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

Wednesday 29th April 2015 Corbie to Amiens. 18.8kms 3 locks

Waiting bvove lock 16 Lamotte

5.2° C Hazy clouds with sunny spells and a very cold breeze. Mike and Graham moved vehicles first thing, leaving Graham’s parked in a side street in Amiens and coming back in ours. On their return I phoned the booking office and asked for a keeper for 10.15 am. OK, he said he would contact the team. Mike got the boat ready to move, I helped to untie the boat and we set off at ten, going upriver a bit to wind, then trundled slowly down to the lock, bidding Bente and Kurt bye for now. Peter Pan, a tjalk we had moored next to once in Strasburg yacht club a few years back, was moored

Lock house at Lamotte being transformed

down by the lock with crew on board, but no one that we knew. There were several other boats moored there which looked permanent. Our man in a van (Department of the Somme this time, a white van with red lettering) arrived at 10.20am and had problems with lock 14 Corbie. The panel on the lockside didn't seem to be working properly, so he opened one of the boxes by the tail end gates and opened a paddle and we descended slowly. I had no bollard on my side of the lock for my centre

Caulking the bottom of a traditional wooden boat

rope, so I stood on the stern as we descended ropeless (he did say we could put a rope around the lamp post but Mike declined) and we chatted with Jill who was steerer on MR for the first lock. Down 2.8m and the lock keeper wanted us to go out singly and keep over to the right. The weir flows across the canal right below the gates, but it didn't move us over by much - he's too used to light and flimsy hire boats! Just over 5kms to the next. Mike did some painting and I steered. The same keeper had the next lock, 15 Daours, ready for us. This one was operated from boxes by the gates and this time the lock worked OK, down 3.2m and we were soon on our way again. Just 4.6kms to our last

Coming into the city of Amiens

lock 16, Lamotte, so we motored on after saying au'voir to our keeper who had only the first two locks to do. On downstream following the twisting tortuous course of the river, past a large chemical works that our old cruising guide says is a féculerie (a factory extracting starch from potatoes) and found the lock full, but no one around. Tied to the waiting area and had some lunch. Mike had a chat with a couple on bicycles who had been taking photos as we moored up. After lunch we went out and sat on the concrete benches to natter with Jill and Graham while we waited for

The rowing club in Amiens opposite the mooring pontoon

our mobile lock keeper, but there were no signs of a keeper at 1.30pm. As I was about to go and phone the booking office, a young man in a Somme van turned up at 1.55pm and started talking with Graham in German. The lock was already full so he had to go and find the power supply in the lock house (which was being renovated and turned into a hire base for bikes and canoes like the one in Cappy) to turn on the panel (lectern style again) and he started talking to me in English until he couldn't think of a word and I said tell me in French (in French) and we had quite a long conversation, first about the fact that he thought our boats were Dutch (then he spotted the Union Jack on the Ensign) about mooring in Amiens, which he said would be OK – gets rowdy in summertime

Pub by the moorings in Amiens

when the youth are on school holidays plus there is a pub right by the quay (which only opens at weekends at this time of year). Dropped down 1.3m in the last lock the day and set off again on the river down into Amiens. Almost 10kms to the next lock in the city centre, but we’re not going quite that far today. As we got closer to the city there were little wooden cabins on the banks, some of them beautifully kept, others not so and were falling into disrepair, with gardens and little canals. First signs of city life were youths in rowing skiffs who hadn’t got a clue about passing or overtaking other

Moored at new pontoon on quai d'amont in Amiens

boats and were not being very observant either, so we had to toot on our hooter several times to make them look round and see that they were about to crash into our bows (one nearly hit our stern fender coming up behind us). There is very little moving traffic on the river so they think they have it all to themselves – not today lads! We moored on a new pontoon at the quai d’amont (the upper quay) and left room for a small one in front of us. More posts with water and electricity, 2€ in the slot AND a pump out complete with hose (there was one in Corbie but it had no hose) Mike took some photos and I was pleased to find we had a good 4G signal to do my blog, then Mike said sorry we have no satellite TV as there are trees in the way. 

Friday 24th April 2015 Cappy to Corbie. 11.4kms 1 lock

WWI monument. British soldier and his wounded horse. Chipilly

3.5° C Sunny and calm with no wind to start with, a gentle breeze later. There was a heavy dew overnight, so the outside of the boat was streaming with water. Mike and Graham did the car moving and I called the booking office to tell them we were moving on to Corbie and asked if we could have a lock keeper for 10.30am. No problems. Two waterways workmen in a large open punt, powered by a big outboard motor, went past us heading upriver to do some more bank trimming as we were getting

Lock 13 Sailly. Canal de la Somme

ready to move. We set off upriver a bit to wind, then continued down river at 10.00am. Round the first left hand bend and the village of Cerisy was spread out along the left bank with lots of shuttered holiday homes. A long straight section of canalised river lead to our one and only lock of the day, lock 13 Sailly. As promised, there was a man with an orange van there ready to operate the lock for us. This time there was a lectern-type control panel halfway down the lockside. A French couple with a

Inscription in lock wall at Sailly. Canal de la Somme

campervan had stopped to watch us come through the lock and they asked the usual questions; where were we from, how did we get the boat here, how long had we been here, etc, etc. The water emptied and dropped us down another 3.20m. A couple of bends, followed by another long straight section with a row of low hills in the far distance. A large cruiser was coming towards us, the crew waving. Graham said on VHF that they’d asked him how his back

Old wooden wagon - note wooden wheel. Near Vaire-sur-Somme.

was!! He went to see an osteopath in Cappy - it must be her uncle, she said he had a boat there! What a small world. Mike took photos of an unusual wooden fisherman’s cabin near Vaire, it must have been a road wagon at some time in its past as it still had wooden wheels. Just after that we passed a big farm with a farmhouse that must have once been a very grand affair, now it was surrounded with farm buildings and a smell hit us that Mike said must be a piggery, but it reminded me of a maggot factory in East Anglia. Phew,

Moored at Corbie. Canal de la Somme.

what a stink, we were very glad we weren’t having any lunch. Lots more sweeping bends through woodland, with bright green new leaves bursting forth everywhere. A lone sandpiper flew in front of us for a while. Coots hid in the bankside vegetation. Near a weir by the village of Hamelet, a coypu swam across until it saw us, then it continued crossing the canal underwater, out of sight except for several surfacings for air. We arrived at Corbie at 12.15 pm. We were heading down to the moorings by the lock, but the boat belonging to Jill’s friend from Facebook was moored by the campsite on the right so they stopped and we reversed back to join them. Not long after we’d tied up a hotel boat, called La Belle Epoche, went past heading for the moorings above the lock.

Wednesday 22nd April 201 Cappy to Chipilly. 12.3kms 3 locks

Riverside bungalow

5.3° C Sunny but with a cold wind blowing. Mike and Graham moved the cars. I made a start on the blog while they were away. Mike had put the antenna for the Internet on top of the mast so I got a better link, but not that good. When they returned at 9 am I was still uploading photos, very, very slowly. Gave up and got ready for moving. At 9.30 am a cruiser that had been moored down by the Locaboat base left heading downriver. I phoned the booking office and they said OK someone would be there for us at ten. Mike hauled the pole in (the water level had gone down a touch overnight, we were

Building a hire base at Froissy lock

on the bottom and listing slightly even with the pole out) and we went down to the former hire base, winded, then emptied our rubbish bin. Shame the rest of the facilities (water and electricity, were all switched off. There were several orange vans around and the keeper we had last time said good morning as we went through the new modern liftbridge in Cappy. A long line of vehicles on the D1 both sides of the bridge were kept waiting while we went through. Just around the bend was Cappy

All mod cons hunting hide

lock 10, which was ready for us. I asked if there was still a tap for drinking water at the next lock. No, nothing now until Corbie. Made a cuppa on the 2 kms pound to lock 11 Froissy. A large new modern museum with a long concrete quay had been built just before the lock. Must check to see if that will be open on our return. There was a new lock keeper to greet us at the next lock. I asked if the new building under construction on the lockside was to be a new lock house – no, it was to be a hire base for canoes, kayaks and bikes with a small restaurant plus showers and toilets. He said there would be water available too. Mike took a photo of the roof tilers at work and

Derelict lock house at Mericourt

told them that his brother-in-law was a roof tiler too, but in England. Froissy was a deep lock 3.30m down. Below Froissy there was 6kms of winding river-fed channel to the next lock; the river joined the canal from our right and we noted that there was a sign now indicating that there was a Port at Bray back up the river. But our old chart marks the river channel as having no access. Must have a look at that by road. The wind was blowing harder and cold as we went past the little town of Etinhem, visible through the trees on the far side of another large lake on our right. The river

Moored at Chipilly

thundered over a large weir on a left hand bend just before lock 12 Méricourt. The same keeper was there and this lock had no new cabin so he had to open a control panel at the top end to close the gates and paddles and another at the tail end to open the lower end paddles and gates. There was a fairly modern lock house to the right of the lock chamber, but it was derelict with all its doors and windows boarded up. A couple more kilometres of canal wound through open farmland with the village of Méricourt on our left with golden yellow fields of colza, glistening in the sunshine on the low hills beyond. Our waterways crew had moved the workboat that had been on the quay in Chipilly this morning when Mike and Graham left a car there – we’d been planning to breast up and move it ourselves – that saves us having to move it and move it back again. That was nice of them. It was 12.45 pm when we tied up. Lunch, then the men went to retrieve the car.

Monday 20th April 2015 St Christ-Briost to Cappy. 24.1kms 4 locks

Above Peronne lock 13 C du Nord

4.0° C Sunny with a chilly breeze. Mike and Graham set off at 8.00 am to move cars, five minutes later a boat went past making lots of wash, causing stuff to fall off cupboards on our boat, the same on MR plus breaking a fender attachment. When the skippers returned we set off at 9.30 am, passing a loaded pusher pair with the wonderful names, Why Not and Why Me! At the concrete works an empty called Isis was moored while Amon’s cargo of aggregates was being unloaded. I phoned the lock booking service for the Somme and a pleasant young man said there would be an agent

Notice board at the start of the canal de la Somme

de service at the first lock when we arrived at 11.30 am. The next boat past was a loaded péniche called Bona Fide. Shortly afterwards a VNF survey boat went by, closely following the towpath, presumably checking the depth. We slowed down while lock 13 Pérronne filled, then we dropped down 3.60m in our last lock (for now, we’ll have to return either north or south on this canal later) on the canal du Nord. That was well timed as the next pushtow, Arizona and Gilbea, were not too far from

First sighting of a brood of ducklings

the lock. The port-de-plaisance moorings in the arm at Pérronne were full, a line of cruisers on both sides of the pontoon – all “dead” boats, ie left there permanently. A row of red painted metal bars sunk into the canal bed were placed around the entrance to the arm, indicating that it was shallow. Some more of the same bars had been planted by the entrance to the canal de la Somme so we continued to the end of them before turning left into the entrance of the canal. It was 11.25 am. The depth of water immediately halved from 4m to 2m. A kingfisher darted along the bank in front of us, then we saw the first ducklings of the year, a big brood of about a dozen little balls of

Liftbridge at Feuillieres

floating fluff. There was a big etang on our right out of sight beyond some trees and a smaller one on our left, close by the canal and bordered by small wooden holiday chalets. The banks closed in and become higher, sheltering us from the wind and it was much warmer. As the bare earth canal bank on our left became higher and higher we came to a section where there had been a bank slip. Around the next bend there were farm buildings close to the canal where a man and a boy stopped playing outdoor table tennis to wave as we went past. A cheery lock keeper with a bright

Noisy neighbours in Cappy

orange van (the Somme is not a VNF waterway) was there at the first lock, 7 Sormont (back to smaller Freycinet sized locks of 38.5m x 5.10m) with the lock full and gates open. He pressed the buttons in the lock cabin and we dropped down 1.10m while chatting. He seemed very pleased to have two boats to work the locks for on his canal. He said he would open the next liftbridge for us then he would have his lunch, returning to operate the next lock for us at 1.30 pm. We passed under the busy A1 autoroute and the TGV railway bridges and the liftbridge at Feuillères opened, we passed through and wished our roving lock keeper bon appetite. We motored on to the next lock, 8 Frise, and tied to an old square pan (higher than our roof and listing

Moored at Cappy

towards the bank) by the quay above the lock, leaving the low quay for MR so that Jill could easily get the dogs off for their walk. Mike was quite disappointed to be reminded that there was no lunch today. Our man in his orange van returned as promised at 1.30pm and we dropped down 4.20m then after a short distance another 1.7m in lock 9 also called Frise. Mike hopped off to give the keeper a couple of bottles of Kronenberg beer to say thanks. He worked the next liftbridge for us in the village of Eclusier-Vaux and we said we’d ring when we needed to book our passage after a few days in Cappy. 3kms to the moorings in Cappy. The low hills receded a little and we had open views across some fields on our left as we approached the town, famous for its P’tit Train, now restored as a tourist train, it was built to haul supplies and munitions to the front line during WW1. We winded so our side doors were on the wet side and moored next to the wooden piling before the Locaboat hirebase (we later found out that it had closed in October last year, a great blow to the local economy). The boat was grounding amidships so Mike set a quant pole out at the stern end to keep the boat off the bottom, then he and Graham went to collect our car from St Christ-Briost. I put the laptop on to do the log and discovered we had a lousy Internet connexion, just EDGE so practically unworkable.

Thursday 16th April 2015 Ercheu to St Christ-Briost. 19.4kms 2 locks

Boats at silo quay above Languevoisin lock

5.7 C Sunny and damp after a heavy dew. Set off at 9.35 am, winding to follow MR to first lock of the day. As we set off I noticed my wild strawberry plants in a pot on the roof had started to flower, such tiny flowers. The first hotel boat we'd seen this year went past heading towards Paris, it was called Anna-Maria II from Amsterdam and it had loads of bikes on the roof but no passengers yet. He was followed by an empty péniche called Doma. A loaded pair of push-towed péniches went past just before we arrived at lock 15 Languevoisin. A big boat (61.5m) went into the lock and went down. Above the lock there was a silo quay where péniche Univers was loading and

Church at Rouy-le-Petit

Octopus and Export were waiting to load. The lock refilled for us and we dropped down about 5m, by which time there were two more empty péniches, Homer and Razorback, waiting to come up. They were into the chamber as soon as we'd cleared it. There were more silos below the lock, but no boats. It was about 10kms to the next lock, so I starting typing up my notes on my tablet. Mike took photos of an impressive church at Rouy-le-Petit and a grebe with a fish. An empty called Baltic went past, crew taking photos of us as we passed. Not long afterwards a loaded boat called Pen-Duic went past, it was so well loaded at the fore end that water was curling over its gunwales. As we passed the junction Mike took photos of the now abandoned Somme link canal. The navigation was now wider and more like the river. At the village of Villecourt there was a Gendarmerie van doing a tour of inspection on the quay, so we gave him a toot on our hooter and a wave and he replied with a short blast on his blues and two's as he drove back up the ramp on to the bridge. Hazy clouds started to obscure the sun, making it a bit cooler. Low hills appeared on the left bank and a few nice houses and gardens bordered the canal as we approached the village of Pargny. Lots of coots were dashing back and forth across the canal as we neared our last lock, 14 Epernancourt. Loaded Dutchman Tessa (about 60m)

Grebe with a fish

was just leaving the lock, heading towards Paris, so we went straight in. This lock chamber has steel piled sides and, as it was only 4.1m deep, there were clapper gates instead of a guillotine at the bottom end. At the next silo quay there was an uncoupled push-tow pair, Stella was already loaded and the hold covers were back in place, but the fore-end péniche, called Sevenzo, was still loading grain - but the loader had gone off to lunch. A couple more kilometers and we arrived at our chosen mooring spot in St Christ-Briost. A pleasant mooring next to the river Somme, where we tied to bollards in a long layby. The depth of the water in the layby was OK for us but not for the commercials

Closed link canal to Ham & St Quentin canal

nowadays as it had silted up quite a bit. Mike and Graham went in Graham’s car to collect our car from Pont l'Eveque. We all agreed it was an ideal spot to spend the weekend, so more BBQs if the weather holds.

Moored in the layby at St Christ-Briost