Monday 30th March 2015 Berry-au-Bac to Bourg-et-Comin. 20.2kms 1 lock

Canal bank covered with spring flowers at Berry

7.8° C Sunny with white clouds, strong westerly wind. The banks where we were moored were covered in flowers, cowslips, violets, daisies, speedwell and red dead nettle. Four empty péniches were moored on the quays plus one below the lock and a Swiss-flagged Dutch barge. When Mike walked into the village for bread, the boulangerie was closed and the mini-market that I thought they’d built recently was a figment of my imagination. He came back for the car keys and went to the

Four storey house at Maizy

boulangerie in Guignicourt. Worth while going as the bread was a good price 1,10€ for a 400g pain. On Mike’s return, I went to see the lock keeper to tell him we’d be at his lock in about ten minutes, OK, and I asked him if there was drinking water still available here, yes. I went back to the boat to hang on to the centre rope while Mike used a wrench on the mooring pins to extract them. Winded at 11.50am and went into Berry (Aisne) lock 3. Mike refilled the water tank while I became human mooring

An old farm shed

pin again as there was no bollard on the lockside for our centre rope. The keeper came out of his lock cabin to take our licence number and he gave us a zapper for the next lot of automatic locks. Once the hosepipe was back by the tap and Mike was back on board, the top end gates closed and we dropped down on to the long pound (20.5kms) to lock 4 on the canal Latèral à l’Aisne. The Dutch barge that had been there when Mike returned with the bread was no longer there moored behind péniche Logica. We both said we’d got a good

A mistletoe tree

idea where that’s gone, fully expecting it to be on the pontoon we were heading for. The very strong west wind was right in our faces and trying to rip all the flags off the masts. Not long after we set off two empty boats, both named Poulebot, but one from Nancy and one from Dunkirk, went past heading for Berry. Ten minutes after that a third boat, Tonga, followed them up to Berry. I made some sandwiches for lunch which we ate on the move. A lovely new house, a three storey wooden chalet with balconies all around it had been

Sugar works and silo quays at Oeuilly

built right into the hillside at Maizy, a splendid village sprawled out along the banks of the canal. La Paix (empty) was moored on the silo quay at Oeuilly having some work done as there was a van belonging to a maintenance company parked next to it. On the opposite bank the sugar works quay was empty and silent (and, thankfully, odourless), we debated whether the screw type gear was for loading or unloading boats. Our fears of having nowhere to moor at Bourg were unfounded as the pontoon on the junction with the canal Oise à l’Aisne was vacant except for one small cruiser and a sheeted up speed boat,

Pontoon mooring at Bourg-et-Comin

both looked like permanent moorers. Gave Mike a hand to unload the bike and he went to collect the car from Berry. Pleased we’d managed to escape the forecast rain as it started to cloud over with grey ones again around 5pm and before long the rain was pouring while the gale force wind howled.

Wednesday 25th March 2015 Courcy to Berry-au-Bac. 12.2kms 9 locks

Battered car in a field at Courcy

4.1° C Grey skies and damp, a few spots of rain. Mike took photos of a car that had gone off road into the field opposite, a recovery vehicle was attempting to retrieve it. He was sure he had heard a noise around 1.30 am. We set off at 9.30 am, winding and turning the pole to continue the descent to the Aisne valley. Lock 9 Courcy is chained (linked) to the next three locks (8 Noue-Gouzaine, 7 Fontaines and 6 Loivre) so as one empties so the next one fills to get ready for us.

Engine shed for the electric towpath traction mules

The only signs of life were a lone jogger and a man walking a Spaniel dog. We passed a loaded boat called Elvis from Flers below lock 7 and had to wait for an empty called Cartier from Maasbracht to come up lock 6 before we could go down. 2.5kms to the next two which were chained (5 Gaudart and 4 d’Alger). A further 3.5kms to the next, passing through the village of Neuville and the big factory which makes things out of concrete, like tunnel linings. The last three locks are linked

Dutch boat Cartier coming up in lock 6 Loivre

(3 Sapigneul, 2 Moulin de Sapigneul and lock 1 Berry (identified as Berry Marne on VHF as the control lock 3 around the corner on the canal lateral à l’Aisne is also Berry lock but identified as Berry Aisne). Mike called the keeper on VHF to tell her we were stopping in the “large” so she wouldn’t prepare lock 3 Berry for us. It was breezy and the water was swirling from our lockful of water plus the corner of the “large” is silting up, so it took us longer than normal to

No more lock keepers - empty lock house at Moulin de Sapigneul

get attached to the bank. 1.30pm and we were glad to get inside by a warm fire and defrost.

Moored in the corner of the large at Berry-au-Bac
(lock 3 Berry in background)