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| Notice at Abbecourt lock - very bad English! |
Grey clouds and long sunny spells. Got up late. Two péniches had already gone past before we stirred. Mike went by car into Chauny to get some bread as the boulangerie in Abbécourt had closed down a long time ago. While he was out he bought gas, diesel and petrol from an Intermarché Hypermarket. At 10.30 a.m. péniche Congaye went uphill empty. Mike returned at 10.50 a.m. and we stowed all the stuff away then prepared to leave. As we untied at 11.30 a.m. a French flagged cruiser went past heading for Paris (downhill). Mike reversed to the junction with the Oise à l’Aisne canal, just as a British Luxemotor called Verwandering came out of lock 1 Abbécourt (4.12m). After he cleared the lock we went under the bridge through a pair of sensors and into the empty chamber, right up to the front of the deep lock to lift the blue bar. Nothing happened.
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| Collision sensor lock 2 Guny |
I did it again, still nothing. Waited five minutes and tried again, nothing. Mike reversed out and I went up the steps to use the intercom (there was no way I was climbing up a four-metre mucky lock ladder). They’d added a new fence around the lock, the only access was through a gate by the lock cabin and it was locked. Mike took the boat back into the lock and tried lifting the bar again. This time the stupid thing worked. A man started walking towards me from somewhere by the bridge (there was a VNF van parked by the bridge but he didn’t come from there). When he got halfway he patted his pockets as if looking for keys then turned and went back where he came from. Meanwhile the lock had filled and Mike got off and opened the gate from the inside to let me in.
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| Flowery lock gate at Guny lock 2 |
He said there was no telecomand in the box and asked me to use the intercom, which I did. I was just asking the guy in the control centre where my telecomand was and he said there should be someone there when the key searcher returned and shouted “I’m here Jean-Luke” as he walked past to open the gate. The telecomand was in the box Mike had just looked in. Hmm. Perhaps it automatically dispenses them when the lock is full. The guy who had said he was there walked off again. I said do you need to know the number on the telecomand? Nope. Not like the St Quentin canal then, they had boat details and recorded the number of the box you’d got when the dished it out and when they had it back. We set off on the 11kms pound, through wonderfully remote and jungly surroundings. Made a cuppa and sat out.
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| Oval lock houses unique to the Oise a l'Aisne canal |
At the end of the first long straight we could see a loaded péniche had come up the lock behind us. I steered and Mike chatted with Mum on the front deck until we were almost at lock 2 Guny (2.30m). Nothing was moored at the quay, which was occupied by one lone fisherman. Zapped and went up the lock without any problems. The house and gardens on the lockside were beautifully kept. Made sandwiches for lunch on the 2.65kms pound to lock 3 Crécy (2.30m) Crécy lock had Nogent on the plate over the canal house door. Again the house and gardens were splendid. The lock filled, but then the gates wouldn’t open. Mike got off to look for the intercom, there wasn’t one. Noted that the red sign above the control rods was flashing. We waited. Meanwhile we could hear the lady in the lock house phoning someone and saying “There’s a boat in the lock and no one is answering the phone!”
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| Lockhouse, lock cabin and control rods at 5 Vauxaillon |
Don’t know who she was berating, but the gate opened a few minutes later by remote control. A man in a grey van had just arrived at the house and he came to smile at us (I think he and the woman at the house were the lock keepers before automation) so we said to him to thank Madame for ringing for us as we left. He was still smiling. A sign by the lock said eggs for sale and noix (walnuts) – 1,50€/kg, wish we’d have bought some now. A French-flagged cruiser was moored just at the end of the grassy bank above the lock on the right hand side. The crew smiled and waved. 2.9kms to the next, lock 4 Leuilly (2.30m). Just as we approached the lock there was a man fishing on the left bank - he landed a huge fish and we shouted Bravo! No problems with lock 4, yet another grand lock house and garden. 4.95kms to our last lock, 5 Vauxaillon (2.30m). We had a note on the guidebook, written by us many years earlier, which said keep stale bread for lock keeper’s rabbits. The house looked empty from below the lock but when the lock was full and we could see the front it had been recently renovated and was now lived in – no rabbits, though. Two cars and a VNF van were parked outside and a young woman was sitting on the side door steps. She waved and her dog bounded out to bark at us! Three more kilometres to Pinon. We arrived at 4.45 p.m. The picnic tables were all occupied and various youths and lads were fishing, all polite and tidy, no mess left when they packed up and went home. Gave Mike a hand off down the plank with the moped. He left to get the car at 5.30 p.m. just after the péniche following us, Rei-Dia, went past; he slowed off to go past too! A Dutch cruiser, heading downhill, moored in front at 6.15 p.m. At 6.30 p.m another loaded péniche went past, Jewel, who tried to drag us off the bank – he definitely didn’t slow down to go past!
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