Saturday 2nd May 2015 KP88 to Samara KP106 19.7kms 3 locks

Moored at KP88 for a good night's sleep after noisy revellers
kept us awake in Amiens we went back upriver a short way

 7.7° C grey clouds and still cold. I phoned the booking office to get a lock keeper to work Amiens lock for us for 11.00 am, then we set off with the flow again at 10.00 am following MR downriver. There were lots of fishermen about as it was Saturday. Back into Amiens, noting that the little Dutch barge Vagabond was moored on the pontoon. Followed MR into lock 17 Amiens, the first of the former staircase locks. This was a deep one at 4.4m. We had two waterways men to work the

Unusual tug, hydraulic drive. 

lock, a middle aged guy and a youngster (who I think must be the one who answers the phone). The young man took our junk (an old CD player and our old Farnell power supply, both dead) and two containers of used oil for the dechetterie for us. Mike gave him four bottles of 33s for his help. We dropped down slowly and told the chef we were going to Samara today and stay until Monday. When the lock was empty we only had about a metre of water under the boat and really stirred up some mud

Ornate bridge across small canal originally used for delivering
foodstuffs grown in the hortillonages 

on our way out and through the shallow, sloping-sided lower chamber. The keeper told us to keep left of the yellow buoys as it was shallow by the right bank below the lock. The pontoon at the base of the high quai d’aval was empty, as was the new quay by the University of Mechanical engineering. We motored on to the next lock, passing some old disused industrial quays which were much too high for our use. Several rowing skiffs went past heading into Amiens as there was another rowing club at the

Below Amiens lock, a staircase lock - only the top lock used.

end of the reach. The chef drove past us on his way to lock 18 Montières, which was ready when we got there at midday. This lock is impressive as the middle gates have been removed and there is a fixed road bridge over the chamber on a level with the lockside. The chef said it was his last lock as we were into the section belonging to Abbèville now. He said he would arrange with them to have a lock keeper at the next lock after lunch. A lady who had been taking photos from the bridge came to chat, but she was English (from a

Amiens cathedral Notre Dame and  on the right the
Tour Peret (a residential skyscraper built in 1952)

campsite nearby) and spoke no French, so she could chat with us but not the keeper. Down another 2.5m slowly. Below the lock the scenery changed, no more houses for a while and trees both banks, then a village on the left and lakes and marshes on the right. Spotted a coypu swimming and a lone sandpiper flew in front for a short while. Lots of warblers sang from the dense undergrowth. At the village of Ailly-sur-Somme there were houses along sloping roads that ran down to the river that must

Montieres lock, staircase with no centre gates

have been built as workers houses for the now derelict factory beyond them (which turned out to be a factory processing jute from the 1850s). There were two fishermen fishing from the middle of the quay at KP102, which we passed en route to the next lock, 19 Ailly. Above the lock there was a moored péniche houseboat (called Ile) and a couple of short wooden landing stages for us to tie to. There were actually three of them, but the lock house had been converted into a hire base

Below Montieres lock

and now had two small speedboats tied up at the one landing nearest the lock. We breasted up to MR and had some lunch. Two new waterways men in an orange van arrived at 1.50 pm and filled the lock. The keeper checked our draught. 70cms. OK, we didn’t need to use the bottom chamber. A young man from the lock house brought one of the speedboats into the lock and came down with us as we dropped down another 1.9m

Old houses for jute workers in Ailly-sur-Somme

and followed us through the shallow, sloping-sided bottom lock chamber. He then tied the little boat up again below the lock. Quiet secluded countryside below the lock as we went with the flow, still around 2.5kph. Saw a pair of teal ducks and another sandpiper. Spotted the railway track to our left, and later Googling revealed that, according to Wiki, the station at Ailly (next door to the jute factory) was the scene of a big derailment in a thunderstorm at 6pm on the 6^th July 1906

Below Ailly lock

when the Calais-Bâle express train travelling at 90kph hit the back of a goods train loaded with bricks, fortunately only three people were slightly injured. We moored at 2.45pm at Samara where there was a pontoon just a bit shorter than MR and two wooden stagings. It was too shallow to get alongside the wooden landings, so we winded and came back upriver until our bows were touching the end of the pontoon next to MR’s bows and tied up. Mike put a pole out at the stern to keep us off the pebbly bottom, then Mike and Graham went to move cars.

click here to see 360 degree virtual views of the cathedral and more

Moored at Samara (more info) an archaeological theme park