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| Boats moored at Fumay |
19.5°
C Very hot and sunny until late afternoon, then clouds and a very drops of
rain, nice breeze most of the time. Untied and lifted all the pins to set off
up the lock cut at 9.20am. Just a short distance and we were back on the river
again. Five cruisers were moored on the quay at Fumay, so a fair amount of
space remained. 4.75kms of river to the next lock, round the big sweeping bend
to l’Uf. Halfway round the big bend there was a moored DB houseboat called
Selamat. Up another 2.25m in l’Uf. Another big group of Canada geese were
swimming along in a long line. Just 2.75kms to St Joseph and we were quite
surprised when the lock emptied (they have all been full) and two men in a
small open motor boat with an outboard engine came out of the lock. There was a
VNF man in a van at the lock, so Mike told him we were having problems with our
telecommand, so he swapped it for his yellow one. The gates
didn’t fully open
and so he went off to work it from the controls located in a lean-to at the
side of the derelict lock house. Paused briefly above the lock while Mike connected
up the Markon drive to do some washing on the 6.1kms reach to Revin. The deep
lock (4.16m) at Revin was manned (too dangerous for cruisers to use unaided!) and
the young keeper came out to take ropes fore and aft for us with a long pole
and place them round bollards up on the lockside. Soon on our
way again and
running through the short unlit tunnel on the 1.6kms to Orzy lock. Guess what?
Our newly swapped zapper wouldn’t work - or the lock was out of order. I phoned
for someone to come and fix it. Twenty minutes later a man in a van arrived and
swapped the yellow zapper for the standard blue and green one. That worked! As
the lock filled (up another1.6m) we chatted with the mobile keeper. The weir
was still an intact needle weir but would soon become automatic. More jobs lost,
but
the new one would be much, much safer to operate as the old needle weirs
were dangerous for the men operating them, especially in times of flood when
they usually remove most of the needles. I made some lunch as we went round the
big S bends on the 4.73kms river reach up to Dames de Meuse lock. The latest zapper
worked perfectly. Up another 3.08m. On the right bank of the lock there was an
old liftbridge which once gave vehicle access to the spit of land between the
long lock cut and the wild river at the foot of the forested hills called
Rochers des Dames de Meuse, where legend has it that divine wrath turned the
unfaithful wives Hodieme, Bethe and Iges into stone. A very beautiful stretch
of the river. There seemed to be warblers in every tree and big clumps of
bright pink flowers of mallow, yellow greater celandine and creamy white
flowers of meadowsweet all along the towpath banks. The only people we saw for
miles were cyclists (mainly campers judging by their bags) on the towpath. Took
pictures of the colourful little train that goes to
Givet as it passed slowly
over the railway bridge at Laifour for passengers to take photos of the river.
The quay at Laifour was filled with cruisers. At the end of the big bend around
Laifour is the lock at La Commune. Up another 2.07m. 4.24kms to Monthermé lock,
starting with a very short lock cut, where three swans chased in front of us
out on to the river and a few Canada geese were grazing on the banks. A few
more swans were swimming along the reach. Strange, there used to be hundreds of
swans in the very scenic town of Monthermé. Up 3.3m in Monthermé lock with a
small restaurant alongside at
the former lockhouse, enticing thatched parasols
in the garden for shade and lots of signs advertising ice cream for sale.
Another long lock cut on the start of the 9.54kms reach, with bramble covered
banks and bright golden honeysuckle. Clouds formed and gathered to shade us from
the ferocious heat of the sun and a few small drops of rain fell. The first
built of the new automatic weirs was located at the end of the lock cut, built
several years before. On into the town and noting there were only a few swans now in the town, a pair of male swans
put on a display, both with feathers up and necks back, swimming in parallel to
see who was the fittest before one backed down, while the wife and children of
one of them watched from the reedy bank. We didn’t stop to see who won, they
looked pretty evenly matched to us. The new mooring in the town was virtually
full, mostly cruisers but one DB – it was Geeske – whose kindly owners allowed
us to use their moorings at Seneffe while we waited for the dry dock. We paused
and chatted. Mike asked how much the charges were there and found 8,90€ without
water and electric or 11,90€ with. They’re going the same way as us, so we’ll
probably meet up again. We ran on upriver to Bogny-sur-Meuse, overtaking a
small electric dayboat as we passed the confluences (two of them) of the
beautiful stream called the Semois, sadly un-navigable for us - but well used
by canoes and kayaks,. Then two ladies in another little open motor boat went
past heading downstream as we went under the railway bridge in Chateau
Regnault. On the big bend the Monthermé tripboat went past heading back
downriver as we passed a huge flotilla of Canada geese, another group of well over
fifty of the invaders. The long new pontoon at Bogny was empty so we were able
to moor next to a gangway so Mike could get the moped down the plank easily
(next day) to go and retrieve the car. It was 5.40pm and very hot. The
thermometer said it had been just over 40 degrees outside this afternoon.
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| Zap this with telecommand and the red light on top flashes |
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| Needle weir at Orzy lock |
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| Above Orzy lock |
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| Pedal-powered towpath coaches for hire from Montherme |
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| Moored at Bogny-sur-Meuse |
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| Moored at Bogny view from top of bank |
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| A visiting coypu - another invader species - from S America |
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