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| Mooring we didn't stay at - Haybes |
3.1°C Grey, cold and windy, with
sunny spells later. Midges everywhere and noisy Canada geese. Set off at 9.30
a.m. in reverse to zap the post. A VNF man-in-a-van drove past and waved. Lock
53 Vanne-Alcorps was full already, the gates opened and we went down on to the
3.24 kms reach. Back past the mooring we didn’t stop at the day before at
Haybes. A pénichette had joined the Dutchman and the boats for hire. Off the
river and into the short lock cut leading to lock 54 Fépin. We were right the
day before not to try mooring further down the short lock cut above lock 54 as
there was nowhere to moor at all.
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| Vireux-Wallerand - empty moorings |
A red squirrel was performing acrobatics in
the pine trees next to the lock house. I made tea and toast on the next reach
(5.34 kms). Mike was having trouble with the wind making his eyes stream so he
found his wrap-around sunglasses out and that helped a lot. No one about at
lock 55 Montigny and a
large new Danish cruiser was just leaving the lock chamber coming towards us.
The grassy banks beside the towpath were full of ladysmock and cowslips. Down
the lock while two Dutch cruisers waited below to come up. 3.96 kms to the next
lock. No boats were moored at the extensive (pay) moorings at Vireux-Wallerand
where they had now erected a new sign
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| VNF men-in-vans. lk 56 Mouyon |
saying that commercials were forbidden to
moor. We passed another Dutch cruiser heading uphill. At lock 56 Mouyon there
seemed to be a great gathering of VNF men in vans, six of them with three vans,
chatting by the top end gates. They left as we started locking down. Below the
lock they’d built a new overnight mooring place for péniches consisting of
three dolphins with two passerelles to the bank. (Our VNF-man-in-a-van had said
it had cost the VNF around 250k€ and he’d never seen a péniche moored there
overnight). 4.76 kms of very windy river to the next lock.
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| Peniche mooring below Mouyon |
The sun shone
timidly for a while. A colony of Egyptian geese were grazing the meadow to our
left where the steep hills had now become smaller and more distant from the
river as we ran along the foot of steep forested hill along the right bank. The
wind was blowing half a gale as we passed Aubrives on the left bank and its row
of stark white modern sculptures. Under the liftbridge into the lock cut
leading to the two locks and a tunnel, which cuts off a very long loop of the
river. Although there was a box to zap, lock lights and control rods in the
chamber walls, both locks were worked for us by a new VNF man-in-a-van.
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| Liftbridge over lock cut at Ham |
The van
was already on the lockside at lock 57 Ham and our man was in the cabin working
the lock for a Belgian cruiser. Once the cruiser had cleared the lock we went
down. Noticed that the sensor to detect boats entering or leaving the chamber
was suspended high above the bottom end gates (they’re usually in the ends of
the lock walls). Through the 565m long tunnel at Ham, it didn’t have lighting,
(unusual for French tunnels) and into lock 58 Trois Fontaines, which was ready
for us as our man was in the cabin, waiting for us. Below the lock Mike’s case
for his sunglasses went for a swim, whipped off the roof by the wind, so we did
a demi-tour and managed to pick it up before it sank.
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| Power station at Chooz |
The cooling towers at the
Chooz nuclear power plant were sending wisps of steam into the sky to join the
other light fluffy white clouds. Past the slate quarry and the citadel and
moored on the quay at Givet at 1.30 p.m. with DB Stella Maris moored a few
metres further down the quay. Both banks of the river had been altered for
flood defences and there was no sign of any pontoons on the far bank that
formed the port-de-plaisance.
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| The quay at Givet |
Maybe they’ve moved it to the safer location of
the old commercial docks in the lock cut leading down to the last lock in
France at Quatre Cheminées.
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| Power watering the flowers. Givet |
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