Friday 7th August 2015 Lacroix to Sampigny. 21kms 5 locks

TGV track - steeper than you'd think

15.5° C Very hot and sunny. Outside topped at 41.8° C hottest yet. Mike took a walk to the bakery for some bread for the freezer and came back with the nicest 400g loaves he’d had since getting back into France. The washing finished and we refilled the water tank then disconnected from the electricity. Set off at 10.25am. It took around five minutes to reach the first lock, 12 Lacroix (1.6m). Two cruisers (one Belgian one Dutch) were coming down in it, so we hovered a short while. A young student girl was on duty, her bicycle propped up against the old lock cabin. The lock house looked renovated with nice shiny roll-down shutters over all the doors and windows, but

One of the rocks called Dames des Meuse at St Mihiel

seemed empty. The girl told Mike working as a lock keeper was a Summer job for her for a month. There was a good towpath again now with a piled edge on the right. 3kms to the next lock. Under the TGV line and Mike took photos of the steep bank to the left that it climbed – you all thought railways were all dead flat or gentle grades so they looked flat. More meadows on the right and baked yellow fields on the left. As we approached lock 11 Rouvrois (2.0m) we could see another cruiser just leaving the chamber coming towards us. Another ex-Connoisseur hireboat by the looks of it, with a

Pontoon mooring at St Mihiel

strange Australian flag on the back, a green kangaroo and stars on a bright yellow background. The crew waved, but didn’t speak. Another student girl to work our last manned lock. She didn’t do ropes, she was busy shutting the gates and winding paddles down, so I lassoed a bollard myself. The lock was soon full and we were on the 7.5kms pound. There was lots of weed again on the kilometre long canal section. We passed a downhill cruiser (a very large German one) as we came on to the next river reach running into St Mihiel (pronounced San Mee’yell – our waterways guide book reckons it was a mispronunciation of St Michael, which the French pronounce as San Meek-ay’yell) The weir had been upgraded to an automatic hydraulically operated one.

A rare sight n France - trolley in the cut!

Wooded hills on the left of the river and meadows on the right. Mike tried taking photos of the seven columns of rock on the left before the town, called Les Dames de Meuse, but they were partly obscured by trees. There were allotments between the river and the road all along the foot of the cliffs. The pontoon moorings in the town were half empty with one small cruiser (looked left permanent) and a couple of large Dutch cruisers moored side-by-side. The moorings were surrounded by beautiful gardens full of shrubs and flowers. We carried on upriver to the first un-manned lock, back to zappers and lift-the-

Above lock 9 Les Koeurs

bar type DIY. The zapper post was at the beginning of a very short lock approach to lock 10 St Mihiel (2.9m). I couldn’t lift the rod it was stuck, so Mike had to come and deal with it – it was actually jammed up at the top, so he pulled it down and immediately the lock started working! Surprised it hadn’t gone “en panne”. Heavy handed crew of the last boat through no doubt, pointing no fingers at the large cruiser which had just passed us. The house alongside was occupied and Mike spotted that the siren which goes off when the bottom end gates are opening had been disconnected (I wonder why, it would drive you daft living alongside that) and the one on the top end gates was very quiet. Above the lock there was another very short pontoon at the end of a long

Moored in the shade at Sampigny

layby with bollards and a wide open space with a dirt track on it alongside the quay. 5.4kms to the next. There was a good towpath along the shady canal section. Before the bridge and floodgates leading to the next river reach there were five newish-looking signs, one after the other, they were 1, hoot; 2, beware!; 3, no meeting and passing; 4, no overtaking; 5 narrows. Somebody must have relatives that own the factory making signs! On to the next river reach. Another large cruiser went past, the crew waved and then we spotted a red ensign on the back, they were Brits. Past another automatic weir and the river was enclosed both sides with trees, no view and not even the slightest breeze – the temperature soared, it was like being in an oven. Two walkers passed us, waving, heading downriver. Two fishermen in a boat were tucked into a little side arm. Then we saw another walker, sprawled out flat on the towpath having a lunchtime siesta! There were water lily leaves all along the towpath edge until the trees thinned out and we were back into open countryside again. A big flock of lapwings took flight from the river bank as we passed them. Puzzled as to which way to take at the next junction, I got my bird scope out to look for signs and I’d just spotted the lock in the right hand channel when a friendly fishermen indicated for us. The sign board was there but was completely obscured by foliage. We went up lock 9 Les Koeurs (3.25m) which had no lock house just a smart wooden shed for a lock cabin. A short distance took us to lock 8 Han (2.7m) again no house just a wooden shed. The lock paddles at Han were not programmed to open in the right order and it blew the boat sideways off the wall next to the operating rods and then pulled hard forward causing Mike to have to reverse. Not a gentle lock for ascending ropeless. The temperature rose even more, well over 40°C and the white paint on the roof became very hot to the touch. The towpath on this section was all washed away as we went into a shallow cutting where there were steep grassy banks with a field of sunflowers above and a sandy shelf below it, the latter covered by just a few of inches of water. There were small fish swimming in these shallow bits and herons were taking advantage of that. We paused under a long bridge where a railway and the D964 road crossed the canal and I held the boat on a rope while Mike gave the rudder another small tweak with a pinch bar as the boat was still tending to want to turn ever so slightly to the right. We passed a run-off weir on our left, then there was a towpath again for a short while, then it was back to sandy shelves that were almost worn through in places – the sort of thing that causes canals to breach and empty out all their water between locks. The D964 was alongside the canal again on our right but hidden by trees. We stopped on the quay at the little town of Sampigny at 3.15pm. The boat was under trees, but we got satellite TV. No point in lifting the solar panels and Mike decided not to go back to collect the car. I’d had all the blinds closed all day to try and keep the cabin cooler, it had been 8° cooler inside than out earlier in the day. When we stopped we opened all the blinds and all the windows and doors to try and catch what breeze there was. It stayed at 32°C for ages. We’d got Internet, 3G so a bit more catching up. Then we had a wonderful thunderstorm and some rain but the temperature in the cabin by midnight had only dropped down to 27°C with the doors wide open and mossie nets in.