Wednesday 25th March 2015 Courcy to Berry-au-Bac. 12.2kms 9 locks

Battered car in a field at Courcy

4.1° C Grey skies and damp, a few spots of rain. Mike took photos of a car that had gone off road into the field opposite, a recovery vehicle was attempting to retrieve it. He was sure he had heard a noise around 1.30 am. We set off at 9.30 am, winding and turning the pole to continue the descent to the Aisne valley. Lock 9 Courcy is chained (linked) to the next three locks (8 Noue-Gouzaine, 7 Fontaines and 6 Loivre) so as one empties so the next one fills to get ready for us.

Engine shed for the electric towpath traction mules

The only signs of life were a lone jogger and a man walking a Spaniel dog. We passed a loaded boat called Elvis from Flers below lock 7 and had to wait for an empty called Cartier from Maasbracht to come up lock 6 before we could go down. 2.5kms to the next two which were chained (5 Gaudart and 4 d’Alger). A further 3.5kms to the next, passing through the village of Neuville and the big factory which makes things out of concrete, like tunnel linings. The last three locks are linked

Dutch boat Cartier coming up in lock 6 Loivre

(3 Sapigneul, 2 Moulin de Sapigneul and lock 1 Berry (identified as Berry Marne on VHF as the control lock 3 around the corner on the canal lateral à l’Aisne is also Berry lock but identified as Berry Aisne). Mike called the keeper on VHF to tell her we were stopping in the “large” so she wouldn’t prepare lock 3 Berry for us. It was breezy and the water was swirling from our lockful of water plus the corner of the “large” is silting up, so it took us longer than normal to

No more lock keepers - empty lock house at Moulin de Sapigneul

get attached to the bank. 1.30pm and we were glad to get inside by a warm fire and defrost.

Moored in the corner of the large at Berry-au-Bac
(lock 3 Berry in background)