Rangali Adventures: Monceaux le Comte to PK 78 Les Granges

Friday 25^th April

9 locks and 4 drawbridges 12.5km 9am – 2.45pm

We had an amazing meal at Auberge du Centre last night. The hosts are a husband and wife team, we believe from Switzerland, and they spoke perfect English so we cheated and spoke quite of bit of English last night. It’s a really lovely restaurant, great food, we really recommend stopping at Monceaux le Comte. We didn’t stop there last year partly because the logs that were being sprinkled looks quite off putting. Admittedly the woodpile was bigger last year, but once you are moored up the sound of the sprinklers is fine.

We had arranged to be at our first lock at 10am, but we knew we had two swing bridges to get through before we got to the lock so we set off just before 9am. We have found that some of the swing bridges have been changed to push button affairs from last year so they are much easier and quicker. So we were early for our first lock, luckily the lock keeper was there so we managed to get started straight away.

We were aiming for Chitry les Mines where we moored last year, there is a brilliant chandlery there in the village, so worth visiting, Ted Johnson who runs the chandlery is English and he can order you items to pick up on your way through if need be. We knew there was going to be work done at the port and canal during the winter, but when we arrived at Chitry it was evident that it wasn’t finished and we couldn’t moor there. So we had to carry on until we got to the next lock, not far, but nowhere really to moor up. The banks on either side had all been worked on, and the soil looked loose so wouldn’t hold our pins, and the sides were sloping so shallow. Kev and I ended up having a ‘discussion’ about where we should moor up, both with different ideas, the wind had increased and we found that we were floating quietly to the side, a perfect mooring manoeuver. We were getting rather irate with each other, (we hadn’t had any breakfast, and it was coming up to lunchtime), but when we noticed that we had moored perfectly without either of us doing anything we burst out laughing, so we kissed and made up!

We had told our lock keeper who had been with us all day that we were going to stop at Chitry, so we didn’t think we would be able to carry on, but he appeared at 1pm after his lunch to work the lock for the yellow sailboat. We shared the next 3 locks with the sailboat to a Locoboat marina at PK 78. It’s a great spot, nice clean pontoon, electric and water, the charge is 13.50 euros per night. So the washing and dishwasher has been on. No other facilities though, no shops, restaurants, and no boulangerie.

We had a lovely hot shower, changed into clean clothes, took a little walk to see the next lock, and we are now sitting with a glass of wine. We keep saying we are not going to drink today, but by the end of the day our resolve weakens. We are both stiff and achy, throwing ropes and keeping control of the boat as the lock fills is hard work. And we have both forgiven each other for getting crotchety so all is well with the world!

This second swing bridge of the day was manual

The gentleman from the yellow sail boat kindly opened our swing bridge for us
a previous swing bridge the lock keeper worked for us so its been an easy day for me really

All the boats that normally moor at Chitry were moored here at PK85

Our helpful and friendly Lock keeper
He must think we are right numpties, we really struggled throwing our ropes in the first lock
All the locks today were around 2.6m deep, and the bollards are usually set far back,
I stand on the roof to see them but for some reason today
my rope throwing was not good, very frustrating.