Tuesday 7th October 2014 Berry-au-Bac to Courcy. 12.3kms 9 locks

Alongside Berry lock, former boatmen's cafe and chandlery

11.6°C Windy, chilly and sunny first thing, but grey clouds rolled in before we set off and rain showers arrived lunchtime and continued all afternoon. Mike went into Berry on foot to get some bread, but he returned empty handed as the bakery was closed, on holiday. Mike called at the lock cabin (there were seven or eight VNF staff in there, must have be on a coffee break) and told the keeper we were setting off up Berry Marne, uphill on the Aisne à la Marne. He left it set for us as a loaded boat had just come down, two in fact, Jomel

Old lock house opposite the old cafe by Berry lock

followed by La Paix. Fetched all the mooring pins out and set off up the lock, No 1 Berry, at 10.25am. Rose 2.85m, ropeless as usual, but with an audience - a guy in a car stopped on the bridge and a man on a bike. The old lock house was still standing, but gradually decaying. 1.15kms past the silos (with the loud drying fans running) to lock 2 Moulin de Sapigneul. Turned the pole to activate the lock, which is chained to the one after it. (Looking at our old Navicarte of 1990, the first five locks used to be chained (linked) together

Loaded boat Dahna waiting abv lk 3 Sapigneul

and called the Berry flight, activated by the keeper to go uphill and automatically activated by boats breaking the radar beams at the top to come downhill) A boat was going up the locks in front of us, so no use doing more than 5kph or we’d soon be catching it up. One was coming down in lock 2. Loaded boat Guitti from Chauny cleared the lock and we went up. The activating rods in these first few locks are almost by the top end gates, so we motor into the chamber right up to the front, I lift the rod from the bows, the bells start ringing to say that the lock is about to start working and then

Boat we were following moored below lock 6 Loivre - until we turned
the pole and the lock gates opened!

Mike backs off until the stern is about a metre from the bottom end gates, which will have closed by the time we get there, then the lock fills. Up 2,67m. Another sad, empty lockhouse. Another short pound 1.1kms and we had to wait a short while as the lock, no 3 Sapigneul, emptied. Up another 2.67m with yet another forlorn, empty lock house. Another loaded boat, Dahna from Vitry, was waiting to come down, bows to the right bank in the wind. A longish pound of 2.35kms, past the factory of

Old lock house at 7 Fontaines

Caprimeb at Neuville, where they make prefabricated concrete tunnel linings and on to lock 4 Alger. The lock was full, so the boat we were following must have passed the downhill boat on this pound. It emptied and we went up another 2.67m. Glad to see that the lock house was still lived in and it had had new windows and doors. Two black Labrador dogs came out to woof at us after we’d left! There were three cars and a VNF van parked on the towpath side of the lock. 1.2kms to Gaudart lock 5, chained to lock 4, so it was empty when we got there. Up another 2.58m. The lock chamber had new concrete walls and new gates, but they’d put the rods less than a metre from the top end gates, Mike almost had

By contrast with the house also alongside lock 7
this one is lived in and well kept

to put the bows on the cill for me to reach the rod. Another refurbished lock house. Smoke curled from a chimney pot to be blown horizontally by the wind. Dark black rain clouds were coming in our direction so I closed the doors and lifted the mats off the front deck so they wouldn’t get wet. Waterproofs on. 3.5kms to the next lock. We passed two downhill boats, loaded Coxswain from Douai just after we left the lock, then an empty called Amigo about 1km further on, just before the A26 autoroute bridge. The first rain was just a light shower, but the wind coming from our right across open fields of sugar beet was whipping it into the horizontal. Glad when there were

Moored by the old factory at Courcy

more trees on the right bank to shelter us as the canal was on a slight embankment before Loivre. Below lock 6 Loivre there were three moored boats, a houseboat called Louna (a DB) and a retired péniche with no name, plus the empty boat we’d been following. The lock light was red, we thought the péniche had stopped for lunch/shopping/the night/whatever, and so we turned the pole, the lock gates opened – then the boat untied and blasted off into the chamber! Mike had to reverse 50m back to the pole and turn it again. It started to rain, heavier this time. A VNF van went past us and on up to the lock. We came to the conclusion that, for whatever reason, the péniche skipper had missed the turn pole and had called the VNF out. Waited below while the lock turned round and we went up lock 6, rising 2.62m; this lock was chained with the next three over the next 2.67kms. The boat in front had just left lock 7 Fontaines when we arrived, we hung about below while it emptied, then went up another 2.81m. In the distance we could see at lock 8 Noue Gouzaine there were two VNF vans and workmen by the top end gates. A man on a bike was collecting fallen walnuts by the lock. The péniche in front cleared and the lock emptied for us. The itinerant keeper lifted the bar for me and we rose ropeless as usual another 2,51m. This chamber had also been recently refurbished with new concrete walls and new gates. The guy working on the top end gate was a maintenance electrician replacing some wiring. The keeper opened the top gates from the lock cabin and left them open after we’d gone, turning all the electrics off so all the lights went out. On the railway track to our left we spied a large digger going past, the type that has two sets of wheels, one set for rails and one set for the road, no time to take a photo of it. The péniche was still in lock 9 Courcy, so we had another short wait while he cleared then we went up our last lock of the day. Rose another 2.63m on to the long pound (12.45kms) into Reims. A VNF lady in a big van went past and stopped on the towpath just beyond the lock to do her paperwork. We moored next to the old glass works on the left before the road bridge. New bollards had been added, which we found very useful. It was 2.40pm. Mike trimmed the herbage to keep the spiders and insects off the boat and I made us a late lunch. A large, Dutch-flagged DB called Mastodont went past heading downhill at 3.10pm. Amazed that we had our first ever 4G signal! Wow, Reims must have been upgraded since we were here last.

Friday 3rd October 2014 Asfeld to Berry-au-Bac 21kms 3 locks

Tracks through the layer of algae, last of the c des Ardennes

8.7°C After a foggy start it was sunny with clear blue skies and hot. Mike went by car to get another loaf from the boulangerie in Asfeld before taking the car to Berry and coming back on the moped. On his return he said that a new young lock keeper had come and told him he wasn’t allowed to park by the lock house as it was parking for VNF only. He told him he was bringing a boat and that he’d always parked there over the last 20 years. Not allowed – far side of the lock chamber. OK. (In fairness there has always been a notice

Antenna farm on house at Pignicourt by the suspended pole

to say that, but previous lock keepers have always told him to park our car by their house, maybe he’s a relief keeper and Madame will be back on duty tomorrow, we’ll see) We loaded the bike back on the roof and untied at 11.30am. Winded and set off heading downhill on the last 3kms of the canal des Ardennes. Poplars lining the towpath were dropping lots of bright yellow leaves. The lock, no 14 Vieux-les-Asfeld, was empty (an empty péniche had gone past heading downhill at 8am, that’s two in two days, things are looking up) so we had to wait a while for it to fill. I threw a rope round a bollard

Beautiful red leaves of Virginia creeper

and Mike connected up the generator so I could do some washing on the 6.9km pound below. Descended 2.93m and as we left the lock started on a different canal, the canal lateral à l’Aisne. An empty péniche, called Ericpay (we think), went past heading uphill. Mike had seen it earlier coming up the control lock at Berry Aisne, he said the skipper was the spitting image of our old mate, (and sadly missed), fender-maker Alfie Langford. The rest of the long pound was very quiet, overgrown with trees hiding the towpath. As we

Aqueduct over the tiny river Suippe

dropped down lock 1 Pignicourt (no lock house) Mike disconnected the drive. Took a photo of the radio antennas at the house of a radio amateur who lives in the village right by the turn pole for going uphill. The sunshade went up as it was getting hotter. Among the trees on the 7km long pound there were loads and loads of cherry trees on the offside, where no one but boaters could get at them, shame we’re too late! At Variscourt, before the road bridge, a whole family were fishing, Dad, Mum and daughter in her twenties, mother and daughter were both smoking.  Beyond the road

Conde-sur-Suippe lock

bridge a Dutch barge called Quo Vadis (Dutch flagged) was moored and more fishermen were fishing at the end of the moorings by the lakes. A pheasant flew across the canal and dived into the undergrowth. Suddenly our bucolic surroundings became very industrialised when we came to the silos and quays on our left at Guignicourt (a town which is hidden from the canal by lots of trees as it is on our right, on the far banks of the river Aisne). A dumper truck went past, under the bridge, making a big cloud of choking

A very scrawny looking heron

dust as it passed us. There were no boats at the silo. Mike took a photo of the bright red leaves of some Virginia creeper, a sure sign that autumn is here, at KP13 by the as yet silent sugar works, the sugar beet harvest will soon be in full swing then the smell of boiling beet will be disgusting (I hate it, makes me feel ill!) Over a little aqueduct carrying the canal over the tiny river Suippe, a tributary of the Aisne and into the next lock, no 2 Condé-sur-Suippe. Down another 2.63m and on to a 4.65km pound leading to Berry and the junction with the Aisne

Bon Espoir taking great care with low bridge
into Berry Marne, first lock of Aisne a la Marne canal

à la Marne canal. There were more fishermen along the bank just below the lock, opposite a long silted up layby. There were more by the old bridge at KP15 just before the A26 autoroute bridge. Many lorries were trundling down the motorway, we had a good view as there were no trees. A huge ploughed field stretched away into the distance before the bridge and after it another huge field of bright green leaves of young sugar beet, then the trees closed off the view again. More boat traffic, it’s getting busy! A British-flagged replica Dutch Barge called Soraya went by heading uphill, hope they know the canal shuts on the 15^th for a month for repairs on the Montgon flight and the locks down to the Meuse. The rail track down to the factory in Berry appeared on our left, it was starting to look rusty and disused. There were no railway wagons, but the shunting engne was still there, hidden in a shed. No boats were moored there either and the place right by the junction, where there always used to be at least three

Moored in the corner of the large at Berry-au-Bac

or four empty boats moored, was also devoid of boats and a fishing contest was in progress. Mike called the lock keeper on 10 and got a faint reply from a boat (maybe the one we’d just passed?) so he tried again on 22 and the keeper at Berry Aisne replied and said thanks when Mike told him we were staying in the “large” (wide layby above his lock, which is now sadly silting up) and not going through his locks (he also sets Berry Marne lock for uphill traffic starting the chain of locks up the Aisne à la Marne). To moor in the corner of the large, we pulled the boat back carefully until bubbles started coming up then went forward a bit to stay out of the mud. It was 4pm when we tied up. The only other moored boat was an empty péniche called Advenir which was on the far side by the (now closed down) fuel depot. At 5.45pm an empty called Bon Espoir came up Berry Aisne and went on up Berry Marne, gingerly under that very low bridge. Oostenwind, a loaded Dutch boat, came down the lock before Bon Espoir went up – the Dutchman went on down Berry Aisne heading towards Paris. Another loaded boat arrived just after 7pm and, although the lock lights were off, the lock was ready for him (probably he’d phoned and put the lock on callout) and he went down Berry Aisne on to the 20kms long pound below for a few more hours running time before he had to stop for the night at the next lock. Nice to see working boats on the move again.