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| 40 kms, 1 tunnel, 22 locks (10 up, 12 down) |
Did I say
yesterday how friendly the lock keepers of this canal are? Well, they are. They are itinerant and we
came across them as they checked the locks, all cheerful and super
friendly. One of them lives in the old
lock keeper’s cottage beside the lock where we stopped last night and Ian spoke
to him early this morning. The locks
only open at 9.00 and he said they would be ready for us, and he would notify
the Mauvages tunnel that we were coming through. A few minutes before 9 the lock lights turned
green and through we went.
It was another overcast grey day, but not as cold as yesterday.
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| Ian manning the lines in a lock |
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| The locks on this stretch are quite bleak, no cottages or gardens |
,
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| The water level in the locks was really high, difficult to keep the hull away from the concrete sides |
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| The "halte nautique" before the tunnel at Demange |
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| Rules, regs and tunnel etiquette |
10 locks
upstream we reached the summit at 280m and approached the tunnel, where a VNF
(French waterways) guy was waiting for us.
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| Approaching the Mauvages tunnel from Demange |
The light was green so we went straight
in. It is really well lit with a “towpath” alongside, and then we realised that
the VNF man was accompanying us on a bicycle.
How cool is that?
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| As we entered the tunnel a boom closed behind us |
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| The walkway (old towpath) runs the length of the canal |
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| Our friendly lock keeper rode alongside all the way |
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| It is very well lit |
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| And as we exited a boom closed behind us |
It is a long
tunnel, 4.89 kms,and it took us 40 minutes to traverse. We came out on the eastern side to find the
cloudy day had turned cold and rainy.
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| Oh so cosy, two wood fires in this canalside cottage |
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| My goodness, the first boat we have seen for days |
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| The landscape is completely different, no forests with trees hanging over the canal,back to big open fields |
We crossed
yet another aqueduct, 3 or 4 per day has become the norm, but this one was over
the wide Meuse River.
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| Approaching the narrow aqueduct |
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| A graphic representation |
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| The Meuse River |
Then we left
the Canal de Marne au Rhin and turned onto the Canal de la Meuse.
c |
| Canal de la Marne au Rhin east,or Canal de la Marne au Rhin west? |
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| Approaching Pagny |
Soon we arrived in Pagny sur Meuse and tied up at the Port de Plaisance, which has a lovely pontoon and free water but nothing else. Not even a boulangerie in the village!
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| The excellent mooring... |
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| ...and the sleepy village |
Right, up to date again! But goodness, you have put in some long days but I suppose one of the joys of early season cruising is the relative lack of delays at locks and lots of marina space.
ReplyDeleteWell done on the bowthruster fix Ian!