Wandering slowly Downhill

This canal is only 50km or so long but it has 74 locks for us to tackle.  They're all downhill which is easier but you still need to get into an efficient pattern.  300m out and you see a single red light.  Press the remote control and that changes to red and green as the lock is prepared.  By the time you get there, it's just a green light.  In you go, lift the blue rod and you're down and out it less than 10 minutes.

But it doesn't always work that way.  Too often, we arrive at a lock to find 2 red lights.  That means the lock is 'en panne' and is not going to respond to anyone unless they're in a little white van with the VNF logo on the side.

Leaving Ligny, we decided on an early start to 'beat the heat'.  The locks switch on at 7am for commercial traffic and 9am for pleasure boats.  But there's little commercial traffic and plenty of pleasure boats were starting then.  We found the 'deux feux rouges' at 7.30.  Calling VNF produced the answer "neuf heures Monsieur" repeated several times.  At neuf heures, I call to be told they will attend.  They say the same at 9.30, 10.00 and 10.30.  Just before 11, a white van charges up and we get moving at last.







The next day, VNF were very quick to turn up when we called.  Just as well because we called them 6 times in all!  The locks aren't really that unreliable; but the build up of weed clogged the gates and the paddles (sluices).  The poor VNF staff had boats stuck all along the canal.

And all that weed is a challenge for the boat itself.  It wraps around the propeller sometimes so much that a trip down the weedhatch is needed to remove it.  And I never risk damaging my bow thruster by using it when there's so much weed.

We've learned not to get stressed about this.  Canals are a fragile infrastructure and can easily go wrong.  And a hot summer, with relatively few boat movements really does encourage the weed.  The rule is: never commit to being somewhere tonight!  The poodle is certainly learning to be a relaxed boat dog.

And the canal makes it all worthwhile with some lovely overnight moorings like the one below, shared only with 2 Danish ladies with whom I chatted in Danish.  It didn't seem odd to them that I did so and they didn't ask how this strange Englishman came to be speaking Danish.

There are some lovely towns as well and a couple of days in Bar-le-Duc were really worthwhile with a walk around the old town and a bus journey back along the Voie Sacree to Verdun to retrieve the car.

Probably the oddest sight of all whilst tackling all these locks was this group of goats who had taken over one side of a lock.  The dogs seemed as bemused as we were and there was no unpleasantness.  We joked that VNF were so pressed, they were training new lock keepers!