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| Leaving Picquiny lock |
8.7° C Sunny with lots of white
fluffy clouds, warmer again at last. Mike and Graham moved cars early. When
they returned I phoned the booking office and asked for a lock keeper at Picquiny
for 10.30 am. We set off going backwards,
downstream with the flow, to the bend where we winded and carried on down to
Piquigny staircase lock 20, which has a 2.3m drop. The lock was ready for us
and there were two men in an orange van to welcome us. The chef checked our
depth and agreed we didn't need to use the lower chamber. A man and a small
child with blond curly hair stayed on the lockside to watch and wave bye bye as
we left. The keeper asked how far we were going and when we said above the lock
at Long he said beware of the
current, it's very fast there. Mike said he knew
because he'd seen it when they moved the cars this morning. At the start of the
long lock cut in Hangest-sur-Somme they were building a new weir and an old
peniche was moored at the silo quay, no name on it and it looked like it hadn't
moved in a long time. The lock cut was very weedy, cabomba weed with blanket
weed forming on top of it, but the water was clear and we could see small fish
darting in and out of the weeds - but the big ones were hiding. Mike had
to
reverse several times to fling the weed off the prop, a very rare thing in
France! The cut was 2.5kms long and straight and we could see the orange van
was by the next lock, Labreilloire 21, 2.50m deep (a single chamber, not a
staircase) and the keeper was preparing the lock for us. It was ready when we
arrived and we were surprised to see the lock house lived in, but not by a
lock keeper the chef told us. A young woman came to chat with the keeper as we
were getting the correct pronunciation for mauvaise herbe – French for weed. He
said there was no need to ring, there would be someone at Long for us at 10.30am
the following day. Back on to the river again, not quite so
weedy as the canal
and still flowing strongly. Lots of lakes to our left and trees to our right. 5kms
to go and the sun was out and warm enough to shed our fleeces. Hooray! Another
lake on our right appeared so we were surrounded with water. As we neared the
village of Long, which sits on a low hill, there were chalk cliffs to our right
and the lakes to our right were much lower than the water in the canal/river so
we were on a low embankment, a lovely panorama. The place we’d chosen to stay
overnight was in a little arm off the river just before a weir (which was also
being replaced like the one at Hangest) and the flow going past the end of
the
arm was pretty fast like the lock keeper had said. We were in front so we went in
first, bows first and had an interesting time turning round as it was very shallow
and we were throwing up pongy mud off the bottom. We had an audience of two
swans and several ducks which were nesting along the river edge, plus a few of
the folks in the adjacent chalet and caravan park. Graham winded and brought MR
in backwards, slowly as the sides were very shallow. When he was near enough he
threw us ropes and we pulled MR into the bank so they could tie up (easier than
using the engine). We had tied alongside an old metal punt-style workboat,
which made a good fender and kept us out of the shallow water by the bank. Jill’s
friends from FB (Australians with a large cruiser called Chamamé) went past heading
back upriver, so we waved and took a photo. One problem, no satellite TV, Jill
said they weren’t bothered as there was nothing on to watch tonight. We moved
the boat further up the basin so as to clear the trees and just about got a
signal, OK for Corrie later. Had some lunch then Mike and Graham went in Graham’s
car to collect ours from Samara and then move Graham's on to Abbeville.
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| Building a new weir at Hangest-s-Somme |
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| Peniche on the silo quay at Hangest |
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| Moored in an old arm at Long |
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| Swan coming in to land |
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