Kerr Barging Blogs
We have spent a fair bit of time cruising in the South Pacific aboard our 33 years young 11.1metre yacht, Pastime of Sydney. We are now cruising through the canals and rivers of France on our old barge, "Anja", which was built in the North of the Netherlands in 1903. Anja was 110 years old in May 2013 and we celebrated with good French Champagne- but the boat did not get any! In 2014, for Anja's 111th, we took her back to where she was built in the North of the Netherlands.
As North as possible in France
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A reminder that you can see the map with our travels on the home page.
From the Somme Valley, we proceeded North along the remainder of the Canal du Nord (Canal of the North). We had a side trip up the hardly-used Scarpe Superior to Arras, which we had thoroughly enjoyed in 2013. The trip was quite slow because four of the seven locks broke down and we had long waiting times for someone to come and fix them. Indeed, on the first day it took us five hours to travel five Kms and four locks! On the way out, only one of the seven locks broke. We had been issued with a remote control for the locks but had to summon someone by telephone every time there was a failure.
From Arras, we proceeded North again, through Douai to Lille, where we picked up visitors Charlie and Brian who had been to World Youth Day in Poland. They had been very sleep deprived and were able to recover during their eight days with us on Anja. We travelled along the Deule River to the River Lys which we had also enjoyed in 2013. We visited Armentiers and other towns along the River. From Sailly sur Lys, Brian and Charlie were able to duplicate our bike ride from 2013 by visiting Fromelles, VC Corner, Pheasant's Wood, Le Trou First Aid Post and other places from WWI.
We had an excellent lunch at Sailly to celebrate our 45th Wedding Anniversary. It was a fantastic restaurant in what is a relatively small town (of 2,000 people). Guests must have come from many other places because the restaurant was large and full. They even provided a Jumping Castle for children to enjoy.
From the Lys River, we rejoined the large, high capacity canal of the Sensee. There, many of the barges are 1,500 to 3,000 tonnes. But, the canal is wide do there was plenty of room for all of us. We were able to stop for one night near the disused Fontinettes Boat lift. We had seen some like it in Belgium. This boat lift replaced a staircase of five locks which took around 7hrs to traverse. The boatlift could pass six barges per hour. It is made up of two "bathtubs" linked together so that when one went down, the other went up. The design is Scottish and the boatlift operated continuously for 80 years from 1886 to 1967. David visited it and saw the film of it working- taken two weeks before the final closure (because it could not handle the newer, bigger barges). It was passing 2,000,000tonnes of produce a year which is very good.
From there, we went to Dunkirk (Dunkerque in French). Highlights of the visit were:
The 12th Century Belfry with magnificient views.
The Port Museum which detailed the history of the town and its commerce.
The Operation Dynamo Museum which illustrated and documented the evacuation of 338,000 allied and French troops from Dunkirk in WW2.
The famous Dunkirk Beaches.
The Cathedral.
We will send photos in a separate Blog (which Gmail might refuse to accept).
We farewelled Charlie and Brian a short while ago. They are going to Frankfurt for a flight to Australia later in the night.
At the moment, we have stopped for the night 2Kms short of the Belgian border, near the old Customs Post and near the town of Bray sur Dunes. There are not many boats along this section of canal. So far, we have travelled almost 1,000Kms and are looking forward to visiting Ypres, after which we will be turning around.
Best Regards,
David and Penelope
A reminder that you can see the map with our travels on the home page.
From the Somme Valley, we proceeded North along the remainder of the Canal du Nord (Canal of the North). We had a side trip up the hardly-used Scarpe Superior to Arras, which we had thoroughly enjoyed in 2013. The trip was quite slow because four of the seven locks broke down and we had long waiting times for someone to come and fix them. Indeed, on the first day it took us five hours to travel five Kms and four locks! On the way out, only one of the seven locks broke. We had been issued with a remote control for the locks but had to summon someone by telephone every time there was a failure.
From Arras, we proceeded North again, through Douai to Lille, where we picked up visitors Charlie and Brian who had been to World Youth Day in Poland. They had been very sleep deprived and were able to recover during their eight days with us on Anja. We travelled along the Deule River to the River Lys which we had also enjoyed in 2013. We visited Armentiers and other towns along the River. From Sailly sur Lys, Brian and Charlie were able to duplicate our bike ride from 2013 by visiting Fromelles, VC Corner, Pheasant's Wood, Le Trou First Aid Post and other places from WWI.
We had an excellent lunch at Sailly to celebrate our 45th Wedding Anniversary. It was a fantastic restaurant in what is a relatively small town (of 2,000 people). Guests must have come from many other places because the restaurant was large and full. They even provided a Jumping Castle for children to enjoy.
From the Lys River, we rejoined the large, high capacity canal of the Sensee. There, many of the barges are 1,500 to 3,000 tonnes. But, the canal is wide do there was plenty of room for all of us. We were able to stop for one night near the disused Fontinettes Boat lift. We had seen some like it in Belgium. This boat lift replaced a staircase of five locks which took around 7hrs to traverse. The boatlift could pass six barges per hour. It is made up of two "bathtubs" linked together so that when one went down, the other went up. The design is Scottish and the boatlift operated continuously for 80 years from 1886 to 1967. David visited it and saw the film of it working- taken two weeks before the final closure (because it could not handle the newer, bigger barges). It was passing 2,000,000tonnes of produce a year which is very good.
From there, we went to Dunkirk (Dunkerque in French). Highlights of the visit were:
The 12th Century Belfry with magnificient views.
The Port Museum which detailed the history of the town and its commerce.
The Operation Dynamo Museum which illustrated and documented the evacuation of 338,000 allied and French troops from Dunkirk in WW2.
The famous Dunkirk Beaches.
The Cathedral.
We will send photos in a separate Blog (which Gmail might refuse to accept).
We farewelled Charlie and Brian a short while ago. They are going to Frankfurt for a flight to Australia later in the night.
At the moment, we have stopped for the night 2Kms short of the Belgian border, near the old Customs Post and near the town of Bray sur Dunes. There are not many boats along this section of canal. So far, we have travelled almost 1,000Kms and are looking forward to visiting Ypres, after which we will be turning around.
Best Regards,
David and Penelope
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