Wednesday 13th May 2015 KP88 to Corbie. 12.5kms 3 locks

Starch factory Roquette at Daours.
click here for more info on the Roquette factory and its produce

3° C Sunny and warm. The boat behind us, Casey May Too, left at 9.15am heading uphill the same as us. I phoned the booking office at 9.30am and a pleasant young man replied and confirmed that there would be a lock keeper at Lamotte for us at 10.15am.  At 9.45am we set off again, heading upriver following MR around all the twists and turns of the Somme and arrived right on time at lock 16 - our lock keeper had the gates open ready for us. Work was going on apace at the old lock house turning it into a hire base for canoes, kayaks and bike for the Somme bureau de tourisme. Only a shallow lock of 1.3m, so we were soon on our way again. 4.5kms of fast flowing water, swirling around many bends up to Daours

I told him Graham says he wants one!
Found the float tube online and its looks pretty good value to me!

lock 15. Going upriver we had more time to notice the extent of the factory that produces potato starch – it was very large and modern and, unlike a lot of the rest of the local industry, still hard at work. Lock 15 was not ready for us yet and the cruiser Casey May Too was waiting below the lock. Looks like we’ve been “grouped” by our friendly lock keeper. He might just as well work the lock once with all three of us together, there was enough room, just. The cruiser went right to the front of the chamber with the two narrowboats behind it. Slowly the lock filled, 3.20m rise. Our lock

Not much space left in this lock chamber. Corbie

keeper said he would work the lock for us at Corbie rather than go off to his lunch, which we thought was very generous of him, especially as a French cruiser appeared below the lock just before we left. On the next reach Mike changed gas bottles as one had expired when I went in to make a cuppa before the last lock, so I steered round all the z-bends between Daours and Aubigny. The keeper had told Graham that there were no bollards on the left side of the next lock, so we said if MR went on the right we would tie alongside. Again, we rose gently 2.80m and I hung on to MR’s stern line while Graham gave our star lock keeper some beer and a bar of chocolate (from his stash of Cadbury’s) to say thanks. The lad stayed and worked the lock again for the little French speedboat as well. The

Attention! Chefs at work. BBQ at Corbie.

skipper from the speedboat told us that he was doing a round trip from Paris back to Paris; he’d come all the way down the Seine, along the coast and back into the waterways system at St Valèry and up the Somme, and then he would continue down the canal du Nord and the river Oise back to the city. DB Aslaug was moored on the quay immediately above the lock, but there was space for us on the quay by the campsite (which has water and electricity, four hours for 2€ in the slot) so we followed the big cruiser, who was only staying for lunch, and moored beyond two Belgian cruisers, with the little DB Vagabond at the far end of the quay. We had some lunch then Mike and Graham went to fetch the car from Samara. When they returned we did a BBQ in the pleasant sunshine and used Mike’s concrete workbench for its intended use as a picnic table.

Tuesday 12th May 2015 Samara to KP88 by the N25. 19.4kms 3 locks

Heron hiding in a tree

13° C Overcast start, sunny spells with loads of clouds, breezy and cooler. Mike went early by car to get bread from the boulangerie in Picquigny. The man in an orange van arrived at 9.15 am wanting to know what time we were going, Mike told him we’d be at the next lock at 10.15am. We set off at 9.35am. Jill walked the dog and we followed MR along the 4kms of winding bends to the first lock, 19 Ailly. Through the lower chamber and into the top one. Jill was waiting on the lockside having beaten us by a good ten minutes and took Graham’s ropes. The control panel was on our side of the chamber so the lock keeper took our ropes and put them round the bollards for us. Up 1.9m with no problems. DB Aslaug was moored above the lock and we said hello to Bente and Kurt as we passed them on the long (for the Somme) lock cut. 4.75kms to the next and more winding bends with the river still flowing at about 4kph. A group of quite elderly male joggers went past, all waving and smiling. The average age must have been about seventy, the French do take their keep fit seriously around here. Just before lock 18 Montières I took a photo of a lovely old barn with

Leaving Ailly lock

half its roof caved in - there are so many derelict and disused buildings around here in want of some TLC. A new keeper was at the lock ready to take MR’s ropes as the “pupitre” (as they call the lectern type control panels) was on their side this time. Mike climbed up on our cabin roof to throw ropes round bollards. This one takes quite a time to fill as it’s 2.50m deep and the two chambers have to be filled as the centre gates were taken out when the put a new road bridge across the chamber. Another long lock cut as we headed into the outskirts of the city of Amiens. We’d

Why did only half the roof collapse?

told the last lock keeper that we’d be at Amiens lock 17 between 1.30 and 1.45pm, so we stopped for lunch just before the weir at a nice little quay with bollards. MR went alongside the bank and disturbed a fisherman, who was very pleasant about it so we gave him a couple of beers. Lunch. Set off again at 1.10pm and found the flow rate less than before so we arrived early by 5 minutes at the lock. MR came alongside and we attached to a bent and battered bollard, being very careful as there was an equally battered concrete sewage pipe that stuck out from the quay above the level of

School of Engineering. Amiens

gunnels at just about the right height to take out a window. The keeper emptied the lock at 1.30pm and we went in and he took all our ropes as this lock is the deepest on the river at 4.40m deep with no recessed bollards in the wall and no ladders. Good fun. He filled it fairly slowly so, again, no problems. On through the city, passing the quay d’amont, where there was one moored British boat called Casey May Too, more FB friends of Jill's - they followed on later to moor

Beautifully decorated house in Amiens

at the same place as us. We carried on to the little quay upstream of the N25 motorway ringroad around Amiens, and tied to the end of the quay, leaving the rest of the quay for MR so that the dogs and cat could get on and off as they wished as it’s an ideal spot for them, no roads or houses and nice and quiet for the humans too.

A quiet mooring by the motorway

Saturday 9th May 2015 Longpré-les-Corps-Saints to Samara. 16.6 kms 2 locks

An old photo from 1996 showing how the staircase locks used to be
on the canalised Somme, with sloping sided turf lock bottom chambers.
This one was taken at Pont Remy lock

12.4° C Sunny at first, then then lots of clouds, but only a short spell of very light rain later. A white cruiser went past heading uphill around 10 am. Before we set off I phoned the lady to book the next lock for 11.45 am and we set off, heading upstream against the strong flow again, at 10.30 am. A large sign on the towpath proclaimed that the section of cycle path from Etoile to Picquiny had been funded to the tune of 920,000€ as a joint venture between Somme and Picardie. That’s for 12kms of tarmac. Three lady joggers jogged past and came jogging back again ten minutes later. A lone fisherman was trawling his livebait along the towpath side, fishing

Below Labreilloire
(pix taken coming downriver - lost the ones going up!)

for pike or zander. Another fisherman was hidden from view between trees on our right, he was sitting in a new type of floating seat for fishermen with his legs dangling in the water. At the end of the village of Etoile there is an old high concrete quay next to a factory that looked mostly unused, the quay had been derelict a long time. A sandpiper flew off in front and the warblers were singing loudly again. Madame phoned us at 11 am, she said the lock keeper was at the lock and wanted to know where we were. We told her we would be there

Below Picquiny.
(pix taken coming downriver - lost the ones going up!)

when we said - at 11.45 am. When we got to the lock, Labreilloire 21, there was no one there. It was 11.45 am. I rang her and said there was no sign of an orange van. She said she would ring the team, but doubted she could get anyone now before lunch! We moored in the slack water in the short lock cut right next to the lock gates. She rang back and Mike answered the phone – he wasn’t very happy – she said it would be after 1.30 pm and he gave the phone to me and I told her he was annoyed that no one was there to work the lock as promised. She said she would call the team again. At midday the orange van turned up with the same lad who had worked the locks for us the day before. He said he hadn’t had a call from the lady controller until just now. OK, at least he’d arrived now and we didn’t have to waste

A contented Daisy. At Samara

an hour and a half before continuing upriver. The single lock was full (we thought it had been empty as there was no water at all leaking through the bottom end gates) so he emptied it and we went up another 2.5m. The lady at the lock house was having a delivery of logs. One of her cats (there were at least two others by the lock house) was making a big fuss, first with me while we were waiting for the lock keeper and then with Graham in the lock and was trying to become a stowaway on MR. On to the 3kms weedy canal section at 12.30 pm. When we got to the end of the canal section, Mike had to do a hard reverse to get the stuff off the prop and release the wedge of blanket weed that was wrapped around the stem post at the bows – shades of UK boating. Graham did the same to rid MR of the clinging weed. 2kms before lock 20 Picquiny I phoned Madame again to

Our moorings at Samara

inform her that we would be at the lock in about twenty minutes. A few minutes later our keeper was driving down the towpath towards us in his orange van – looking for us? Noted he was on the phone. He turned round and went back to the lock. We keep telling them that our boats are not like the little cruisers and hireboats that they’re used to, that zap along at 10 to 12kph! (We only do about 7kph normally and the flow is reducing that to 4 to 5kph) The weir below the lock was flowing very hard across the canal from our right. Mike went to the right so that it didn’t throw us into the left hand wall, a bit too far

MR moored at Samara

right and we were listing hard to the right as the strong current caught us, not for long as he increased power and shoved the tiller hard over as we headed sharply for the left bank. A fisherman sitting on the left bank looked on, astonished at the power of the water and our antics! Graham was following, so he didn’t go quite so close to the right and didn’t list as much as we did. Into the top chamber of the lock and the lad took Jill’s rope. Mike got on our roof and put a fore end line round a bollard for me. I couldn’t see where the bollards were and there were no painted markers on the edge of the lock wall. Soon up another 2.30m. The keeper had already told us there was a boat on the mooring above the lock - there would have been space for us to moor beyond the cruiser, called Dolfyn, but we carried on to moor a couple of kilometres further upstream again at Samara by the park. MR moored on the pontoon so they could get the dogs off easily and we tied up as before by the wooden landing stages with our bows on the end of the pontoon and a pole to keep the boat off the bottom. Mike and Graham went back to Abbèville to collect our car. The towpath was very busy with cyclists and walkers.

Sorry folks! I accidentally deleted all the photos we took today so I've had to improvise with an old one from 1996 and ones taken coming downriver, plus Mike retook ones of this scenic mooring in the woods close to the old Roman Camp. There are golden orioles in the woods here, we can hear them singing, but frustratingly we can't see them...

Friday 8th May 2015 Abbèville to Longpré-les-Corps-Saints KP123. 18kms 2 locks

Waiting below Pont Remy for a downhill cruiser to clear the lock

8.1° C Overcast start, calm no wind; later sunny spells and a light breeze. There was a fisherman right behind us on the moorings and no one about on the DB Aslaug, as we set off at 9.30 am, following MR out of the lock cut back on to the river, but now heading upstream against the flow which was about 3.5 - 4kph. Engine revvs on for 8kph and doing about 4kph. The current slowed down as we went further upriver and we were doing on average 5 to 6kph. I phoned the waterways office and today a lady

Replica chaland at Pont Remy

answered, I told her where we had started from and where we were going plus our arrival time at lock 23 Pont-Remy, about 11.30am. OK. What a difference a few days makes at this time of year, the hawthorne and elder were all in flower and all the buds on the trees had become tender new green leaves. Graham said on VHF that there was a cruiser coming downriver. We moved to the correct side of the river for navigation (our right) as we’d been chasing the calmer water where there was the least flow. The boat was a speedboat style small

Replica Gallo-Roman boat builders hut

cruiser, French flagged, called Four Winds. The crew waved as they skidded round the bends at speed with the flow and they were gone. With the flow they would be adding another 4kph on top of what they normally cruise at which is usually 10 to 12 kph for a light craft with big engines like that, so they would have zipped past at 14 to 16kph so no wonder they were past in a flash. As we went past the village of Epagnette there were horses and geese in the meadows to our left and a sandpiper went past in the opposite direction, yodelling loudly as he went. We arrived at Pont Remy lock at

Pont Remy celebrating VE Day

11.30am as a cruiser was just coming down. As the cruiser, called Chat Lune, went by its skipper told us in English that there was a very strong flow coming from his left as he came out of the lock. Yes there are two weirs on this lock, one on either side, both flowing well. A young man with an orange van was working the lock. His control panel was on our left and he took a rope for Jill. Mike flicked a rope around a bollard at the stern but I had no hope of getting a fore end line around a bollard as it was at least 2m further on up

The Chateau de Long

the chamber. Never mind it’s only about a 1.5m rise. Mike put a centre line on as the lock filled and I held that as he’d detached the stern line. The young man advised us to ring again to book the next lock. We paused briefly at the mooring a bit further on in Pont Remy, next to the replica Gallo-Roman huts, built where an archaeological dig had found evidence of boat building. My phone had no signal so Graham lent me his and I called the lady again to tell her we’d be at Long at 1.30pm. To our great surprise we could hear the distant sounds of a marching band and saw them appear on the bridge behind us, Pont Remy was celebrating VE Day. Pushed on again at

Bluebells, and pink ones, at Long

12.20pm to get to the next lock for just after their lunch break finished. The same young man was there to work lock 22 Long for us. This time the control panel was on the right so he put my centre rope on a bollard for me and also crossed the lock to take Jill’s rope too. We rose another 1.5m. Gave the lad a couple of bottles of 33s to say thanks and have a good weekend. Above the lock there was a cruiser called Marie-Celeste moored, we apologised as we went past as the young keeper had asked them to move up expecting us to stay there but we weren’t stopping. On upriver past the lovely Château de Long, taking photos of its turrets and statues and as we were

Moored at Longpre-les-Corps-Saints

passing its back doors, a lavoir (wash house) where the castle’s washer women would have washed all the laundry in the river, and all the greenhouses built to supply the nobility with fruits and vegetables out of season. There was a cruiser moored in the shallow muddy arm where we’d stopped on the way downriver and then about 1km before our intended mooring another cruiser went past heading downstream. Getting busy for the long weekend. Graham and Jill moored next to the pontoon at KP123, it was shorter than we thought, only half the boat was attached to it. Once they were moored we tied alongside. It was about 2pm and there were lots of people walking the towpath. Within minutes of being let out Daisy cat had caught her first mouse of the day and ate it.

Tuesday 5th May 2015 Long to Abbèville KP140. 17.3kms 2 locks

A moored peniche houseboat

13.8° C Sunny first thing, then it started raining when we were getting ready to leave. Set off out of arm at 10.15 am following MR back on to the river. The guys building the new weir were starting to place a line of piling across the old weir, they paused to watch the nutters with the funny boats go past in the pouring rain – well, at least they were getting paid for being out in the wet! Not far to the first lock, Long 22. Past the stately home on the banks of the river called the Chateau de Long, an 18th century mansion complete with extensive greenhouses all along the river. A sign said visits possible.

Chateau d'Epagne

A new keeper was there to work the first lock for us. We were a bit early for the booked time of 10.30am, so the lock was full but the gates weren't yet open. The guys working on tiling the roof of the old lock house paused to watch as we dropped down 1.50m. The keeper asked how far we were going, just to Abbeville and we’d stay there for a couple of days. He said he would close down the barrage at the next lock as there was a lot of water flowing today. Along the next reach the wind started blowing a gale to add to

A paddle for filling up a lake from the river?

the torrential rain. The wind was blowing so hard that twice our brolly folded flat on one side as the stays bent, we were surprised that we managed to straighten it out. When there was a lull in the gale we put the umbrella down and braved the horizontally blown deluge in waterproofs. In the town of Pont Remy there was another good mooring next to several reconstructed iron age houses and two replicas of ancient boats, a dugout canoe and a wooden punt were moored just beyond the halte nautique. True to his word the keeper had stopped the weir from flowing until we were in lock 23 Pont Remy. As we enetered the lock chamber he was on his way back from the automatically

Mooring in the lock cut at Abbeville.

operated weir after opening it up again. On the lockside there was an orange lorry, a short wheelbase with four huge wheels. I asked if it was a quatre-quatre (pronounced cat-cat) a 4x4? Yes he said smiling and I said that’s very useful at times here, yes and more smiles. He said to watch out for a couple of boats that were coming upriver. Down another 1.50m in what used to be a turf sided lock and continued along the last reach into Abbèville, at least the rain had stopped and the sun came out to dry us out a bit – the wind was still fiercely blowing the trees (and us).  Another grand house stood close to the river at the village of Epagne Epagnette. We noted several fishermen ensconced in tents and wondered who were the daftest to be out on a day like today? There were two moored boats on the quay in the lock cut at Abbèville. The English couple off a Pedro cruiser called Lady Bess (they were the boat the keeper was expecting but they’d sensibly decided not to brave the wind and rain) they offered to move back up the quay a bit so we could both moor. We carried on towards the lock and winded, just about, and went back to moor between Lady Bess and MR as Graham and Jill moved MR back a bit so their stern end was overhanging the quay. It was 1.10pm. I made some lunch. Satellite TV was a bit iffy with the trees blowing about wildly. Graham took Mike back to Samara to collect our car.

Monday 4th May 2015 Samara to Long KP124. 18kms 2 locks.

Leaving Picquiny lock

8.7° C Sunny with lots of white fluffy clouds, warmer again at last. Mike and Graham moved cars early. When they returned I phoned the booking office and asked for a lock keeper at Picquiny for 10.30 am. We set off going backwards, downstream with the flow, to the bend where we winded and carried on down to Piquigny staircase lock 20, which has a 2.3m drop. The lock was ready for us and there were two men in an orange van to welcome us. The chef checked our depth and agreed we didn't need to use the lower chamber. A man and a small child with blond curly hair stayed on the lockside to watch and wave bye bye as we left. The keeper asked how far we were going and when we said above the lock at Long he said beware of the

Building a new weir at Hangest-s-Somme

current, it's very fast there. Mike said he knew because he'd seen it when they moved the cars this morning. At the start of the long lock cut in Hangest-sur-Somme they were building a new weir and an old peniche was moored at the silo quay, no name on it and it looked like it hadn't moved in a long time. The lock cut was very weedy, cabomba weed with blanket weed forming on top of it, but the water was clear and we could see small fish darting in and out of the weeds - but the big ones were hiding. Mike had

Peniche on the silo quay at Hangest

to reverse several times to fling the weed off the prop, a very rare thing in France! The cut was 2.5kms long and straight and we could see the orange van was by the next lock, Labreilloire 21, 2.50m deep (a single chamber, not a staircase) and the keeper was preparing the lock for us. It was ready when we arrived and we were surprised to see the lock house lived in, but not by a lock keeper the chef told us. A young woman came to chat with the keeper as we were getting the correct pronunciation for mauvaise herbe – French for weed. He said there was no need to ring, there would be someone at Long for us at 10.30am the following day. Back on to the river again, not quite so

Moored in an old arm at Long

weedy as the canal and still flowing strongly. Lots of lakes to our left and trees to our right. 5kms to go and the sun was out and warm enough to shed our fleeces. Hooray! Another lake on our right appeared so we were surrounded with water. As we neared the village of Long, which sits on a low hill, there were chalk cliffs to our right and the lakes to our right were much lower than the water in the canal/river so we were on a low embankment, a lovely panorama. The place we’d chosen to stay overnight was in a little arm off the river just before a weir (which was also being replaced like the one at Hangest) and the flow going past the end of

Swan coming in to land

the arm was pretty fast like the lock keeper had said. We were in front so we went in first, bows first and had an interesting time turning round as it was very shallow and we were throwing up pongy mud off the bottom. We had an audience of two swans and several ducks which were nesting along the river edge, plus a few of the folks in the adjacent chalet and caravan park. Graham winded and brought MR in backwards, slowly as the sides were very shallow. When he was near enough he threw us ropes and we pulled MR into the bank so they could tie up (easier than using the engine). We had tied alongside an old metal punt-style workboat, which made a good fender and kept us out of the shallow water by the bank. Jill’s friends from FB (Australians with a large cruiser called Chamamé) went past heading back upriver, so we waved and took a photo. One problem, no satellite TV, Jill said they weren’t bothered as there was nothing on to watch tonight. We moved the boat further up the basin so as to clear the trees and just about got a signal, OK for Corrie later. Had some lunch then Mike and Graham went in Graham’s car to collect ours from Samara and then move Graham's on to Abbeville.

Saturday 2nd May 2015 KP88 to Samara KP106 19.7kms 3 locks

Moored at KP88 for a good night's sleep after noisy revellers
kept us awake in Amiens we went back upriver a short way

 7.7° C grey clouds and still cold. I phoned the booking office to get a lock keeper to work Amiens lock for us for 11.00 am, then we set off with the flow again at 10.00 am following MR downriver. There were lots of fishermen about as it was Saturday. Back into Amiens, noting that the little Dutch barge Vagabond was moored on the pontoon. Followed MR into lock 17 Amiens, the first of the former staircase locks. This was a deep one at 4.4m. We had two waterways men to work the

Unusual tug, hydraulic drive. 

lock, a middle aged guy and a youngster (who I think must be the one who answers the phone). The young man took our junk (an old CD player and our old Farnell power supply, both dead) and two containers of used oil for the dechetterie for us. Mike gave him four bottles of 33s for his help. We dropped down slowly and told the chef we were going to Samara today and stay until Monday. When the lock was empty we only had about a metre of water under the boat and really stirred up some mud

Ornate bridge across small canal originally used for delivering
foodstuffs grown in the hortillonages 

on our way out and through the shallow, sloping-sided lower chamber. The keeper told us to keep left of the yellow buoys as it was shallow by the right bank below the lock. The pontoon at the base of the high quai d’aval was empty, as was the new quay by the University of Mechanical engineering. We motored on to the next lock, passing some old disused industrial quays which were much too high for our use. Several rowing skiffs went past heading into Amiens as there was another rowing club at the

Below Amiens lock, a staircase lock - only the top lock used.

end of the reach. The chef drove past us on his way to lock 18 Montières, which was ready when we got there at midday. This lock is impressive as the middle gates have been removed and there is a fixed road bridge over the chamber on a level with the lockside. The chef said it was his last lock as we were into the section belonging to Abbèville now. He said he would arrange with them to have a lock keeper at the next lock after lunch. A lady who had been taking photos from the bridge came to chat, but she was English (from a

Amiens cathedral Notre Dame and  on the right the
Tour Peret (a residential skyscraper built in 1952)

campsite nearby) and spoke no French, so she could chat with us but not the keeper. Down another 2.5m slowly. Below the lock the scenery changed, no more houses for a while and trees both banks, then a village on the left and lakes and marshes on the right. Spotted a coypu swimming and a lone sandpiper flew in front for a short while. Lots of warblers sang from the dense undergrowth. At the village of Ailly-sur-Somme there were houses along sloping roads that ran down to the river that must

Montieres lock, staircase with no centre gates

have been built as workers houses for the now derelict factory beyond them (which turned out to be a factory processing jute from the 1850s). There were two fishermen fishing from the middle of the quay at KP102, which we passed en route to the next lock, 19 Ailly. Above the lock there was a moored péniche houseboat (called Ile) and a couple of short wooden landing stages for us to tie to. There were actually three of them, but the lock house had been converted into a hire base

Below Montieres lock

and now had two small speedboats tied up at the one landing nearest the lock. We breasted up to MR and had some lunch. Two new waterways men in an orange van arrived at 1.50 pm and filled the lock. The keeper checked our draught. 70cms. OK, we didn’t need to use the bottom chamber. A young man from the lock house brought one of the speedboats into the lock and came down with us as we dropped down another 1.9m

Old houses for jute workers in Ailly-sur-Somme

and followed us through the shallow, sloping-sided bottom lock chamber. He then tied the little boat up again below the lock. Quiet secluded countryside below the lock as we went with the flow, still around 2.5kph. Saw a pair of teal ducks and another sandpiper. Spotted the railway track to our left, and later Googling revealed that, according to Wiki, the station at Ailly (next door to the jute factory) was the scene of a big derailment in a thunderstorm at 6pm on the 6^th July 1906

Below Ailly lock

when the Calais-Bâle express train travelling at 90kph hit the back of a goods train loaded with bricks, fortunately only three people were slightly injured. We moored at 2.45pm at Samara where there was a pontoon just a bit shorter than MR and two wooden stagings. It was too shallow to get alongside the wooden landings, so we winded and came back upriver until our bows were touching the end of the pontoon next to MR’s bows and tied up. Mike put a pole out at the stern to keep us off the pebbly bottom, then Mike and Graham went to move cars.

click here to see 360 degree virtual views of the cathedral and more

Moored at Samara (more info) an archaeological theme park