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
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
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.
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-
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
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.
One of the rocks called Dames des Meuse at St Mihiel |
Pontoon mooring at St Mihiel |
A rare sight n France - trolley in the cut! |
Above lock 9 Les Koeurs |
Moored in the shade at Sampigny |
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