Thursday 8th June 2017 Cusey to Villegusien 14kms 14 locks.

Although it is brown, this is a female common blue butterfly

5.7°C A warm sunny day with a nice breeze. The Dutch couple with wooden cruiser left at 9am going downhill – silently, their boat was electric! We set off at 9.15am. Short distance to lock 22 Cusey (3.40m) (this lockhouse was where the keeper, a M. Vrignon lived, who was in a Resistance group called Reseau AGIR in WWII and sheltered agent Michel Hollard on his trips to Switzerland to pass on vital information to the British about the development of the German V1 rocket sites in

Precariously balanced stone crusher

occupied Northern France) now the house is used by the VNF, they have a depot there. This is the first of five chained locks (linked) 22 to 18 and they are all about 600m apart. Water level in the pound above was down by about 6” taking into account we’d just taken a lock-full out. Lock 21 Montrepelle (3.50m) had an empty lockhouse and we went over an aqueduct over a small tributary of the river Vingeanne, whose valley the canal follows. Lock 20 Badin (3.50m) had a nice lockhouse alongside. Heard a golden oriole in the woods (rare to see the bright yellow and black secretive birds though). Lock 19 Grande Côte (3.60m) we had problems and luckily for us there was a VNF man

Crushed rock and a digger

cutting the grass – he lifted the rod and nothing happened, so he operated the lock from the shed (serving as a lock cabin). He said he would follow us up to the next lock as that probably wouldn’t work as they were chained. He called the checkpoint on the intercom to report the lock as faulty. Lock 18 Dardenay (3.60m) – he was right the lock hadn’t activated, so our chatty man in a van worked the lock again for us. The house at Dardenay was lived in, there were several cars and a van there. On the 1.2kms pound to the next lock a crow flew over carrying a frog in its beak, legs all a-dangling. Lock 17 Foireuse (3.60m), was OK, it worked perfectly for us. A young lady in a van had driven down to lock 17, turned round and come back up to lock 16 as we approached lock 16 Choilley (3.90m) more problems, the

Spot the bunny

telecommand  wouldn’t activate the lock. The young lady worked the lock for us and the elderly lady, who lives in the smart lockhouse surrounded by pots of flowers, came out to chat with Mike who was doing rope duty as the lock filled. Her Yorkshire terrier was determined he wanted someone to throw a ball for him but we were all too busy chatting. A long pound – 2.7kms and time for a cuppa. The sky was Mediterranean blue with wispy bits of white cloud and a nicely cooling light breeze was blowing. More bank support using layers of old tyres. Below the next lock was a cantilevered apron of concrete about 3m long that we had moored on years ago, a difficult mooring as we had to put a quant pole out from the stern to tie to the bank. Lock 15 Domarien had about half a metre of water in it. Soon emptied and we went up, 1km to the next. Lock 14 Croix

Moored at an old silo quay in Villegusien

Rouge (3.80m) again had a small amount of water in the chamber. The house was occupied but no one around as it was lunchtime. 1km to the next. A busy day for insects, lots of damselflies, dragonflies and butterflies. A female common blue landed on the roof of the boat and stayed long enough to have her photo taken. Lock 13 Bise l’Assaut (3.40m). Wheat fields and mustard beyond the shady hornbeams along the grassy towpath – a distinct absence of bicycles here. Another longish pound 2.4kms to lock, over an aqueduct over the Vingeanne, then on an embankment looking down on cows in a meadow. A bit of industry, though quiet today, a stone crusher looked precarious on a crumbled cliff edge in a quarry with piles of crushed rock – sadly no boats about to transport it! A coypu swam across the canal just before lock 12 Piépappe (3.10m) The gates opened then stopped, oh no not another one en panne – but as we were just deciding to call VNF several minutes later the gates opened fully and the lock worked OK! Noted that the cycle piste had returned to the towpath –although there were no signs of any bikes today. There was a nice shady mooring above the lock next to a piled edge with bollards, no good for us – no satellite access. Lock 11 Chateau (3.90m) – a boat coming down! A Belgian cruiser with sunshade up - and leaving clouds of smoke behind him (they wouldn’t be happy to drive it if their car did that! It wouldn't pass an MOT.) Chickens in a fenced area at the lock house. Just 500m between the last couple of locks. 10 Pré-Meunier (3.50m) had a beautifully kept house with lots of flowers. Lock 9 – last lock – Villegusien (3.40m) another lived in house.  We moored at the old silo quay above the lock. It was 2pm and getting hotter. The silo was all shut up, sheep were grazing in a field beyond it and a rabbit was nibbling the herbage by an old bucket off a digger. Set up the TV and found we had Internet but only 3G so a bit slow. Métèo for Langres area said thunderstorms tomorrow so we’ll stay here until Saturday. The eight locks to the summit are linked, so no stopping until the far side of the Balesmes tunnel in Langres. First commercial traffic! A loaded Dutch péniche from Maasbract went past at 5.20pm, ropes still OK after he’d gone – we are attached to two old rings on the quay and were bouncing around quite well. Later my PC crashed….  It took me over a week to get it back to normal!