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Friday, 14 August 2015

Wednesday 12th August 2015 Demange to Naix. 14.6kms 14 locks

Weed on bottom end gates (water weirs over gates on these locks)
Lock 2 Demange
15.8° C Hazy sunshine, getting hotter again later. Max over 38°C again. Set off through the underwater grass at 9.30am, turned right at the junction and went down lock 1 Tombois (2.98m) set for us by a man in a van. Downhill now all the way back to Condé. Chunks of weed followed us into the lock chamber, so Mike put a stern line round a bollard so he didn’t have to use the propeller to stop the boat running forward as the lock emptied. The locks were chained so as we left one lock the next one got ready for us. All the pounds were short,
So that's where all the dollies went,
they loaded up their wagons and rolled off to the Wild West?
between 500m and a kilometre with just a couple longer than that. The first section of canal down as far as Ligny twists and turns following the upper valley of the little river Ornain. A pair of cyclists stopped on the bridge over the tail end of the lock to gongoozle. Below the lock was an empty 40m long pontoon. There were rope grooves worn into the edges of the support walls on both sides of the bridge just before lock 2 Demange (2.21m). There was
A field full of sunflowers drooping in he heat
towpath haulage by tractor units on this canal and it looks like it was on both banks. We noted that there was water running over the top end gates on all of the locks and lots of the lock houses had been demolished years ago. Lock 3 Bois Molu (2.51m) still had loads of weed in it and didn't close behind us. It was a longish shady pound (1.4kms) to lock 4 Monfort (2.50m) and when we got there I had to get off in the lock mouth and go and call on the intercom as the
No mooring on the queduct
lock hadn't opened. The guy said he would do the necessary. Mike had to back off out of the lock mouth as the gates started opening. I lifted the rod and got back on the boat. On to lock 5 Abbaye d’Evaux (2.41m) where there were lots of butterflies on the blue scabious flowers on the lock sides and a red admiral landed briefly on the roof. A tractor with grass cutting gear crossed the bridge and set off down the towpath in search of grass that needed cutting. Lock
Baby catfish
6 Boèval didn’t close after we left and we thought we’d have to call VNF again but a German cruiser went past heading uphill and a VNF van went past heading downhill. When we arrived at lock 7 St Joire (2.56m) the lock was empty with the bottom gates open. We expected there to be another uphill boat but the gates closed and the lock refilled and then we went down. Mike took photos of the amazing garden ornaments at one of the houses we passed. Lock 8 Laneuville St Joire didn’t close after we left either. There were four buzzards circling above the trees by the lock, we could hear their mewing cries. A sign of the difference it makes when a lock is close to a village, lock 9 Petite Forge (2.55m) still had a
Moored at Naix-aux-Forges
beautifully maintained lock house as it was on the edge of the village of Trevenay. Lock 10 Charbonières (2.58m) alas had no lock house, just a pear tree survived from its garden. Lock 11 Trevenay (2.58m) also had a lived in lock house. I made some lunch en route to lock 12 Charmasson (2.54m) which was surrounded by empty fields backed by woods. Mike spotted catfish. Dozens of baby ones, newly hatched and all swimming together in a black ball of a shoal at the edge of the canal. Down lock 13 St Amand (2.50m) the canal water was becoming murky so there was less weed. Immediately uphill of lock 14 La Barboure there was an aqueduct over a small stream and a big sign saying no mooring there. It was the same width as the lock and directly leading on to it, so who on earth would moor there? There was a suitable quay with bollards above lock 15 Naix, so we winded and moored. Then we went to the lock and called on the intercom to say we’d stopped. Finished putting stuff away and setting up TV and solar panels, etc, then I gave Mike a hand to get the bike off and he went to collect the car from Euville. Good mooring but no Internet. We went out in the car to look at moorings on the far side of Ligny at Tronville. Looked OK. Called via Ligny to see how many boats were there, just one cruiser which might be permanent but loads of campervans. Noted that the lock was automatic, so there are more than the first 17 automated now. That was a pleasant surprise. Back home in the gathering dark. 

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