Kerr Barging Blogs

At last the tasks were done and we are now into new territory. We headed towards Cambrai, the town from which "Cambric" takes its namThe Rubense. This is still the territory of Belfries and Giants, in this case Martin and Martine who stand tall outside the beautiful Town Hall clock and help to strike the hours. Legend has it that they were also responsible for saving the town from invasion in the 16th Century.

Martin and Martine

Like so much of this area, Cambrai was very badly damaged in World War 1 but much has been restored. Some buildings were spared, including St Gery church built on the remains of a Roman church building.There we found a beautiful Rubens, the Entombment of Christ. 

On the 20th of November 1917, British troops attacked the Hindenburg Line. 381 tanks were involved. In this terrible battle, 44,207 British and 50,000 Germans were killed or badly wounded.

Best Regards,

Penny and Dave

 In the Gardens of the Caves

 The Hotel de Ville (Town Hall) with Martin and Martine

One of the old city gates

 The Public Gardens

The Public Gardens

The Public Flower Gardens

Walks through the Public Gardens

We left the boat yard with a few tasks undone and unfortunately several of these involved the delivery of large objects. How to manage that when you are on a barge moving every day? If it's a parcel, Post Restante works very well and we picked up a large drill and a drill tap at the Post Office in Peronne. But what about batteries or a water tank! An internet search revealed a system of "Relais", shops which are willing to accept courier deliveries and hold them until they can be collected. So we tried to send two large batteries to an Andresy newsagent, but that didn't work out, so they ended up at a hairdresser, unfortunately a bit further away. The water tank went to a bike shop in Peronnes and last year we picked up a parcel at an optometrist near Armentieres and one at a supermarket. This system works very well from our point of view because often we have no idea exactly where we will end up at a particular time and no courier company would be able to fit in with our nomadic existence. It is just as well that we have a solid trolley: David walked over 2 kms with the two 20 kgs batteries. Luckily the cumbersome  60 litre water tank was only 300 metres from the boat.

The cygnets have been appearing the past two weeks
So our trip North from Paris along the Oise River and Canal du Nord was busy with making good time on the waterways; picking up parcels; and installing batteries and water tanks. There was a strike of lock keepers for a day, protesting against the reduction of expenditure on the waterways, inflamed by a statement from the new Minister from Transport that seemed to ignore the river systems . We were not travelling on that day anyhow but there was a lot of built up traffic the next day as a result. The locks on the Oise are large and double, that is, two operate independently, sometimes to take one boat up and another down at the same time, at other times to clear a backlog quickly. At one of the first locks of the day we had a little wait as both locks were bringing boats towards us. Then the gates opened at the same time, and thirteen huge barges exited. Together they carried the load of 250 sem-itrailers. Sorry, no photos, we were fully occupied keeping out of their way as they charged down the river past us.

As we had travelled this way before we did not spend much time exploring. Instead David succeeded in installing the electric hot water system and then connecting it up so that the engine can heat the water as we go along, a project he had previously discarded as impossible, so even more celebrated when completed and very effective. With the new batteries the bow thruster thrusts much more powerfully and is quite scary when one is at the bow waiting to throw a line onto an approaching bollard.

The Canal du Nord

There are two choices of route North towards Belgium and the Netherlands. One is via the Canal St Quentin, a smaller canal with many locks which are basically Freycinet size. For us the main problem with it is the tunnel at the summit. Whereas boats are allowed to drive through other tunnels we have been on, boats are towed through this tunnel which is 5.67 kilometres long. We have heard some sad stories of people sustaining quite serious damage during the tow if the ropes on  their boat or those in front are not properly adjusted. There are only two passages of boats a day in each direction so the row of craft might be quite long, with the heaviest at the front. All engines are turned off so one is entirely at the mercy of the tower and the other people in the line.

Penny working the lines in a large lock (with another barge)

We have therefore preferred to avoid this route and instead use the Canal du Nord though it carries more commercial traffic and is probably less scenic. It was begun in the early 1900s but massively damaged especially during the First World War. It was finally finished in the 1960s but is not adequate for the number and size of barges which use it. We have already described the 13 barges exiting from the lock on the Oise River; the locks on the Canal du Nord could have handled only one large or two smaller of those barges at one time, yet the two are in effect a single route. Similarly the "Large Gauge" Canal to its North has enormous locks which take very large boats, which cannot fit into the Nord locks. As a result there is a new canal being built to take the bigger boats and the extra traffic, to be called the Seine-Nord Europe Canal, estimated to be in use by 2016. Boatrs each carrying the load of 150 large trucks will be able to use the new canal.

Last year we had an excellent run on the Canal du Nord. This year the Nord was much busier and we could see how much difference it will make when the new Canal is in operation. Estimates are that the opening of the new canal will lead to an instant doubling of the amount of water traffic moved in France.

Best Regards,

Penny and Dave

Notre Dame de Paris- straight ahead!

We had a fast non-stop trip through Paris. It began slowly because we had to time our passage through the Port a l'anglais lock so that we would reach the Traffic Lights near Notre Dame at the right time. However, once we were in the lock, the lock-keeper got us to move way forward to the lock gates. Then we were joined by a further four large commercial barges. There were several thousand tonnes of them and only 36 tonnes of us. But, everyone was very calm and polite and finally the lock mechanism got going. At one time, there was only 20cm between the boat behind and our stern!

Going downstream, you can only cross that part of the Seine (near Notre Dame) for 15 minutes each hour. All went well- no blankets in the propeller and no boarding by the Paris water police to tell us to go faster!

Overnight stop- Ile des Impressionistes

We reached our stopping place 57Km down stream and had a pleasant time at the Ile des Impressionistes where Renoir and many others did a lot of painting. We visited the good museum Fournaise and learned more about early days on the Seine. Then on Saturday, we pushed off for our first short day for a while- to Andresy, which is at the confluence of the Seine and Oise River. Andresy is 263Km from our starting point at Migennes, so we have gone 10% of our projected total distance this year in under one week!

Here, we expected to pick up a couple of replacement bowthruster batteries, but things went wrong, so we are staying here several extra days. We hope we will have the batteries tomorrow and head off up the Oise River towards the N.E. of France and Belgium.

 Museum Fournaise

Here at Andresy, they have just opened the Annual sculpture exhibition (which we attended last year). All the sculptures are different (there are 60) and most of them are only visitable on the Ile de Nancy. There is a free ferry provided five days a week. We enjoyed the stroll around the island and found the sculptures generally excellent. A couple of the exhibits were attended by the artists, who explained what they were about. However, there was also an excellent free book with detailed descriptions.

Unfortunately, the National barging Museum at Conflans is still being refurbished so again we will miss it. We had looked forward to a visit this year.

 Conflans- Barging Capital of France

We have ordered a new electric water tank (we still have the working diesel-fired heating system) and hope to pick it up by the end of the week.

Anja was 111 yesterday. Happy Birthday Anja.

Best Regards,

Dave and Penny

The headless women

Sculpture from tree branches & elephant from recycled materials

While we were working on ANJA in the boatyard, we noticed a fellow "George" working very hard on his wooden boat. We learned that it was one of the original Lifeboats on the Mauritania. Indeed, it is very likely that it is the onbly one left. The Mauritania was launched as a fast, luxury liner in 1938 but as soon as the war started, it was comandeered and converted into a Troopship in Sydney Australia! So, the boat next to us had been to Australia. Indeed, it went many places as the Mauritania did over 543,000km just during the war. Not only that, this lifeboat has never been in the water!

 The Mauritania's Life Boat

The coincidences increased when Penny remembered that her father had travelled on the Mauritania towards the end of the war in Europe.

Penny's father John Cunliffe served as a Navigator in the Royal Australian Air Force during World War 11. He joined in April 1941 and in September left for Edmonton Canada for  training with the British Empire Air Training scheme. From there he was stationed in Dorval, near Montreal with RAF Transport Command, ferrying planes built in the North America to Britain. Of course, he had then to return to North America for the next delivery and that meant running the gauntlet of the German Navy in the Atlantic. On one such trip, in July 1942,  he travelled on the Queen Mary and as he was an officer, was placed in charge of one of the machine guns on the boat deck. On another trip on the Empress of Scotland in January 1943 he was in charge of Submarine and Aircraft lookouts.

John was fortunate to be crew on a delivery flight from the USA to Australia in September 1942. He revisited his young wife Julie, last seen a year before, and to meet his baby daughter Annette, born in May 1942.  

In February 1944 John was posted in England to  575 Squadron stationed at Broadwell near Oxford. From here he took part in D Day and the subsequent months of flying into Europe, particularly Northern France and Belgium. On D day and in the weeks following he made many trips across the Channel, towing gliders and also dropping parachutists and supplies, ferrying back the wounded. For one brief period in late September 1944 he was stationed in Brussels, before returning to England in October to be repatriated to Australia.

On his final trip from England home to Australia, John travelled on the Mauritania, departing from Liverpool on November 2nd 1944 and arriving about November 7th in New York. He then had a substantial wait until travelling by train from New York to San Francisco starting   on December 2nd, boarding the Lurline at San Francisco (reached by train from New York) on December 13th, arriving in Brisbane on January 16th. Had he been able to get an earlier boat he would perhaps have been home in time to spend Christmas for the first time with his wife and his 2 1/2  year old daughter Annette Penny's older sister).

Best Regards,

Penny and Dave

We have been pressing on fast since Joigny. Firstly we went to Sens and the following day, aster a fast run, reached Montereau at the junction of the Yonne and Seine Rivers. Since then, we have travelled 96km in two days and reached the Southern part of Paris, several days ahead of schedule. We have even managed to finish varnishing the mast and the rustproofing under the floor! We quite enjoy the Seine and have been able to "tag along" with a commercial barge and therefore experience very little delay at the locks.

 Montereau at the junction of the Yonne and Seine Rivers

We have been travelling more slowly on the Seine this year because it is not in flood. However that is also more relaxing as well.

Next, we will have a long day transiting Paris and staying on the North side at the end of the day. We will then be in the area where the Impressionists painted.

 The difficult tank (circular with red button in middle)

You will recall we were disappointed to find that we could not use the electric water heater to also heat water from waste heat produced by the engine. Well, we had further problems with it because it started to leak and the element developed a fault. So, I (David) emptied it and isolated it from our hot water system. I then decided to try and remove the tank and actually succeeded in finally removing it. It is 17 years old. Rather than buy a new element and put it back, we have decided to buy a new one which will also let us connect up the engine to it for "free" hot water. The main challenge is finding an address where it can be delivered as we are moving rapidly further away towards the North.

We also had a problem with the Bowthruster batteries which have rapidly died. They are seven years old and we have ordered replacements which we should receive in a couple of days. The Bowthruster is a "nice to have" rather than a "must have" item.

Penny teaches the carpet "Who is the Boss" between the Seine and railway line