat and ultimately into the canal. Obviously they had dropped off their guests and these were some of the left-overs from lunch now excess to requirements. And thanks again! Some lovely mixed hams, Brie, and yeah, a large piece of goat’s cheese (which we froze and kept for our next visitors who might like it, not being fans ourselves).
We arrived at Berry au Bac on a Sunday. Looking at the AIS we could see that the place was packed with commercials but nevertheless we’d have to stop here as the next 3 and a half hour stretch has no moorings at all. As it turned out, there was space big enough for RICCALL between two of the big boys at the silo quay upstream of the last lock on the canal. We moored up with some trepidation as there are signs everywhere saying ‘ no mooring except commercial craft’. But the Dutch barge in front of us thought there would be no problem so we stayed put. Louise went for a recce below the lock on the Aisne Lateral and spotted APOLLO moored up for the weekend. Oh No!
The next morning, after a night of bleaching rain, wind and thunderstorms our few flowers were looking rather worse for wear, and the barge in front of us was being loaded with grain from the silo. The empty barges behind us would, no doubt, in due course also want to be filled from the silo, so we felt it was time for us to move on, so a 9.15 start was the order of the day, early for us.
We passed through the two locks onto the Lateral à l’Aisne and headed off for Bourg et Comin. APOLLO had already left its mooring heading west, but half-way along the canal who is coming back towards us? APOLLO! We slowed right down in order to keep to the best place to pass but again the captain refused to look in our direction. Well, in our book, that makes him into an idiot too. What a surly bastard!
APPOLLO roars off into the wild blue yonder!
The pontoon mooring at Bourg et Comin was empty and the leccy was still switched on so that was a plus. Later that evening, we were joined by the only other plaisance we had seen in days and then, at about 10pm that night, a fully laden peniche crept by in the pitch dark heading up the Oise a l'Aisne. That was a surprise.
The next day we were again surprised to meet another barge coming towards us down the Oise à l’Aisne canal and we asked him if this was his normal route, and it was. Great! At least this commercial traffic keeps the weeds down and the canal open.
Finally we got to Tergnier and caught a train back to Chalons and a taxi back to our car at Condé.
We needed the car because we had Alex’s cousin Mary and husband Martin coming to stay and cruise for a few days. The end point of our cruise for them was to be Landrecies on the Sambre on a Sunday and we’d discovered there would be no trains running from Landrecies to get them to Beauvais for their flight home. So we had to get the car to Landrecies mid-week to ensure we could get them to St Quentin on the day to catch their train.
We spent a night in Origny finding a largely smell-free mooring upstream of the factory complex and opposite the silo quay, which was in constant use.
Our journey up the Sambre from Tergnier was uneventful and it was interesting to see the repairs which had finally been made to the derelict aqueducts near Vadencourt. This work has enabled this valuable through route to be reopened and we all enjoyed a very pleasant cruise.
All our 'car retrieval planning' worked out like clockwork and we had an excellent few days with M & M and a lot to drink! Especially when it was discovered to be their 29th wedding anniversary!
However, we learned on our way to Landrecies that the first lock after the town was to be closed on the Monday morning for a month! This put the pressure on, so after dropping M & M off at St Quentin for their train, we had to high-tail it back to the barge and move on through that lock on the Sunday.
Driving out of St Quentin, though, we were held up at a roundabout by a seemingly endless cavalcade of motor cycles. After waiting about 10 minutes, with no end in sight, we did a three point turn and heard off in a different direction. 20 kms out of town we were held up again by the same cavalcade as they crossed our road and disappeared into the countryside. This time there was no way out so we just had to sit there for another 10 minutes while they all roared past.
Finally we got back to RICCALL and immediately informed VNF that we were on our way. Once through that lock we moored up for the night at Hachett Lock. We were both bushed and went to bed at 8.30pm for 12 hours sleep!
We carried on down the Sambre with little incident, but the best place to pick up the car was from Maubeuge where we understood from our DBA mooring guide there were NO moorings. We agreed between ourselves that there MUST be something and sure enough, there was a 40m visitor pontoon.
The water and electricity had been turned off for the winter, but more annoyingly, the ramps to the shore had also been removed, so later that afternoon, we moved across to a long wall with bollards at 30m intervals on the opposite side. Perfect! and it was less than one kilometre from the station. So, the car was once again retrieved and left at the station in Maubeuge to await collection later.
We spent the next few days negotiating the locks on the French side until we had to hand in our tele-command at the last lock before the border into Belgium. That night we stayed at the old border post just into Belgium and a short distance before the port of Erquellines.
We were surprised to find the locks in Belgium were all manually operated and accessed by telephone down to the Marchienne lock just before Charlerois. At this lock, which was accessed by VHF radio, we met an 80m x 10m commercial approaching us in reverse. What a way to be back in among the big boys! We quickly contacted him on the radio and agreed how we would pass each other.
Back among the big boys and heavy industry
We then proceeded through the next three huge locks behind, or in one case, to our surprise (but we had been waiting for nigh on an hour) in front of the commercials. Finally we arrived at Seneffe, after a very long day for us, at about 6.00pm. Another early night was called for!
