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| Cruiser moored to the locking pontoon below Deluz 2-rise |
14.0°C Sunny and hot again. 38°C
outside and 32°C in the boat. Set off at 9am and down the 2-rise locks 46/47
Deluz. 6.8kms to the next so I got on with the neglected chores and cooked some
chicken in the pressures cooker and some pink spuds to do a potato salad so I
don’t have to cook and get the cabin even hotter than it is later. There was a
good strong breeze blowing upriver. Down the canal section at Roche-les-Beaupré,
passing an uphill cruiser and down lock 48 Chalèze. The river does some looping
bends with islands that the channel threads through at
Chalezeule. A long reach
of 6.8kms to lock 49 La Malate. We passed the Citadelle tunnel entrance and
tied on the long pontoon at Port Rivote in Besançon just long enough to top up
our water tank. A big cruiser we’d seen before called La Ferie Vert was moored
there as was the Dutch cruiser who paused next to us the day before and had
been at L’Isle. Getting a move on as the tunnel/lock keeper goes off duty at
12.30pm, we headed back upriver to the tunnel. Got a green light and lock 50
was set for us.
The lady keeper (in lifejacket – very sensible as she works
alone) came out to make sure we put two ropes round bollards. Very quickly
down, round the corner and down lock 51 (five ducks were in the lock until it
was almost empty then four did vertical take offs and the fifth appeared to
have a damaged wing so it stayed and Mike made sure it left the chamber with us.
Noted that the pontoon around the corner above 51 was empty. Not stopping
today. Back on the river again and only 1.5kms before lock 52 Velotte. The lock
was already full so we were soon through it, every move
watched by a bunch of
cyclists and two youths. 3.7kms of splendid scenery and more islands in the river
to lock 53 Gouille, a shallow one. I made sandwiches for lunch on the 5kms reach.
Into the canal at Avanne, through narrows and past the line of houseboats above
the next two-rise staircase locks 54/55 Rancenay. There was a boat coming up in
the top lock chamber. The wind was blowing us to the left, close to the moored
boats so, when a large square British cruiser came out of the
lock, Mike gave it two hoots to pass on the wrong side. The guy in the last DB in the line came
out
to see what was going on and watched carefully as we went past him, missing
his boat by about a foot and into the lock. There was a very sun-tanned elderly
man by the lock gates as we went in, he wished us a bonne promenade and I told
him it was a bit too hot for my liking. Then the lock played up. When the top
chamber emptied and the water was level with that in the lower chamber (we
could see there was a gap in the gates) the gates didn’t open straight away and
one of the paddles behind us opened (trying to refill the lock chamber before
we’d been let out of it!) it shut again after a couple of minutes - any longer and I was getting ready to go
and pull the red emergency stop cord. The middle gates opened and we descended
in the lower chamber without any problems. Mike said he noted that the depth
below the boat in the top chamber had been only 70cms, so we wondered if the
adding of extra water had been an automatic reaction to that – but we hadn’t
seen any sensors for checking depths. It will remain a mystery. The old chap
was the skipper of a little yacht (German) which
was waiting at the
pontoon below the two-rise to go up and I’m sure our paths had crossed before. The
route to the next lock was along the river with the channel running very close
to the left hand bank. A VNF van went past heading uphill and a VNF flatbed
(little lorry) went downhill. The first topless sunbather of the year! – a young
lady sprawled out on a slipway (for running boats down into the river) and
young man stood beside her waved as we passed. The breeze was getting stronger
as we went downriver making it feel much cooler, but causing our battered old
sunshade to flap about. Left into the canal and through an open old manual flood
lock. A VNF man was mowing the grass. The canal banks beyond the lock were steep
sided. Mike zapped the control for the tunnel but we saw no lights, so we went
cautiously round the tight left hand bend into Thoraise tunnel (185m). There
were lights along the towpath side wall and also strings of lights in the roof (which
were working today, they weren’t when we went upriver) arranged in loops from
one side to the other and back and the lights went on and off to make a
procession of lights circling along the roof. At the far end of the tunnel
there was a VNF workman welding up a break in the fancy railing along the edge
of the towpath which is much used by walkers and cyclists. Lock 56 Thoraise was
stubborn to activate. There was a small German cruiser attached to the pontoon
for lock workers to step off at – its crew were relaxing in the shade of a
shelter (for cyclists and walkers) by the canal. The lock eventually filled and
we down almost 4m. (We’d had problems with this lock on the way upriver, it
filled and the gates wouldn’t open) As we left the lock a busload of tourists
arrived from nowhere and were taking photos from the bridge at the tail end of
the lock. A few more kilometres downriver and we stopped at 4pm next to the
weir at the start of the next canal section near Boussières. We hadn’t long finished
tying up when a Dutch cruiser heading upriver stopped and moored as well –
that’s a first! Mike gave them a hand with ropes. Glad to get inside out of the
sun. There was a distinct pungent aroma of dead fish closer to where the
cruiser had tied up.
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| Cruiser moored to the locking pontoon below Deluz 2-rise Ah! En Panne - broken down |
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| House on the hill at Vaire-le-Grand |
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| Entrance to canal at Roche-les-Beaupre |
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| Lock 49 La Malatte new footbridge and mechanised lifting centre section |
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| Moored by the weir at Boussieres |
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