Caversham (back to the UK for a while)

Gorete made a gorgeous paella for the girls’ last night in the port

The canal latéral à la Marne, where we have been stuck in Châlons for the last three months, finally opened to non-commercial traffic on Tuesday last week, after being closed to pleasure craft due to the lockdown.  The girls were determined to make the most of it and planned to leave during the morning, so we obviously had to have a final meal with them on the Monday evening. It was quite an emotional day that last day as we had lived as a family group for over three months and knew the change was going to be quite a shock.

Puddleduck setting off on Tuesday morning

They were heading down towards Vitry le François where they would turn onto the canal de la Marne au Rhin and head east towards Nancy and Metz which was where we were going to head first if we had started cruising at the beginning of March.  Like Chris Hutchins, who always gets rained on when cruising, the lovely weather was due to break later in the week and by time the other boats in the port left it was decidedly a lot cooler as well as being grey and dismal.

Sid & Jan on Sherborne left on Wednesday morning for the South of France

Bill & Jane on Lazbones left on Thursday morning in the opposite direction

Guy & Ardon on Vindi left on Thursday too, also heading north

As we were heading back to the UK for a few weeks we moved our boat into the slot vacated by Puddleduck.  We are technically too long for the finger pontoons and since we have been here we have had our front tied to the front of Puddleduck to give both boats some stability in the wind that can whip along the channel here.  With no boat beside us any more we had nowhere to secure the front to so felt safer being on the inside of the pontoon with just centre and rear lines.

Now moored on the inside

You can see from the picture above that I have given the roof its final topcoat of burgundy and blue. I have also prepped the hatch but unfortunately, as we have run out of both burgundy and blue paint, we have to leave it in its grey undercoat until we return later in the summer.

As I alluded to above, it was a strange last few days in the port without the girls and also very bare at the other end following the departure of the other three boats.  Apart from one evening with a tremendous thunderstorm the predicted rain didn’t really materialise, but it was definitely a lot cooler.

Before we left, we had a few productive walks as far as painted drain covers were concerned and had quite a flurry bringing our total up to 160. 

Quite appropriate for our 150^th decorated drain cover

One of the two port swan families, who had disappeared for the last week or so, reappeared to say goodbye on our last day   

The family still with six cygnets with one hitching a ride

On Friday morning we received the news that we had completed on the flat we were buying in Reading and thus the reason for going back for a while.  The warm weather had returned so we packed a picnic and spent a happy few hours in Cumiéres, a lovely Champagne village we enjoyed mooring at for a while when we were on the River Marne last year.  It felt weird driving somewhere as it was the first time we had left Châlons during the lockdown, the roads were very quiet and Cumiéres was dead other than the champagne houses and vineyards.  The vineyards were full of workers and the vines and champagne houses looked in tip top condition.  It really looked like they hadn’t been affected by the lockdown at all.

We set off for the channel tunnel early on Sunday morning and the autoroutes were definitely quieter than it would normally be.  We usually see lots of Brits heading for Calais once we reach the Autoroute d’Anglais but this time we passed just one UK registered van.  We knew there wouldn’t be many but expected a few trying to get back before the quarantine rules came into force the following day.

It was a bit of a shock when we got to the tunnel as the terminal area was packed; probably a third of the cars were Brits and the majority of the rest were eastern European.  We assumed the Romanians etc. were fruit pickers and many of the others like Belgians, Germans, French and Dutch were commuters but there also seemed to be quite a few holiday makers.  The strangest looking group were half a dozen large cars filled with families of Orthodox Jews – we couldn’t work out what reason they would have had for travelling.

The lockdown meant that the normal three or four trains an hour had been reduced to one an hour and, even though we had booked, we still suffered a four-hour delay.  On our way back through Kent we stopped in at our house that we have been renting out since we moved onto the boat nearly six years ago.  The original tenants moved out last weekend and a new family were moving in next week, so we took the opportunity to check things out.

We eventually arrived at the flat having popped in to get the keys from Lauren & Lewis who had picked them up from the estate agents for us.  We had a socially distanced chat in their front garden and it was lovely seeing our grandson (and his parents of course) for the first time in a few months; Ellis is nearly six months old now!

We spent Sunday night in the empty flat on an airbed and the removal van arrived from our storage unit early on Monday morning.  We had been told that the men would be wearing full protective gear and masks and that we shouldn’t offer them anything to drink.  We were quite surprised when they turned up as no protective equipment was in view – they explained they found it impossible to move furniture dressed like that.  They also intimated that they were desperate for some coffee after their drive down from the storage unit in Solihull.

Even though we are on the first floor, we have opening French windows where Buddy has spent hours just sitting watching the outside world.  To him it’s probably just like the hours he has spent lazing on the pontoon watching the French world go by for the last few months.  We have four children living in the area and it’s going to be odd not being able to mix while we are self isolating.  Pam & Charles, who have now finished boating in Europe, also live here in Caversham, so we are looking forward to meeting up with them too when conditions are more normal. 

The canal de la Marne au Rhin that Nikki & Gorete are travelling on towards Nancy is not a commercial canal and because it hasn’t been used since the winter closures they have found it absolutely choked with weed.  The éclusiers had warned them that this may be the case and sadly they have had to turn around and head back to the commercial canals and rivers of northern France.  We wonder what conditions will be like when we go back later in the summer.  No doubt there may be water shortages as well as the weed ☹

Weed in the Marne au Rhin