Mike was up around 7.30 a.m. to get ready for nine. No VNF staff were about until 9.15 a.m. then a young lady and a young man arrived and went off on a scooter to set the locks. Two men in VNF arrived and opened the first lock no1 Port Brulé for us. We went in and they worked the lock for us. The youngsters were at lock 2 Crain (two derelict lock houses, facing each other across the lock) and worked it for us. The first five locks had side pounds with a weir alongside the bottom end gates. We had to wait in the short pound while they closed the gate behind us and started lock two refilling. When we arrived in lock 3 Patureau, I stepped off and walked down to the next while Mike took charge of the rope. The next lock, La Roche 4, was full so I opened the gate, Mike brought the boat in and I closed the gate just as the kids on the scooter arrived. (The lock house had completely gone at 4) Did the same at 4, walked down to 5 Demain and opened the gates while the team worked lock 4. The house at lock 6 Planche de Belin was occupied by someone who collected fossils, driftwood and rocks. The guy was returning to his house on his bike as the youngsters arrived. They said here is Monsieur Gérard who has collected all these treasures from this valley. In the box housing a life ring was an old guitar with no strings. The lad said look inside there is a bird’s nest with six baby birds. He said a boater a few days earlier had been taking a photo of the guitar when the mother bird flew out, scaring him and making him jump backwards, luckily his boat stopped him from falling in the lock! Below the lock the canal was wide and swept round a left hand bend. A small cruiser was moored on the outside of the bend. On down the flight, the kids working the lock, and me walking down to close one of the gates as most had both gates open now. Lock 7 Gros Bouillon, 8 Mondain, 9 Fussy, 10 Patureau Volain, 11 Bellevue. At one of the locks group of young people in their early twenties were at one of the houses, a girl and four young men, the latter working with some wood making planks from a tree trunk. One guy picked up a baby aged about nine months and cycled up to the previous lock and back with baby tucked under one arm! On his return he put the baby in a baby buggy trailer attached to another bike and someone else added a toddler to the trailer. I got back on board at lock 12 Pré Doyen and put the oven on to cook some part cooked bread loaves (miles from the nearest boulangerie here). I got off again at 13 Doyen and walked down to 14 Pré Ardent which was empty with one bottom end gate open. I had just closed the gate when the lad came down on his scooter to raise the paddles, then drove back to lock 13. I opened the gate when the lock was full and closed it behind the boat. We were talking about snakes and the lad said he liked grass snakes but the girl said she couldn’t tell the difference between vipers and grass snakes so she kept well away from all snakes. The lad said they were off to lunch and it was OK for us to stay in the lock until they returned at one. As I walked down to the lock I saw what I thought was a small dead snake on the road, it was all curled up so I nudged it with my foot and to my great surprise it shot of at high speed into the grass! Nowhere near dead! Charlie stopped right behind us in lock 13 to have their lunch break. The men in the van stopped by our lock and lifted a top end paddle to stop the lock emptying over lunchtime. I made sandwiches and Mike did a bit more of an Oldie Moron crossword then went for a short nap. The house alongside lock 14 was occupied by a potter, signs said pottery for sale. When the gang arrived at one p.m. I got off to walk down to lock 15 Champ Cadou and closed a bottom end gate on an empty lock. The kids arrived and filled the lock. They said we could wait for Charlie to come down the last one with us as lock 16, Sardy, was Freycinet sized, plenty of room for the two of us. Mike scrubbed the boat hull while we waited for Charlie to arrive. A whole gang of folks appeared from nowhere at the last lock. The lock house was being renovated and signs said it was a café selling fishing licences and it had Internet. Wow! Several vehicles arrived and the occupants of a camper also came to look at our strange boat. We booked the next lock for nine the next day and said our au’voirs and mille mercis to the lock keepers then motored just round the corner to an old layby which had a wooden piled edge and bollards by a mown field with picnic tables.
Nick said it used to be a hire base belonging to Burgundy Cruisers but we could see no signs of that, we all thought maybe it was closer to the last lock where there was an old toilet block in a field. There were rocks at the end nearest lock 17, Champ du Chêne, so we backed off and moored behind Charlie. A VNF man in a van arrived shortly after and said there were two other boats wanted to go at nine and so Mike said we were in no rush so we’d go at 9.30 a.m. I gave Mike a hand to unload the moped off the roof and he went off to move the car from Chatillon to Chitry-les-Mines. I tried the Internet. No chance. Well, I didn’t really expect it to work as we were still in the depths of the beautiful countryside. When Mike came back I gave him a hand to get the moped back on the roof. A hire boat had moored behind us and another one was moored by the lock. We sat out until dusk having a BBQ with the neighbours.
No comments:
Post a Comment