Friday 10th October 2014 Sillery to abv Wez on summit level. 7.06kms 4 locks

Sugar works boiling up the beet - pooh!

11.3°C Cloudy with blue patches of sky and little spells of sunshine, warmer as there was little wind. Cruiser Blue Steel that we’d shared a lock with on the Meuse went past around nine heading downhill. We set off at 9.45am, winded and headed uphill for lock 13 Sillery. I turned the pole and the lock gates opened. A deeper lock, we rose 3.49m. Into the port and we moored on the end of the quay nearest the lock while Mike went to get some bread. Took some photos of the boats (lots of SSRs in evidence) one or two Dutch boats and French. Took photos of Avalon which was moored on the outside end of the second staging

Beaumont must be one of the next in line for new concrete walls

and, surprisingly, it wasn’t the only wide beam moored there. Set off again at 10.30 am, 2.2kms to the next lock, passing the sugar works of Beghin Say which was cooking sugar beet and making what is (in my humble opinion) the foulest stink in the world. I gave up having sugar in my tea and coffee way back in the early 1970s when I saw the Tate and Lyle factory in Liverpool for the first time. Turned the pole and the gates on lock 14, L’Espèrance, opened. New concrete walls in the lock c

The vineyards, lighthouse and windmill - La Montagne

hamber and the lock house had had new windows and doors. Up 2.63m and on to the 2.8kms long straight pound to lock 15 Beaumont. Turned the pole and we went up another 2.75m. The stone blocks that made up the lock walls were very badly eroded. It still had its old style two-storey lock cabin and two lock houses, both in use, one with a plate over the door said it was the “conducteur des voies navigable”. Beyond was another VNF workshop on the edge of another basin, almost as big as the one at Sillery but

Old lock cabin at Beaumont

completely empty. Just 1.15kms to the last lock of the day 16 Wez, more new concrete walls and a lift of just 2.47m on to the summit level. The VNF man who lives at the house came up the towpath in his van, waved, parked in front of the house and went in to have his lunch, bread under his arm. It was midday. We winded about 400m beyond the lock with a beautiful wide panorama of La Montagne and moored with our bows on the last mooring stump for overnight péniches.

Moored on the summit level above Wez

It was 12.15pm by the time we’d knocked pins in and put all the gear away. Lunch. Pleased to see we’d still got a good signal from Bouygues Telecom!