Arques, Bethune, Douai, Arleux, Havrincourt FR 18-22 April 2022 We have gotten a reservation at Cappy on the Somme for the 27th April. This will allow us to visit friends in the Netherlands for a couple of days while we are in Rotterdam to complete our biometrics for our Residency. But it does mean we don't have a lot of time to stop off, so we are travelling each day. In Nord, the land is fairly flat, but as we head south there are more and more locks. It is quite interesting to see the differences. Canal du Nord at Havrincourt On Easter Monday when I woke up at 6:45 the boat moored in front of us "Las Vegas" had already gone through the lock, so we knew that everything was working again. We finally got moving just before 8am. In the first lock "Ecluse Flandre" which we had to go up 3.5 m, there was a pole, and we put a rope on that. In that way as you go up the rope theoretically slips up the pole, although Howard gave it a bit of help. The second lock, "Ecluse Fontinettes", just a couple of kms further along, was waiting for us when we arrived and we cruised straight in. As the lock had a rise of 13.5m there were floating bollards. It was an easy lock, as the water was brought up from the floor of the lock making it look like we were in a big jacuzzi. There were eary noises as the floating locks screeched their way to the top. Once we were through that lock we had a fairly straight forward trip to Bethune. Bethune was a city we hadn't visited before - we were starting to visit new places which brings new challenges and interest. It was nearly 6 hours cruising again so for us a long day. When we arrived we slowly turned into the side canal and went about 1km past many moored peniches mostly in disrepair. At the end was the Haute Nautique - moorings for visiters, however we found them completely taken up by boats that didn't look like they had moved for months. So we had to turn around. Luckily there was a family having lunch on a peniche in the harbour, who we approached and they offerred for us to moor alongside (much to our relief). They were having a long leisurely lunch. After lunch we took the bikes off (with the help of our host on the other boat). This involved us taking each bike onto our host's boat then around the back and onto another peniche, then around the front and off on a gangplank. From there we cycled into town where we had a look around. Including seeing the UNESCO world heritage belfry, the church and the Grand Place where there were some interesting buildings. We then had a drink on the square, at one of the cafes. A nice afternoon, before we headed back to the boat for some R&R. After a couple of long cruising days we felt that we were well on track to reach the Somme in time for our trip back to the Netherlands, so we decided to just cruise in the mornings. So the next day Tuesday we had a fairly easy day - with only one lock, and just over 3 hours of cruising. Our mooring was hidden behind an island from the main channel so was mostly protected from the wash of the big ships. It was in a natural area, aand we saw only walkers, cyclists, and a couple of motorbikes/electric scooters. Oh - and one ecole bateau (boat school) boat. I had a lazy day off, and howard went for a fish after doing some more work on the boat. On Wednesday we headed to Douai. It was about 4 hours but there were no locks at all. There were lots of peniches moored near the town. We chose a simple mooring on the main canal. We had a ride into Douai after lunch. It was very pleasant. I returned to the boat a little ahead of Howard as my foot was feeling very sore. I parked my bike on the side of the canal and went inside. Unfortunately a gust of wind blew it over and my bike lock fell into the canal and is gone for good. sOn Thursday we left Douai and had three locks to go through. These had 2 chambers each so we had no delays. But we had to chat to the lock keepers to work out which chamber he wanted us to go into. With the poor quality of VHF it was sometimes hard to understand them, never mind understand the french. After 3 hours we turned off onto the Canal du Nord and moored at Arleux. There were many commercials moored on the side of the river, but we found a good spot for the night. As my foot was still sore, Howard went alone on his bike ride. He was very pleased to be able to get his carte de peche (fishing license) at the local fishing tackle shop. He had failed to get it on-line. Somewhere I had gotten the imprssion that the Canal du Nord was a very busy and scary canal for pleasure boaters like us. So I was pleasantly surprised to find that the locks were only 6m wide , meaning the really big ships wouldn't be travelling on it. In fact, Friday was a pleasant cruising day, even though we went through 7 locks, each about a 5.8m rise. No floating bollards only 4 bollards indented into the wall with a big gap between number 2 and 3. We were a bit apprehensive in the first lock but realised it was a very gentle rise so there was no problem. In fact when we arrived at our mooring place (after about 4 hours) we watched a commercial go through and they didn't even rope up, just used the engine to maintain their position. The other thing that surpised us was how clear the water was. We stayed near the town of Havrincourt, and cycled there for a look around. A few people have asked about my foot. Well, it is still sore. Not getting worse or better. My doctors think I wont hurt it more by walking on it, it is more about managing the pain. So I am trying a few things and we'll see how it goes.
Tomorrow we have no locks but we do go through a 4.5 km long tunnel, our first tunnel on Moondance, so that will be an adventure.
6 Comments
Caesar Paul
22/4/2022 06:46:49 pm
Your pictures are stunning.
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Johanna Hersey
22/4/2022 07:09:16 pm
Tes photos sont magnifiques !
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Matthew Robinson
22/4/2022 10:47:33 pm
Thanks for the post & pictures ! Hope your foot gets better & a few nice fish are legally caught. Bad luck with the bike. Very interesting as I would like to get up there this year in our boat. Travel safe & thankyou. Regards Mattw.
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Simon Blackburn
23/4/2022 01:19:33 am
Great story, would love to be doing something similar. In my younger days, i fished the Fens and moored by the pubs. Keep the photos and stories coming. Hope your foot allows you to keep exploring.
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Ian
24/4/2022 12:56:03 am
Shame you had to rush past Fontinettes as there is a fascinating museum beside the ascenceur. Hope the tunnel went well (we’ve had plenty of excitement in it during our several traverses). Enjoy the Somme!
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24/4/2022 11:12:01 pm
Thank you for your blog. We sail in our minds and your watersteps.
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