Tuesday 8th May 2018 St Julien to Montchanin 7.32kms 8 locks

An experimental video of lock 3 Fourneau filling - no time to get back from the blue rope front right to add a rope to the rear floating bollard (the one you can see is the front one, also on the right) before the incoming water pushes the boat left and holds it against the left wall.



7.6ºC Sunny and not quite so hot, nice breeze. A hireboat went past heading downhill around 9am. The cruiser that moored overnight by us also set off around 9am heading uphill, we gave him a head start and set off at 9.50am. The final eight locks to the summit were worked without any problems. Lock 8 Abbaye was a deep one at 5.13m and again like the day before the rope was at the top end and the lock started filling before Mike had backed off to the floater, and so the boat was pushed by the water on to the left hand wall and rose easily, ropeless. Lock 7

Water incoming at Ravin lock 4

Rocher, although only a 2.5m rise did the same as the previous ones with gate paddles – up on the left wall again. Up lock 6 Motte 5.19m and 5 Forge 2.6m with the same effects. Passed the Swedish cruiser we'd seen several times before heading downhill above 5. I had to find a small brolly to get to the rope at lock 4 Ravin without getting drenched as the top end gates and cill were pouring water. Up another 5.18m. Tried doing a video of the water coming in at lock 3 Fourneau as the fountains of water were quite spectacular. A very young VNF man in a car came to chat as we

Below lock 1 Mediterrannee. 

came up another 5.18m in lock 2 Charmois. He said he hadn't seen a narrowboat for three years, he was interested to know about the type of boat and cargoes carried as his canal in earlier days had carried millions of tonnes of coal each year, mined at Montceau-les-Mines. Traffic on this canal must have been impressive. Just one “shallow” lock left to do 1 Mediterrannée, 2.6m lift – Mike shinned up the ladder. The cruiser which set off from St Julien before us was moored above the lock. On to the summit level (about 308m asl) at 11.45am. Through a winding

View down the flight from lk 1

stone lined narrow channel with a bridge carrying the TGV trains, then past the reservoirs on the left bank, higher than the canal (and full of water Mike reported later) with fishermen along its edges. Passed a British widebeam called Lazybones – sure we’d met before - off to the Med. Tied up by the VNF atelier in Montchanin at 12.20pm, just us. Lunch and then at 3pm I gave Mike a hand to get the bike off and he went back to Fragnes to get the car. While he was away I

Painted lock cabin lock 1

got on with the chores, uploaded the photos and had just started on the log when he returned. Two DBs had moored towards the road bridge behind us and as the evening progressed, a cruiser moored behind us and one in front, plus another beyond the road bridge behind us. Quite busy all of a sudden.

Moored by the VNF workshops at Montchanin