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| Collegiate church at Dole |
10.7°C Hazy clouds with sunshine,
heavy showers and a thunderstorm later. Set off at 9.10am heading upriver on
the Doubs. Under a road bridge
and we were out of the city and approaching the first lock of the day, lock 66
Charles-Quint, which had a lock cabin built to look like a mediaeval turret
with a conical roof (bit different to the futuristic thing at St Symphorien).
Mike pressed the buttons on the device and the
orange light started flashing,
we still had a red light – but then the empty lock refilled itself and the top
end gates opened! Boat coming down? Nothing about – Mike asked passing joggers
who confirmed there were no boats above. Two lady joggers stopped to chat, they
volunteered to go and call VNF on the intercom. Before they got there the top
end gates got fed up with waiting and closed, so Mike turned the device on again
and this time it worked! Waved to the two
ladies and thanked them, they didn’t
need to call VNF out for us – we thought they were a bit disappointed about
that. Up 2.3m. The lock house had roses round the door. Set off on the 2.7kms canal
section. The gates on lock 66 didn’t close behind us and before too long the
lock lights went to double reds, one above the other, “en panne”(out of order)
nothing we did could have caused that. Looks like this lock is having a bad day. The first part of the canal section was
bordered both sides with ancient plane trees. Lots of joggers, cyclists and
roller
bladers on both sides of the canal. Lock 65 Baverans had only a 1.6m
lift but the lock walls continued up a further 1.5m higher in case of flood.
The lock house walls were covered in a creeper with deep red leaves. A Le Boat
hireboat and a little Polish yacht were waiting above for the lock. 5.5kms to
the next, but we had to work through the flood lock 65B with a curved right
hand wall at Rochefort-sur-Nenon. Just before the lock we
passed a cycling club
outing, bells ringing or honking and lots of waving and shouting of Bonjour! We
replied with hoots from our air horns. Up just a few cms in the flood lock and on
to the Doubs, passing the first of its many long unguarded weirs. It started
raining, a heavy shower. Up lock 64 Audelange (1.7m) another house with roses. A
short canal section then through a set of flood gates (not a flood lock) and on
to another river reach with several more unguarded weirs on the 2.1kms leading
to lock 63 Moulin Rouge,
straight into the lock off the river, no lock cut and
up 2.7m. The sun was trying to break through again between the black clouds. 7.9kms
to the next lock. A long canal section took us into Orchamps, where Mike took a
photo of a cottage with an unusual end wall. Up a few cms again in the flood
lock 63B at Orchamps and back on to the river to lock 62 Moulin-des-Malades,
another with no lock cut. Up another 2.3m and into a short narrow canal length
with a lift bridge to take traffic across to the little island where there is a
VNF depot. The liftbridge was open for canal traffic. A short river reach of
1.1kms and we were at lock 61 Ranchot, up 1.9m. Chatted with a fisherman who
asked where we were going, just a little further to the quay in Ranchot. No one
else there, he said. Rain poured down again as we tied up. There was a new sloping sided quay
on the right for boats over 20m (and several parked campervans) The quay on the left through the bridge had been extended and there were several electricity boxes and
taps (but no
water.) One German campervan was parked by the quay. Mike found a sign on
a notice board that said 8€ a night. We might be moving on tomorrow. Mike began setting up the satellite TV dish as a loud thunderstorm started. Paused until
it had finished. I did the photos and log, Mike plotted the next day’s trip for
the GPS and then went for a nap. The lady from the campsite came and knocked on
the cabin at 7pm, Mike went out of the side doors and told her we didn’t need
water or electric so she didn’t need to
charge us, did she? OK? OK, oui!
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| Cycling club outing passing us near Dole |
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| Flood lock at Rochefort-sur-Nenon |
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| Weir at Rochefort-sur-Nenon |
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| Cliffs at Rochefort-sur-Nenon |
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| Cottage at Orchamps with unusual end wall |
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| Flood lock at Orchamps |
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| Liftbridge at Moulin des Malades |
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| Canal elevated above Doubs at Moulin des Malades |
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| Moored at Ranchot |
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