Friday 24th July 2015 Lumes to Pont-à-Bar. 9.1kms 2 locks

Moored on the pontoon at Lumes

11.9° C A pleasant cool morning, getting hotter (mid-thirties) again by mid-afternoon, rain later. Mike refilled the water tank and then we left at 9.05am heading back upriver on the Meuse. There were two Dutch cruisers on the pontoon, three others had left earlier although we didn’t hear them go. A fishing boat with two men on board went past heading upriver just before we set off, when we caught up they were setting up to fish where a loop of the river had been cut

Heron below the lock at Dom-le-Mesnil. R Meuse

off by the railway yards at Nouvion. A new build British DB with the unusual name of Siyabonga (African for thank you) went past heading downstream by the first road bridge in Nouvion, followed five minutes later by a very large steel cruiser called Queen, with a large EU plus all member nations flag on the back. No problems this time with Dom-le-Mesnil lock as Mike had spotted the sensor was on the left and steered into the chamber past it then went right so I could reach the bar. As we

Former lock house at Meuse lk c. des Ardennes.
Sign says Bureau de Declaration - papers to the office! (we remember that!)

left the short lock cut we passed a large Dutch cruiser. Carried on upriver the short distance to the junction with the canal des Ardennes and waited while another big Dutch cruiser came down Meuse lock 7 (which we noted from the new lockside sign had been re-christened Dom-le-Menil - their mis-spelling). There were four more boats above the lock waiting to come down. A large British cruiser (having trouble with the in-flow from the back pump) was very close to the lock and behind him were two more

Queue above lock 7 Meuse on canal des Ardennes

large cruisers, both German, who were hanging back. The British boat waited for one of them to go in with him, but neither budged and declined when we said that they were waiting for someone to fill the space behind them in the chamber. Gave up and went past them and the small Belgian cruiser behind them and moored in the same place we’d been tied up last Tuesday. The hotel boat Merwede was still in the same spot behind us, crew sitting out on the deck (their passengers turned up

Back to that grassy bank again.
Pont-a-Bar

during the late afternoon). It was 11.15am and getting hotter again. Tied up, dropped blinds on the sunny side and set up the solar panels. Mike went to Pont-à-Bar Services in the car to pick up the two parcels that had been delivered there for us, we had some lunch then we went by car to do shopping at Carrefour in Charleville-Mézièrs.