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| Long straight section before Lesdins tunnel. Aug 1993 |
We were up bright and early at
8.00 a.m. to get ready to move off. The temperature overnight had been down to
0.9° C, we had sunshine all day but with a bitterly cold northerly wind.
Mike set our water tank refilling. Bill went to try and get tablets for Fanny
but the vets and the pharmacy didn’t open until 2.00 p.m. Jean-Max and
Christelle came back from taking Maeva to school and Gaétan to a minder.
Jean-Max had collected bread for us while he was getting theirs. I took
Christelle some books. Mike went to sort out a problem Bill had with a short
circuit on Rosy.
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| The very famous Riqueval bridge (see below for link to WW1 picture) this pic taken Aug 1993 |
He’d dislodged a wire to his ammeter which had shorted the
battery main cable. We set off a little later than intended at 10.55 a.m.
Decided that going through the automatic locks side by side was the best
method. We motored through St Quentin and up lock 22, St Quentin, a short
distance then up lock 21, Moulin Brûlé. The number of water fowl on the canal
through the town was astounding, ducks and coots for the most part, but also
lots of moorhens and a few crested grebe. It was 12.10 pm as we went up lock
20, Omissy, then 19 Pascal and I made lunch en route to 18 Lesdins, the top
lock.
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| Southern entrance to Lesdins tunnel. Aug 1993 |
We had to go slowly on the first bit of the summit as a VNF man had told
us that an empty was coming through the tunnel and we would have to wait for
him. We passed Sahete from Strasbourg moored to the bank just before the tunnel
lights, wheelhouse down, skipper probably having a bite for his lunch before
starting the descent. Power on, I started the washing machine running. I set up
our hand-held spotlamp to look for evidence of the German WW1 occupation of the
tunnels when they were part of the fortifications of the Hindenberg Line. We
passed several bricked up doorways but there was nothing more interesting in Lesdins
tunnel than rusting bollards set at the base of the wall all along the towpath,
plus a panicking moorhen galloping along the towpath in the dark until I shone
the spotlight on it. Came out of the tunnel at 1.10 p.m. into the shallow
summit cutting.
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| Tunnel tug towing a cruiser Aug 1993 |
A very chilly wind blasted across the fields as we passed
through Bellenglise. Bill let Fanny off on the towpath for her to trot along
while the boat was moving - the first time he’d tried doing that, she seemed to
take quite well to it. I turned the washing machine on to tumble dry for the
last twenty minutes until we got to Riqueval, and the entrance to Bony tunnel.
We moored up at 2.15 pm to await the tow at 3.10 p.m. A VNF man came for our
papers, no, we couldn’t pay him today, they would send us the bill by post. I gave him
our last invoice from the VNF for last year’s péage (licence). He photocopied
it and brought it back as we were getting ready to set off. Bill had put a long
line on his bows to our stern. We trundled up to the ancient chain tug and took
a single line from the young chap off the tug. Once the “râme” was sorted out
we set off. I tried to tell one VNF workman that we wouldn’t be breaking any
records today with only two boats and that the record was seventy four peniches in the
good old days before they built the Canal du Nord. He didn’t understand me! I
had to resort to telling him again in English! Then he understood! I got the
video camera out to record what might be our last tow through Bony by chain tug
as there was talk of the VNF replacing the tug or stopping towage altogether.
It took from 3.20 pm until 5.10 pm to travel the 5.67 kilometres underground.
At the far end a convoy of péniches was waiting for the tug, three loaded
Dutchmen, Ancilla from Othene, Evolutie from Amsterdam and Vincita from
Rotterdam, with two empty French boats at the rear - Sta Maria from Denain and
Gourbet from Dunkerque, the latter was motoring to catch the rest up as we came
into Vendhuile. We moored in the village, before the road bridge, next to a sloping bank that was crumbling with the amount of undermining by rats or moles. It was 5.30
p.m. when we tied up. After a lovely sunny day we had a superb sunset. Mike
finished doing his engine shutdown routine while I made dinner.
Note: No photos from 2004 so I've added earlier ones from Aug 1993
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