Friday 7th April 2017 Condé-sur-Marne to Soulanges 39.4 kms 8 locks

0.9°C Cold night! Almost freezing. Sunny day quite warm when out of the cold breeze. Set

Weir above Juvigny lock

off at 9.20am. Mike said see you tomorrow to Gerard as we left. Turned left on the 

Lateral à la Marne and set off on the dead 

straight canal, 4kms to our first lock since the 29^th June last year. When we were about halfway when Mike spied a cruiser behind us that had come up from the Marne and was turning into the Marne à l’Aisne at Condé. Turned the hanging pole to start the lock working, then went up 2.6m in lock 11 Vraux. There were two dead dogs floating in the canal below the lock and one dead in the water above it. 5kms to Juvigny, still straight as a Roman road. Mike gave the port side hull a bit of a scrubbing to remove the winter silt as the boat

Looking back towards Juvigny lock -
suspended pole for lock operation on right

wanted to turn left (he’d already cleaned the starboard side). The boat handled a bit better after that. A VNF man in a van came down the towpath towards us and waved as he went past. We had a short conversation with a lady towpath walker in shorts as we went past. There was a dead deer stuck in the weir below Juvigny lock 10 and another one floating above. Up another 2.2m and 7.1kms to the next. Yellow is the colour for flowers along the canal banks, mainly cowslips but also buttercups and dandelions, almost glowing in the bright, warm sunshine. The motorway traffic was noisy, crossing over the canal near Recy.

Big wide bend near St Martin-sur-le-Pre

The long straight ended with a right hand bend just after KP36 where the canal was very wide for a short distance. It was midday as we went into the outskirts of the Champagne city of Châlons. Passing several factories along the left bank. Two empty Belgian péniches Adio and Reginald, both from Antwerp, were moored side by side at the loading quay next to the silo. The lock at Châlons worked automatically for us, but a young VNF man came out of the lock side office to take the boat name and registration number (he didn’t bother about looking at our new licence in the window). Up 2.3m in lock 9. Nobody at the very smart new

Old canal arm in Chalons-en-Champagne

Capitanerie, but there were four boats moored (probably overwintered) on the pontoons in Châlons. Beyond the moorings there were lots of swans, ducks and Canada geese in the end of the loop by the park. There was a dead fox floating in the canal by the first bridge after Châlons. I made some lunch which we ate on route to the next lock. A loaded boat went past, Infinity 

(also Belgian) heading downhill. The light green canal water was muddy for the next few kilometres. 5.9kms to lock 8 Sarry and we finished lunch just as we arrived at the lock, good thing as

Overwintered boats on the pontoons in Chalons

there was a very bad smell emanating from a dead badger, which had somehow got lodged in the girder-work of the outer side of the bottom end gate. Up another 2.5m. A family on bikes was just setting off from their car, which was parked by the lock. Mother, father and two children under ten, they followed us along the 4.75 kms to lock 7 St-Germain. We were surrounded by gongoozlers who had appeared from nowhere, taking photos, as we rose 2.7m. The cyclists said au-voir and went back to their car. A bit further along the 6.5km pound there was a parked campervan

Old shunting engine at Pogny silos

whose occupants were fast asleep in deckchairs. An empty French péniche called Univers was moored by the first silo quays in Pogny. Beyond that there was a large factory which had a notice on a side door to say it was a paper bag factory. Up lock 6 Chauseé another 2.3m lift. There was a lizard skittering up the front wall of the long-abandoned lock house, plenty of gaps between the stones for it to hide in. Looking back down the valley we could see a hillside completely covered with solar panels. 3.6kms to lock 5 Ablancourt and up 2m (after an open feed paddle made getting to the

Another old shunting engine at Pogny silos

operating rods difficult) then another short pound 2.3kms to our last lock of the day at Soulanges lock 4 and just a 1.6m lift. Tied up under the pine trees in Soulanges at 5.15pm. Spotted a VNF man in a van, he parked by the lock until the gates closed and then he continued down the towpath. Mike watched the 6pm BBC News and went to sleep. Later we watched a David Attenborough tale called the Hotel Armadillo, interesting, but I still nodded off, must be all today’s fresh air. Have to have the weekend off now to recover!!

Moored beneath the pines at Soulanges