Monday 1st March 2004 Condé to PUM Reims.

Photo of towpath traction mule at Conde from 1996

Up early after a frosty night with temperatures down to -2° C. A CFT pusher tug came down the flight before Mike was out of bed at 8.00 a.m. It was freezing cold, we were very chilly getting the boat ready to move for nine. It was 9.10 a.m. when we set off, saying our au’voirs to Gérard - we would see him again when he came to pick Mike up from Berry to come back to collect the car. A loaded péniche called Macte Animo (used to be Colfra according to the embossing around the bows) from Marchienne, came down lock 24 Condé, then we went into the chamber, followed by Rosy. Within a few minutes we were trundling along the long pound to lock 23, Coupé. When the lock was full, the Dutchmen hopped off and went back down the towpath to Condé. Bill told us that Johann’s brother’s job was as an artificial inseminator of cows. He’d told me that he’d had to deliver something in Paris, which was why the two of them were visiting the boat, we wondered what he’d been delivering as there are not many cows in Paris! Up 22 Isse, there was still a shimmering layer of ice on the canal and where water had dripped from the ropes on our front deck there was now a sheet of ice. We motored gently on up the flight, leaving the top lock, 17 Vaudemange, at 11.20 a.m. The port was almost empty. The converted Dutch barge “Doggy Nauty” (what a name!) was still there and an old cabin cruiser in need of restoring, but the converted péniche had gone, to be replaced by a small klipper called “Sunamelia”. The wild helibores were flowering along the

Falcon moored at Vaudemanges in 1998

banks of the cutting leading to the Mont de Billy tunnel. We followed Rosy into the tunnel at 11.45 a.m. emerging from the other end twenty five minutes later. A loaded Dutch boat called “Kerizel” from Terneuzen passed us, taking photos as we passed. Not long after we’d eaten lunch at 1.15 p.m. we arrived at lock 16 Wez, the first lock on the Aisne side of the hill. “Moshulu” was coming up in lock 15, Beaumont, so we hovered above. The keeper was working the lock from the cabin and started closing the gates behind the péniche, until he spotted us and reopened them, then he turned the lock back on to automatic working and left us to it. Bill was in lock 14 long before us, he lifted the bar a bit too soon after we’d entered and got back on his boat. A VNF man was working stacking logs in his garden alongside the lock, he smiled as he paused to lift the bar again to set the lock working for us. No foul smells from the big Béghin Say sugar works as we passed through (I HATE the smell of cooking sugar beet). They’d covered the large warehouse on the right bank with netting, which covered the whole of the roof and walls - we wondered what it could be for. 

Peniche moored in Reims (photo courtesy of Photopin)

There were no boats moored in the basin at Sillery, just one lone fisherman. Gérard had told Mike that they close the port for winter now. Serves them right, they doubled the prices for winter mooring and wondered why no one wanted to moor there! Down lock 13, Sillery and on to a long pound of seven kilometres. Three lads riding on one small motorcycle waved to us and promptly fell off! They got up again, each one holding on to an arm or a leg going ouch! that hurt! I read some more of the book en route to lock 12, Huon (I read to Mike as we go along sometimes, and back then we were reading Terry Prachett). We passed Jeanine from Fagnières running empty up the pound as we went down to lock 11, Château d’Eau. The other brother was coming up the next pound with “Roger”, we passed him as we ran down to lock 10, Fléchambault, where the keeper was in residence in the lock cabin. It was 4.20 p.m. as we set off through the city centre. We passed “Catania” an empty from Gent by the Palais du Congrés. The moorings at PUM steelworks were empty save for one empty boat. We went into the old gare d’eau and tied up at 5.15 p.m. The new rubbish disposal plant was making a bit of a pong. Bill was experiencing problems with the new cooling system on Rosy, with coolant erupting from the header tank making a mess all over his engine room floor. There was a really lovely sunset. Back to work lads!