Peronne to Marquion

40km, 1 tunnel (4.35kmlong) and 11 locks - 5 up, 6 down

Happy Bunny again today!   We left early this morning, just after 8, with a long day head of us: lots of kms, lots of locks and a tunnel.

At the first lock there was a commercial barge coming up behind and we entered the lock first, pulling well to the front of the lock.  Mistake – we found ourselves in a whirlpool as the water poured into the lock.  The bollards were too far apart for us to get attachments fore and aft so we just had the hook to a ladder amidships.  With the turbulence the boat was pulled so far from the side that Ian could not reach the hook to move it up the ladder as the water level rose.  We had visions of losing our precious hook but he handed the line to me and gunned the engine to give some slack and finally I managed to shake the hook free when it was already well under water and I had only a couple of metres of line left.  Whew!  Approaching the next lock we slowed down and let the commercial, Compaan from the Netherlands, go ahead of us.  

First lock - ahead of Compaan

We had to cope with his prop wash but it was not as bad as the whirlpool.  And so we continued together through another 10 locks and the tunnel. 

It's great to be back with the commercials again

Approaching the Ruyaulcourt unnel

The tunnel is only one barge wide for most of its length

In the middle of the tunnel there is place for boats to pass each other 

Waiting in the middle as two barges pass us

And out the other side

After the tunnel we pulled alongside and asked if we could go ahead of him.  No problem.  At one of the locks his wife got off the boat to throw out a bag of rubbish and we exchanged a few words in Nederlands.  When all was said and done, as we pulled into a quay to tie up 8 hours later, the captain came out of his wheelhouse and waved us a very cheery farewell.  It’s great to be back with the commercials again.

Another event worth mentioning:  nearly 2 weeks ago when we were in the freezing cold and pouring rain in St Valery on the coast, I mentioned 2 “refugees” who were pushing trolleys with all their worldly goods and camped alongside the marina.  Well, since then, every couple of days we have passed them, still walking along the tow path. It became evident that they are not refugees, they were heading away from the coast (i.e. not trying to get to the UK!), and walking along the tow-path where there is no hope of finding succour or protection of any kind.   They seemed to be completely self-sufficient.  Today we passed them again, this time as we were entering a lock.  

We have become friendly to the extent of exchanging enthusiastic waves as we pass each other.  Today we actually got to have a chat in the lock.  Their story:  it is not a father and son but man and wife (short and skinny! looks like a 14 year old boy), he is from Portugal and she is Spanish.  7 years ago the factory he was working for in Spain closed down, they lost their house, and they decided to take to the road to explore Europe.  They are heading to Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovenia….He is obviously loving it, not so sure about his wife; she looks miserable!

Another reason I am in a better mood today – it wasn’t so hot!  22C, just about the max of my heat tolerance.

Watching the commercials manoeuvering

Our mooring for the night