Wednesday 26th August 2015 Soulanges to Chepy. 15.1kms 4 locks

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

Ablancourt built up lock walls

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

Derelict lock house at La Chausee-sur-Marne

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

Rusty engine at silo in La Chausee

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

New house at Pogny

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

Moored in the layby at Chepy, panels up for sun power

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.