Seracourt-le-Grand (our very own island)

"Are we really going down there?" said Karen

Our current cruising schedule is set by a lock further up the Canal de St Quentin that’s closing for maintenance for a month from 15^th September. We plan to get past it by the 12^th and we’re still on track to do that.  Saturday’s target was to reach a place called St-Simon with a probable lunch stop at Jussy.

Leaving Quessy on Saturday morning

We had three locks to ascend before reaching Jussy and only the left-hand lock of each pair was in service.

No entry sign on right-hand lock

Unless commercials are loading or unloading somewhere on the Canal de St Quentin itself then, since its opening in 1960, they use the Canal du Nord instead.  Because this means greatly reduced traffic, we assume VNF tend to only keep one of each pair of locks in operation.

Karen and Buddy got off as we came up the third lock intending to walk the rest of the way to Jussy.  Even though there had been a good service road alongside ever since we started on the Canal de St Quentin, it ran out after they passed the first village. The further they went the more overgrown any remaining path became and, as walking through brambles and nettles isn’t a good idea when wearing shorts, we decided I should try and get the boat alongside to pick them up.

Buddy leading the way

As can be seen, the bank had become quite high and steep and I couldn’t find anywhere to pick them up.  The only place was where there was a pipe outlet.  I just got the back in against the bank when the pipe started spewing water and soaked my feet.  It still wasn’t possible to get them, so they soldiered on.

Getting away from the spewing pipe

To make matters worse it started raining but as we neared Jussy the bank had been cut and the going was easier until they were able to meet me at a silo quay where we moored for lunch.

Of course, it stopped raining as soon as we had tied up

After lunch we had a look around Jussy

Typically quiet main street

The church, mairie and war memorial were all designed along lines we hadn’t come across before:

Flowerless mairie

Uncharacteristic looking war memorial

The massive statue looks like she’s putting the shot

When we got back to the boat we ummed and aaahed about whether to stay at Jussy or get to the island as originally planned.  We were prevaricating because, although it was bright and sunny there were some dark clouds on the way.  In the end we decided to leave as we fancied having our own island to explore.

The banks were still cut so Karen & Buddy walked again but it started raining after half an hour or so.  It wasn’t cool enough for Karen to wear wet weather gear so, as the rain started getting heavier, I pulled up to get them on.  By the time we put the parasol up it was a bit late, so it was on with the coats as well.

At least we could laugh about it

The island is at the junction with the Canal de la Somme and acts as a triangular roundabout.  I should say acted as the 16 km at this end of the canal down to the Canal du Nord closed in 2006.  The remaining 150km continues west out to the English Channel as the canalised River Somme and, French reconfinement permitting, we hope to get down there in a few weeks after we’ve been down the Canal du Nord.  

We are obviously keeping a close eye on the situation in France as restrictions are put in place at a département level. We are currently in Aisne (02) which is green and has no restrictions.  We will have to think very carefully about going into somewhere that is blue, orange or red as we don’t want to be in a position where we’re stuck somewhere because we're not allowed to move.

We rounded a corner and could just make out the junction and island ahead.  It looked to me as if a boat was already moored on the island but Karen wasn’t convinced.  It was difficult to tell, even with the binoculars, as mist was rising up from the water from the rain.  As we were by a grain silo with bollards that weren’t too far apart for us, we decided to moor up and walk down to have a look.  If the island wasn’t free, then we could always stay at the silo overnight.

Hopefully a temporary mooring

At least it had stopped raining so we could have a little explore as well as check on the mooring situation.  Karen was right about the boat; it was moored on the far side of the junction on the bank facing the rear of the island.

Karen’s supposition was correct - boat against far bank on the left

The unused part of the junction was heavily weeded as you can see.  While we’ve been cruising on the St Quentin, we’ve noticed how weedy the canal is but as it is quite wide, we’ve been following a channel down the centre. I suppose it’s one of the drawbacks of not many commercials, if any, using this route as they usually help to keep the weed growth down.

Confirmation that the first 16km is now closed

The first lock on the now abandoned section of the Canal de la Somme

As the island was indeed free, we went back to the boat and moved on down.

Moored on our private island

There were picnic tables and a barbecue area in a cleared area in the middle

On Saturday we cruised nine miles up three locks and saw one boat on the move, a lovely yellow Dutch barge that passed us as we set off from Quessy first thing.

We left as soon as we finished breakfast on Sunday as the best part of the day was meant to be in the morning.  We were heading for Seraucourt-le-Grand to find a mooring down a dead-end that Pam & Charles stopped at when they came over six years ago and looked idyllic in their photos.  We had heard that it’s now all overgrown with weed and so no one has been down there this year.  If that turned out to be the case then our back up plan was to continue on to the town of St Quentin.  Just before we left, a Canadian couple came by on a pleasure cruiser, so we let them get ahead before setting off.

Looking back at the island and the permanent boats at the start of the Canal de la Somme

This part of the canal now follows the valley of the River Somme right up to the summit level north of St Quentin.

Enjoying the unexpected sun during our Sunday cruise

Our télécommande wasn’t working at the first lock, or rather the lock wasn’t registering our request to go up. As we got closer Karen spotted an éclusier in the control room and then the red and green lights came on to indicate the lock was being set for us.  When we got into the lock the young guy explained that this and the next few locks weren’t working properly so he would be taking us through them as far as St Quentin and then a colleague would take over.  He was a lovely and helpful guy, as they all are, but had such a broad accent that it was embarrassingly difficult to understand what he was saying.  When I thanked him for helping us through, I just managed to work out that he said it was no problem as it was all part of his job.

When we got to the next lock, he couldn’t get the bottom gates to close once we were in.  This is when it got really difficult to understand what he was saying especially as he was getting excited and speaking even faster.  In the end we cottoned on that there was so much weed behind the gates that they wouldn’t fully open and therefore the sensors thought they were closed and prevented any attempt to actually close them.

Éclusier removing the weed

With the bottom gates still open he opened all the paddles in the top gates to try and flush the weed out.

Flushing water through

The paddles were open a good 15 minutes so it was lucky the pound above wasn’t a short one otherwise it would have started going down quickly.  He got most of the weed out in the end and the gates started closing.

Weed released from behind the gate

We had both been thinking that none of the locks had looked well cared for along this canal and even the lock cottage gardens weren’t particularly attractive.  Karen described everything as 'functional', which I thought was a good description.  It has got us wondering whether VNF are letting the canal run into the ground now the commercials use the larger and more modern Canal du Nord that runs parallel to it.  We do hope not as it is quite picturesque, especially for northern France, and it would be a shame to see a part of French heritage disappear.  

We soon arrived at Seraucourt-le-Grand and found the four pipes that Guy & Ardon said they had moored to overnight on their way down last week.  There was a fisherman in front of us but he soon packed his kit into his car and left once we moored up.  We found that a bit strange as fishermen seem to like fishing by moored boats.

Moored to pipes

After lunch we walked to the arm that wasn’t meant to be navigable, just to see what we thought.  Although it was choked right across in places there were parts of the 500-metre-long arm that looked like there was a narrow channel.  The mooring at the end was peaceful too, so we thought we may as well go for it.  If we found we couldn’t get into the entrance then we could always reverse out and it wasn’t as if we were in danger of getting hurt.  To be honest we just fancied the adventure and a chance to be intrepid.

Getting ready to turn right

Karen sat in the front and used a barge pole to move weed off to the side as it built up against the bows.

It was slow going but we made it and the basin at the end was pretty clear of weed so it really was a pleasant spot to stay for the rest of the day.  A happy family had come out of their house as we made our way down and were waving madly as if to cheer us on.  The fisherman who’d moved away from us earlier had set up in the basin and as we moored up starting packing up again – a sort of counterbalance to the happy family.

Our basin mooring

As the expected rain hadn’t arrived, we decided to set straight off for a walk, in case it came later.  We crossed the River Somme at the entrance to the village of Seraucourt-le-Grand and then walked up the hill behind it to find a British WWI cemetery.

Only needed one picture to get the church and mairie in!

The cemetery was relatively small, containing the remains of just under 1,400 British and two Canadian soldiers.  As usual it was really well maintained under the auspices of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.  No doubt we will be banned from using the word Commonwealth if the current madness of hiding from world history continues.

On the way back we tried to walk around one of the many lakes that can be found in the area but had to turn back when we came to a dead end.  The clouds started rolling in when we were nearly home, and we didn’t quite escape the rain when it arrived.  At least we managed to see some butterflies before the sun disappeared including an unusual dwarf form of a speckled wood.

Speckled wood but no scale to show its dwarfism

In rained on and off for the rest of the evening so we spent it indoors, much of the time watching a couple and three children happily fishing and eating in the rain.

On Sunday we cruised four miles up two locks and the only boat we saw was the Canadian cruiser that passed us first thing in the morning.