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| Moored nr Tannay on summit of C des Ardennes |
3.6°C (Glad we lit the coal fire
overnight!) Grey clouds with sunny spells. Cold wind. Shell boat L’Heritage
went past at 9.45 a.m. heading the same way as us. We said we’d follow them
today. I asked if they’d had a pleasant stay in Le Chesne and she said they’d
had a meal out. We set off at 10.10 a.m. It was about 3.5 kms to the first
lock. Beyond the derelict house there was a row of green buoys along the right
side of the canal and we could see that a whole length of piling had collapsed.
Not really surprising as they don’t add bracing bars when they do their piling
here in France. A buzzard sitting in a tree remained there long enough for Mike
to switch the camera on and he just got the tail and flight feathers of it as
it took off.
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| Bank erosion caused by excessive wash. Below lk 1 Sauville |
We could hear another buzzard close by in some dead trees and
guessed there might be a nest. As we went round the last bend before lock 1
Sauville we could see the blue cabin of L’Heritage leaving the lock. The telecommand
now came into use and we zapped the post where there was a lightning pyramid on
top, the yellow light on it flashed to say it had received a signal and the
lock lights went from just red to red and green. We crossed a little aqueduct
over a stream that runs into La Bar, a tributary of the Meuse, whose valley the
canal follows down to the river.
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| Lock 2 La Cassine |
The lock filled and we went down. Each of
these seven locks were equipped sometime during the 1920s or 1930s with pumping
stations that back pump water from the river up to the summit in times of water
shortage. 3.65 kms to the next. The wind was chilly as the countryside changed
from pastureland to woodland. A jay flew over, squawking loudly. The sloping
grassy banks supporting the towpath had been eroded by the excessive wash of
passing boats; the VNF had made a vain attempt to stop this by adding a few
large plastic sacks full of earth along the edge. Beyond the towpath there was
a long open grassy field with the woodland still beyond it.
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| Back-pumping station at La Cassine. Each of the seven locks down to the Meuse has one. |
To our great surprise
there was a coypu sitting on the bank beyond the grassy towpath, watching us
watching him. He ambled off before I could take a photo. A few minutes later
exactly the same thing happened again, another coypu stared at us for a few
minutes before diving into the canal and the safety of its den. Zapped lock 2
La Cassine. Mike took photos of the sun shining on the mellow stone ruins of
the château beyond the lock house as we went into the lock. An old black dog
from the lock house woofed at us while wagging his tail. Their garden was full
of gnomes and stone animals. Below the lock there is a useful quiet mooring,
today the grass between the picnic tables was being eco-mowed by a large brown
un-tethered goat.
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| Chateau ruins at La Cassine |
As we chugged on along the last few kilometres of canal for
today I made a cuppa to warm us up. More buzzards, a group of four, were
soaring high up far off to our right and being attacked by a solitary crow.
Flocks of fast flying darting birds took off from the towpath, too swift to see
accurately what they were, I guessed they might be finches. The road alongside
the canal became busy with lunchtime traffic, one vehicle every five minutes!
There were low tree-covered hills beyond arable fields as the canal started to
wind around to the next lock, 3 Malmy. We didn’t zap the post, as we wanted to
moor on the quay just before the lock. It was 12.40 pm when we tied up. Again the Internet was useless so no blogging today. The quay
here is suitable for Mike to do the job on the car he’s been waiting to do for
some time. As soon as the bitter cold Northerly wind stops he’s going to renew
the camshaft timing and auxiliary drive belts. He doesn’t know the service
history so it’s safer to change the belts rather than risk them breaking. If
the camshaft timing belt breaks the repair could be very, very expensive.
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