Life is a River or The River of Life

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We can’t call it the latter as that was the name of the Channel 4 Documentary about the UN Barge Convoys in Sudan that Peter was a Convoy Leader of way back in 1993. Copies available for a donation.

The Doubs, The Saone, The Seille, The Rhone, The Isere, The Petit Rhone, The Herault are all rivers that we have cruised since June as well as lots of canals.



We left Dole expecting to cruise slowly up to Strasbourg, we knew the current was going to be strong but did not imagine that we would be reduced to 3-4 klms an hour over the ground. After a full days cruise through delightful scenery we wondered whether or not the canals and river should actually be open as it did appear to be dangerous for the inexperienced charterers and even some of the private boats seemed to be having issues, especially going down stream. With the Barrages right next to the locks and the river in full flood it could have been pretty exciting if you had got it wrong.



We talked to a lock keeper and he told us that we were the last boat being allowed upstream and they were closing the system behind us and they had only kept it open to allow us to get to somewhere where we could moor safely and have some services. Little did we know that Ranchot was to be our home for the next 12 days. Apart from a Boulangerie and a restaurant the place does not have much to talk about. Luckily we were on a quai with power and water and there was a train station nearby. There was a British boat on the quai as well so we did get to know them rather well over a few glasses of red.



We were there so long that Peter reached retirement age and celebrated his 65th birthday.



Whilst there we took the train to Besancon and made an appointment with a dentist for Marg to have a filling replaced.



Eventually the stop locks opened and we were allowed to proceed for all of 7 hours when we were again stopped at the Tunnel at Thoraise. This tunnel has a waterfall at the entrance and exit, supposedly it stops when you pass a senser, it’s a bit slow responding so we had a small shower on deck. The lock keeper did not know how long for and as there was nothing here apart from billions of mosquitoes we decided we may need to revise our plans. Luckily we had bought a small quietish generator so could keep our batteries charged, and most importantly stop the ice cream in the freezer melting.



We enjoyed our 4 day stay here despite the rain, with long walks with Yeti, reading, scratching and a few little boat jobs.



The lock keeper informed us that there had been a landslide into the river a few miles north of Besancon and the river would be closed for at least a month. But we could get to Besancon so we booked into the Old Mill Port de Plaisance for a month.



We loved Besancon and decided our month here was going to be a busy time. We were very lucky with our choice of dentist. He was young, spoke English and was not a member of the Inquisition. He had even spent some time in Wales watching rugby. We chose to get all the dental work we had been putting off done, made appointments for the next month and it all went very well indeed. The French NHS kindly contributed towards it.



We loved Besancon, it must be one of Frances best kept secrets; the old walled town, the Citadel, the museums and the great shopping. We were there when all the sales were on and had fun jumping on the trams and buses from one end of the city to the other.



Yeti finally decided to completely destroy the venetian blinds running in and out of them so we decided to buy and fit some curtains, our handy sewing machine was used again.

Technical stuff

We had been plagued with overheating problems and lack of exhaust cooling water when going against the current which meant on our approach to Besancon we were reduced to about 1 klmh flat out.

We stripped the cooling system cleaned all the crud out of three heat exchangers, changed pump impellers, replaced some dodgy looking pipes and lo and behold still had the same problem. Bizarre! Figured that if the blockage was not on the intake or cooling side then it was in the exhaust system. We have this big black rubbery silencer which is probably 30 years old plus and we found that the internals of this had collapsed so that every time the water flow increased with revs it would close off the outlet. We cut all the internals out with a knife and this fixed the problem.

As we had a month Peter decided to strip the injector pump as it was leaking from all the seals and was leaking more than it was using. We got a seal repair kit overnight from the UK ( excellent service and technical help). A bit concerned with this job as the workshop manual showed all sorts of springs and bits that were bound to go boing! into the bilges, and they did. It was quite simple eventually but would suggest that it’s not the sort of job for the less technically minded.

Later, on the way to Dole we had an oil seal ring on the bottom of the oil filter give way and we lost all our engine oil which caused a few moments of concern. Not having a spare Pete had to make one to fit whilst tied up to a tree, shades of making shims for a gear box out of beer cans on SWARA in the middle of the Pacific. Refilled with oil and off we went.

Cruising

We went quickly down to St Jean de Losne where we intended to turn back up the Canal de Bourgogne but decided that a mad dash up and down was not in the spirit of canal cruising and so did one lock and moored outside the shopping centre. We loaded up with goodies and turned around and went back through the lock and tied up at Blanquarts again for the night. Our plan was for a slow cruise to the Canal du Midi.

Cruising down to Chalon we stopped again at Seurre and Verdun Le Doubs to get more oil. It was much faster going downstream and we had a very pleasant cruise to Chalon sur Saone where we spent a couple of days. We had been here twice before in Swara but never had had time to sightsee ( a torn knee cartilage and a diminishing bank balance had limited our stays before). A lovely little town with a great Indian restaurant.

Charter boats have made us laugh and swear for the last 30 years living on boats. They never fail to amuse us with their antics. The one in the photo in this blog had come up to about 100 mm from our stern whilst we were waiting for the big lock on the Saone, we told them to go in front of us which they did and tried to tie up sideways across the lock. After a talking to by the lockkeeper they eventually got it right. On the way out they managed to rip off all their fenders on the gate. We stopped and picked them up for them. We had great fun doing very good rugby passes with their fenders and they did toss us a nice bottle of wine, thank goodness it was not champagne.

We stopped on the free quai at Tournos for a night. There are a lot of vacant shops in Tournos, however most of them have had their windows covered in photos of what they used to sell, see the bookshop photo. We then made our way to the entrance to the Seille River. We went through the first lock with a delightful lock keeper who was Iranian and tied up at the first Halt Nautique at Truchere. Do not tie up at this place as the man who runs it is horrible. When we went to pay the next day he charged us for two places as we had tied up to three cleats. We were the only boat there and as we were bow to and decided to put an extra line from the stern to a cleat to stop us blowing around. As Peter protested against the additional charges the guy called in a heavy to try to intimidate Peter into paying. At this stage Yeti was getting upset at all the loud voices so Peter took him back to the boat in case he defended Peter. At this point Marg went and paid the man, told him exactly what she thought of him and managed to talk Peter into leaving. We have sailed the world and have never been subjected to such treatment and obvious robbery.

The rest of the Seille was delightful, a very tranquil river leading up to Louhans which is a great town with lots of covered walkways and shops and a great market. Aren’t horses clever, we watched two horses stand next to each other head to tail both using their tails to keep flies off the other horse’s face.

The other halts were great with friendly people and one with a swimming pool which was very welcome as it was pretty hot. Only the first lock on the river has a lock keeper and each boat has to operate the rest of the locks entirely on their own. They are totally manual locks, so this was a bit unusual for France. We had a ball, really enjoyed it.



Our next stop was at Macon and we stayed in the modern Marina where we filled up with fuel and re stocked with food. When we were last here Rafiki, our French cat, ran up a tree and we spent the night trying to get him down. That was amazingly 20 years ago!



Our trip to Lyon was lovely with a couple of pleasant stops along the way.



The entry to Lyon from the North on the River Saone is marvelous, probably the best entrance to a city by river anywhere in France. The Basilica on the top of the Fourviere hill is just splendiferous. We found our way to the Port de Plaisance and for 15 Euros a night had security, showers, electricity etc. It is in the Middle of a new complex which has been recently built where heavy industry, railway yards and the old port had fallen into disuse. Some of the buildings have used older ones as part of the refurbishment but some of the new ones are really good examples of very modern architecture. The area is called the Confluence and the Port de Plaisance is in this area. Lyon is a great city to visit for a few days, lots of great walks, history, shopping etc, we walked and walked all over the place and wore Yeti out. Some bizarre sights, see the photo of a man standing on a very high chimney, we were not sure if he was a thief or not. Leaving Lyon on the Saone we joined The Rhone at the confluence of the two rivers.







The Rhone is just magnificent, the river is bordered by endless castles and with the current with us we had a fast trip all the way. From Lyon to Valence with an overnight stop at St Vallier. A couple of nights in Valence and on to Cruas which has a medieval village which has been restored and you can stay in gites in the very old town, which would be pretty neat.



Many years ago we had stopped on a quai at St Etienne des Sorts in Swara and bought some wine from a Cave which we raved about for years. We stopped again and bought some more of this wonderful Cote du Rhone and now wish we had bought some more. It doesn’t seem to last long on Vintage Cru. Yum! It was very hot here so we decided to Baptise Yeti in the Holy water fountain outside the church. He did protest as he believes he is a Bhuddist.



The locks on the Rhone are big ,Bollene being the biggest at 22.5 metres drop, are so easy with floating bollards and we enjoyed them all. We had to wait for an hour at one lock but most of them we either went straight in or had a short waiting period on the waiting jetty, some we went in with big cruise ships, there are lots of these on the Rhone . One lock kept us waiting for about half an hour and then closed the gates again , we talked to the eclusier who had forgotten we were there, he stopped the operation and opened the gates for us. Nice guy. As the gates opened at the bottom a huge ship was on its way in, panic panic, he had given him the green light previously and the ship was still coming in. We squeezed past the astonished ship, not sure who was more taken aback.



We stopped at a very expensive halt at Aramon, but as it was the only one available decided the E 25 was worth it. The close by town was lovely again with a medieval part to it. Great Boulangerie and possibly the best croissants in France.



We turned on to the Petit Rhone which is pretty unremarkable, almost boring in fact after the grandeur of the Rhone.



Entering the Canal Rhone a Sete we tied up to the canal bank in exactly the same place as we had tied up in Swara in 1998. This was our first sighting of Camargue horses and bulls. The next day we went up the canal to St Gilles where there was a great market and the local tourist lady insisted we stay for the running of the bulls across the canal. Well this sounded exciting, after standing in the sun for an hour we were about to give up when there were lots of horsemen on the other side and an expectant hush as we waited for the bulls. After another twenty minutes in the sun the bulls arrived! There were just three very small black bulls with plastic horns and quite frankly they looked like reindeer gone wrong. We thought this was the warm up for the main event so we hung on, then the same three bulls came across the canal again. It was so dangerous that they even allowed the kids to swim in the river with them. The three bulls were then put in a truck and sent round to the other side again where they once more crossed the canal. Hmm-mm. We went back to the boat and decided to give the bulls running in the street spectacular a miss.



Cruising through the Camargue was different , some longish boring stretches but some with so much wildlife it was delight . We tied up to the wall by an Etang for the night and wondered why Yeti was going nuts then we saw thousands of rabbits running on the salt pan next to us. Great fun keeping Yeti on the lead when he went for a walk especially as some of the rabbits decided to panic and run at him instead of away.



We plodded along the Rhone a Sete canal, stopping on the banks until we came to Frontigan. We had been told to avoid this place by some people we met in Lyon who had been going there for years had been held up at knife point in the town one evening by a gang. There was an empty place on the quai so we decided to stop for water, the town seemed delightful and quiet and as there were lots of other boats we decided to stay, we then found out it was free except for water, so we stayed three days and had a great time, visited some caves and did some wine tasting. We are sure there are places in the North that sell wine in bulk but they do seem more common in the South. You take in your Bidon ( french for jerry can, the first time they asked us for our bidon 20 years ago we thought they meant bidet and could not figure that one out) and fill it up from what looks like an old fashioned petrol pump. Sometimes the wine is absolutely fantastic and sometimes its yuk but it is always cheap. Well not so much when you pour it away, not sure if they let you taste a different wine in some places.





Now for our big adventure, Vintage Cru goes to Sea, well almost! We left Sete and crossed the Etang du Thau on a perfect day, no wind and scintillating sea. Checked the chart for depths and could not see the need to follow the lateral marks along the edges of the oyster beds. All those fast flat out charter boats that had pushed past us were left taking the long way around whilst we cruised across the Etang and entered the Canal du Midi at last.

















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Comments

[Gordon Poffenroth (Nayiri)- living in Bedford, NS Canada]

MEMORIES
A big hello to you two voyagers ! A thank-you for sending me your blog as i do enjoy reading it as it brings back MULTI memories of Marnie and my canal cruising. WE first met in Antalya, Turkey where you were doing extensive modification to Swara and met again on the Rhone in Lyon. It was here you had your very black cat up a tyree. To resume the cat you borrowed my ladder off of Nayiri. Up you went and coming down, stepping off of the last rung there was squid--my oh my. WE all had a hearty laugh--LOL. Do keep in touch. Now that you are 65, your pension money can be spent on that fabulous french wine and cognac or brandy . By the way a Armanac brandy is as good as the cognacs. Pleasant travels and experiences.  "Take care of each other" Gord