Lock house and church at Soulanges |
11.5°
C Sunny, with a light cool breeze, getting hotter again. Both cruiser and DB
had gone before 9 am. We went back to turn the pole, saying bonjour to two
cheery fishermen fishing right next to the gantry. It was 9.15am as we winded
and went down lock 4 Soulanges. Its lock house had been extended but wasn’t
lived in. Dropped down 1.55m on to the 2.3kms long pound. Surrounded by trees
except for some high chalky cliffs on the right, the Marne close by but mostly
out of sight on our left. We had a short wait
while lock 5 Ablancourt filled,
strange, it should have been full as it had a full paddle up for a feed which
pushed the boat over as we dropped down almost 2m. The lock house had long gone,
there was just a concrete lock cabin and, presumably due to flooding, the lock
walls had been made higher with an upwards extension. 3.6kms to the next lock.
The village of Ablancourt stretched out along the canal below the lock for
quite some distance but was mostly hidden by trees. Lock 6 La Chausée had
a
lock house with bricked up doors and windows, its extension had no roof now. Next
to the lock just above the top end gates there was a run off paddle with
controls which housed in a secure metal mesh cage. 6.5kms to the next lock. At
Omey there was a big cement works with a long loading/unloading quay with an
open fronted building on the edge of the quay that had a cantilevered roof out
over the water. Although there were huge builders bags of cement
stored there,
there was no loading crane to put the bags into boats, plus there were no
bollards along the quay now for péniches to tie to. So no more transport by
water here then. As we left the buildings behind we noted there was a railway
track going into the works. There was a very large winding hole before the next
silo complex (maybe what the French call a gare d’eau, a waiting area for boats
to load) but again all the gear for loading boats was rusted
and didn't look
used. By the silos there were two old shunting engines, lots more rusty than
when we last saw them. On through the village of Pogny which had a long stone
quay with bollards backed by houses and parked cars. At the end beyond the quay
was a very modern house, grey and square with small windows. It was starting to
get very hot again as we went into a long straight section lined with trees and
the sun directly behind us. At lock 7 St Germain there was another silo before
the lock, modern
buildings but no signs of any recent use by boats. Down
another 2.7m with a top end paddle up full for a feed again. There was a
cruiser in the far distance behind us. Two kilometres and we winded to moor at
the end of an old layby with bollards at the village of Chepy. It was 12.35pm.
There were more happy smiling fishers at the far end of the layby. As we were
finishing tying up a cruiser we’d seen before went past, crew waving. Had some
lunch and then gave Mike a hand to get the bike off and he went to collect the
car from Soulanges and take it on to Condé then come back on the bike to Chepy.
When Mike returned he had to leave the bike outside on the bank while it cooled
down before we stored it back on the roof. It was getting much hotter again, 35°C
outside during the afternoon.
Ablancourt built up lock walls |
Derelict lock house at La Chausee-sur-Marne |
Rusty engine at silo in La Chausee |
New house at Pogny |
Moored in the layby at Chepy, panels up for sun power |
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