Douai to Fampoux

22 km, 7 locks, 5 engine hours

After 3 idle days, well not so much for Ian because he did some maintenance chores, started a project to install a deck washer, and found out why our hooter had stopped working (a leaf-cutter bee had built a nest inside it – looks like cigar, made from semi-circles of leaves, quite facinating); anyway, after 3 days of wind and rain in Douai we were eager to get on the move again.

Taking from inside, another pleasure boat waiting for the rain to stop

We woke this morning to pouring rain which turned into hail!  

Hail!

No matter, Mr Weatherman said the weather was going to improve during the day so we set off at 10.45.  It was really cold, 7C, and still windy.  Going into the locks was a treat because it cut off the wind!

We had 2 big locks to traverse but both were made ready for us as soon as we called.  

Douai Lock, two chambers an ultra big one on the left and a smaller one on the right - for the likes of us.

At the 2^nd lock, Courchelette, we picked up a telecomande to operate the locks in the Scarpe Superieure.  We turned into the narrow windy Scarpe and pressed the button on the telecomande and hey presto, we had action:  the lock light turned from red to red/green.  I am sure we are the first boat to use these locks this year so we were rather concerned that we would find problems with the lock mechanism but all 5 locks ran smoothly.

Are we the first boat to use the canal this year?  You have to lift the pole behind the ladder to activate the lock, it was inches thick in slime!

 This is a delightful river, narrow and windy, interspersed with small towns.  Fortunately Mr Weatherman was right and the it did clear up, and the wind dropped, but it didn’t get much warmer.

Wow!  It looks worse than it is, the ride up the lock was not at all uncomfortable.

Tied up to the side of the canal.

We have come up here on a mission, which has taken 2 years to be realised.  This was one of the heavily contested areas in the 1^st World War, and we have family members who fought and died here and are buried in a cemetery close to the town of Fampoux.

In 2016 and 2017 this river was choked with weed, but seeing this year has been exceptionally cold we hoped the weed was not growing yet.  Ian took a bike ride yesterday to check it out and it looked clean and clear.  The further we went up river, the more evidence we saw of dead and decaying weed but the new stuff is not growing - yet.

Tomorrow we will visit the graves.

We have such a slow internet connection here so I cannot upload photos.  I'll add them tomorrow, if possible.