Thursday 16th April 2015 Ercheu to St Christ-Briost. 19.4kms 2 locks

Boats at silo quay above Languevoisin lock

5.7 C Sunny and damp after a heavy dew. Set off at 9.35 am, winding to follow MR to first lock of the day. As we set off I noticed my wild strawberry plants in a pot on the roof had started to flower, such tiny flowers. The first hotel boat we'd seen this year went past heading towards Paris, it was called Anna-Maria II from Amsterdam and it had loads of bikes on the roof but no passengers yet. He was followed by an empty péniche called Doma. A loaded pair of push-towed péniches went past just before we arrived at lock 15 Languevoisin. A big boat (61.5m) went into the lock and went down. Above the lock there was a silo quay where péniche Univers was loading and

Church at Rouy-le-Petit

Octopus and Export were waiting to load. The lock refilled for us and we dropped down about 5m, by which time there were two more empty péniches, Homer and Razorback, waiting to come up. They were into the chamber as soon as we'd cleared it. There were more silos below the lock, but no boats. It was about 10kms to the next lock, so I starting typing up my notes on my tablet. Mike took photos of an impressive church at Rouy-le-Petit and a grebe with a fish. An empty called Baltic went past, crew taking photos of us as we passed. Not long afterwards a loaded boat called Pen-Duic went past, it was so well loaded at the fore end that water was curling over its gunwales. As we passed the junction Mike took photos of the now abandoned Somme link canal. The navigation was now wider and more like the river. At the village of Villecourt there was a Gendarmerie van doing a tour of inspection on the quay, so we gave him a toot on our hooter and a wave and he replied with a short blast on his blues and two's as he drove back up the ramp on to the bridge. Hazy clouds started to obscure the sun, making it a bit cooler. Low hills appeared on the left bank and a few nice houses and gardens bordered the canal as we approached the village of Pargny. Lots of coots were dashing back and forth across the canal as we neared our last lock, 14 Epernancourt. Loaded Dutchman Tessa (about 60m)

Grebe with a fish

was just leaving the lock, heading towards Paris, so we went straight in. This lock chamber has steel piled sides and, as it was only 4.1m deep, there were clapper gates instead of a guillotine at the bottom end. At the next silo quay there was an uncoupled push-tow pair, Stella was already loaded and the hold covers were back in place, but the fore-end péniche, called Sevenzo, was still loading grain - but the loader had gone off to lunch. A couple more kilometers and we arrived at our chosen mooring spot in St Christ-Briost. A pleasant mooring next to the river Somme, where we tied to bollards in a long layby. The depth of the water in the layby was OK for us but not for the commercials

Closed link canal to Ham & St Quentin canal

nowadays as it had silted up quite a bit. Mike and Graham went in Graham’s car to collect our car from Pont l'Eveque. We all agreed it was an ideal spot to spend the weekend, so more BBQs if the weather holds.

Moored in the layby at St Christ-Briost