Tuesday 17th April 2018 Roville to Nomexy 23.9kms 14 locks.

Moored at Roville by the silo

3.7ºC. Sunny and hot. Light breeze. Somewhere across the other side of the canal a donkey was braying loudly as we set off at 9.20am. Just a short distance to lock 38 Bayon which was empty - as were all the rest and we saw no other boats moving (same as yesterday), plus all the ladders (bar a couple) were on the side opposite the rods. Distance between locks was on average 2kms. There were two lady walkers who stopped to watch us lock through 37 Chaud-Rupt and had a chat. At 36 Bainville Mike

Painted bricked up windows. Bainville

tried zapping with the phone, oops, it didn’t work. The rod and ladder were on the same side, whoopee, and we had gongoozlers watching from the tail end bridge. Saw the first kingfisher of this year on the longer 2.5kms pound to lock 35 Gripport. I made a cuppa. A VNF van went past on the road, heading uphill. There was a little VNF lorry by the lockhouse. The van arrived and one of the three occupants got out and fetched the record sheet from the lock cabin then asked where we were

Below lock 38 Bayon

headed. VNF were doing bank protection work, removing trees and adding rocks to the canal edge. On to Moulin de Gripport lock 34. Another VNF man in a van turned up at 34, he took a rope and lifted the rod for us while chatting with Mike. Some pounds have water feeds from the river and there was an overflow getting rid of the excess just above lock 34. As the day became hotter so the clouds of midges grew, fortunately for us not biting ones. Up lock 33 Socourt, and on to 32 Plaine de Charmes. The river and canal wound round the old town of Charmes up two more locks 31

See-through piling

Charmes (wasp nest in top end gate) and 30 Moulin de Charmes. Took photos of old chimneys, one looked like the stack for a stationary steam engine with a high roofed building with big windows behind it. Two Dutch barges (Popov and Adhi Kaya) plus an un-named cruiser filled the layby - they were there last year, the next quay had no boats but upwards of 12 campervans were making use of the water and electric posts. Lock 29 Vincey was in a small town of the same name and there were old factory buildings lying derelict. From Vincey there was

Old lock house 35 Gripport - now a home for bats

an old railway track alongside the canal, its rails had gone but ballast and concrete sleepers were still in place. A bit further on the main railway line ran alongside the canal. Lots of cyclists and walkers were using the metalled towpath – we saw one speedskater on rollerblades but she wasn’t going very fast. Into lock 28 Portieux and the wind blew the bows over to the right wall so I was able to lift the rod and save Mike a walk. A VNF lorry was loading big branches from chopped down trees, it was accompanied by a

Bank protection work at Gripport

VNF van with flashing lights. In lock 27 Fouys Mike lost the rope while climbing the ladder (he ran out of slack and had to drop it or it would have pulled him off the ladder) so I had to recover it (it sinks) and reverse back to the ladder for him to collect it – glad we had no watchers when making a pig’s ear of it! When the lock was almost full a TGV train went past – the railway was about 10m from the lock. That was loud! Leaving lock 26 l’Avière we went over an aqueduct crossing the river of the

Storm weir at Gripport

same name, l’Avière, a tributary of the Moselle. A fisherman was fishing in the canal, he was sitting in the shade on the non-towpath side beyond the aqueduct. We’d seen lots of fishermen fishing the river and its lakes but none on the canal. The towpath was thick with traffic still, a youth on a motorbike (no plates) went roaring past at a dangerously high speed when there are children on bikes about. Last lock of the day 25 Nomexy and we moored at the quay with trees and a picnic table (a young man

Disused factory chimneys at Charmes

was asleep on one its bench seats). The same guy who was walking his dog when we were here last year was on the quay and said hello. Tied up at 3.40pm and set up the TV etc. Mike went off on the moped to get the car from Pagny 100 kms away.

Mural below Nomexy lock 25