THUNDERSTORMS AND LIGHTNING
descent before renewing the climb. Locking down is quicker and securing lines simpler, so Marjorie was able to get back on board and before long we were turning left to join the Vosges canal.
We were now just 2km from a village called Richardmenil, the place I had selected as the first of only two possible moorings en route. Although only mid-afternoon, Marjorie and I decided to call it a day. We had been on the go for nearly eight hours and she had worked particularly hard in the heat. Our friends in the Pedro paused briefly to thank us for our assistance but decided to press on. We were sorry to see them go but couldn’t help wondering whether, working the locks on their own, they were actually going to get there any quicker!
Our choice of mooring turned out to be rather uninspiring. Richardmenil seemed more like a commuter base for Nancy than the attractive old French village we had been hoping for. So after a late lunch, keen to see what lay ahead, I got the bike out intending to take a ride up the towpath. Understandably, Marjorie felt she had enjoyed enough exercise that morning and opted to stay on board with a good book. This turned out to be a wise decision. My first problem was that the towpath was impossibly rough, difficult even to walk along let alone cycle.
Then there was the weather, initially oppressively warm and later, as I cycled along the road looking for access to the canal, distinctly thundery. I ended up trying to shelter under a tree from torrential rain, while watching the frequent lightning.
I also failed in my main objective. I had spotted on the chart an interesting looking aqueduct carrying the canal over the Moselle and wanted to get a photograph of it. Sadly, there was no obvious way to reach it from the road. I consoled myself with a picture of people swimming in the Moselle, while Marjorie stayed dry and got a nice shot of the stormy sky from the comfort of
Our second day’s run was 30km with 15 well-spaced locks through a beautiful wooded valley. The canal closely followed the line of the river, at this stage too steep and rocky to be navigable. However there were regular junctions of river and canal, where the Moselle acted as a feeder, with big arrows making it clear which way to take your boat.
We were now getting good at using an extended boat hook to attach our ropes in the locks, so we made swift progress. After a relaxing and problem-free cruise through lovely countryside, by 1600 we were looking for a mooring in Charmes, our final stop before the summit. Despite our early arrival, there was only one space left and it was a tight squeeze. The moorings were part of a campsite in attractive parkland overlooking the canal and infant Moselle, with far more motorhomes than boats. Even though it was Sunday, shops and cafes were open and the town had a real holiday atmosphere. The sun was shining, the temperature still high and all that was missing was a swimming pool. Marge cooled off sitting on the bathing platform dabbling her feet but I was determined to have a swim in the Moselle. Sadly, this close to the source it was so shallow that I had to lie down to get wet, but it was still pleasingly cooling.
CLOCK’S TICKING
While Charmes was a great place, I was starting to fear that we had left ourselves too tough a challenge for day three. We were still 26km and 30 locks from the summit, and I learned from a crew on the way down that VNF were controlling access to the