GOING DOWN

This canal just gets better and better.

Heavy rain for 3 days meant we put off leaving Langres. Frank from River Holme very kindly (again) took us to refuel at the big Intermarche up the hill. And although the weather was awful, the company was good - lunch with Frank and Malcolm and Janet from Anthonia was the very best way to wait for the weather to improve. At 8€ for the plat du jour it was also easy on the purse.

Thursday - a break in the weather meant we could tackle the almost 5k Balesmes Tunnel - the one we had the instructions for in Dutch - but hey ho - a tunnel is a tunnel isn't it; just a big black hole you drive into.

 Err not quite. It is one way traffic and takes over an hour to transit. It had also been made very clear to us that we had to use the inter phone at the lock no:1 to clear our passage through. We failed miserably at this - due to a very bad connection on the phone to the control centre and our lack of linguistic skills. So in company with Frank, we decided to go for it and keep our fingers crossed we did not meet a loaded commercial coming the other way.

The tunnel was dark and poorly lit so steering was tense with  both of us on full lookout and Pete trying to find a reference point to steer to.

 We emerged safely into a fierce rainstorm and were then confronted by a staircase of 8 automatic locks - each about 5m deep and very close together - then the wind blew up. But we were 'Going Down' but no time to make a sandwich or a cup of tea. At 4 o'clock we spotted an isolated, overgrown mooring place under some trees, which looked like paradise to us. Drove in some pins and called it a day. We were in bed by 8pm!

Friday morning and thick fog - so no rush then. It soon cleared and we were on our way again. 

This canal is stunning.

 Sun shining - beautiful trees and so many herons, we christened it Heronville.  At lunchtime the landscape had opened out with fabulous vistas and newly harvested fields. We were amazed at the number of herons stalking in the fields and big birds of prey swooping repeatedly. We think the newly harvested fields are leaving no cover for the small mammals and insects and there's a feeding frenzy going on.

Killing Fields

The canal is following the course of the River Vingeanne - and the villages alongside it look beautiful. 

The guide shows various stopping places and we have learnt not to believe until we see it with our own eyes. A number of villages have obviously thought it would be a good idea to create an 'halte nautique' to attract visitors and we're sure they had every intention of providing water, electricity and showers and a visiting boulangerie. Their good intentions went so far as to have really nice signs made telling you about all the facilities and the chateaux to visit in the vicinity. However, more often than not the facilities have not materialised. Up to now we've made good use of picnic tables and small quays to tie up to but today we struck gold! Notre-Dame-des-Lourdes has a long quay with usefully spaced rings; water taps and 40amp electricity supply - yippee! and it's free. Ok, so the showers are locked but there is a very clean toilet open. We're not holding our breath that the boulangerie van is going to turn up between 8.30 and 9.00am tomorrow…  but we may be pleasantly surprised...

Saturday 29 September

Yes! she did come - just before 9 we heard a horn and there she was! Pete has bread for the next couple of days…

Fabulous trip today, lots of locks, lots of kilometres - slight hiccup when the gates at lock 32 didn't open to let us out. 

And the inter phone didn't work - but a phone call and the VNF guy arrived in his van, gave a Gallic shrug of the shoulders and released us.

There are very few stopping places on this stretch of the canal but we struck lucky with a little halte (and picnic table, of course) just after the Oisilly lock. No facilities but a reasonable quay and absolute silence in the middle of the countryside and the sun is shining!