Sunday
27th July - Monday 4th August
Montbéliard
We
spent 9 days in Montbéliard as the river Doubs was closed due to high river
levels. The canal and river was opened in sections but we decided to stay at
Montbéliard until we knew that we could get onto the river section after
L’Isle-sur-le-Doubs. We had heard it was
really busy at Isle-sur-le-Doubs with boats stuck because of the river closure,
and as we had a great mooring at Montbéliard we were happy to stay put.
Harvey
and Sandra arrived on Hoop Doet Leven a few days after us, we had a fun evening
with them and a couple of New Zealanders we’d met who were moored on our
pontoon. Sandra and Harvey then hired a
car and disappeared for a few days because the river was closed.
Friday
1st August we took the train to Belfort, just a 15-20 minute train
ride, it’s a lovely city, with a citadel.
There is a canal that branches off the canal du Rhone au Rhin that goes
to Belfort but it’s no longer in use, which is a real shame.
Le
Koala arrived Friday late afternoon and we caught up on all their news. They had got stuck at Briesach on The Rhine
due to high river levels.
 |
| A storm coming our way! |
 |
| It was amazing to see this storm arrive as it was blue skies one minute, thunderstorm the next |
Montbéliard to Isle-sur-le-Doubs
13 locks 23.5km 7½ hours
Finally we have been told the Canal du Rhône au Rhin/Doubs is open, both ways.
We left at 9am, following Le Koala. We had quite a slow trip, we had a few problems with some locks not working properly and we got to a swing bridge that is operated by the VNF just at 12.30pm, their lunch time, so we had to wait an hour. We got to Isle-sur-le-Doubs by 4.30pm. Le Koala had decided to stop at a rural mooring at Colombier-Châtelot, but we wanted just to get as far as we could in one day before the river section started.
The next part of our journey for us would be on a long river section. During the day we had seen the river and it was running pretty wild and fast. We had been told that it had rained a lot near the source of the river and that the levels were due to rise again in the next 36-48 hours. On the river bridge at Isle-sur-le-Doubs there is a marker showing the depth of the river, it was hard to read from where we were standing but we think it said 1.6m. We decided to go back early in the morning to look at it again to see if the river was on the rise again, before we made the decision to go onto the river. We also cycled to the lock that will take us onto the river and the river, although running fast didn’t look too bad.
 |
| Le Koala at the first lock of the day they moored at Colombier Chatelot we carried onto Isle sur le Doubs |
 |
| Our nice mooring at L'Isle sur le Doubs We pushed the trolley from the supermarket so very handy |
Wednesday 6th August
Isle-sur-le-Doubs to Deluz
24 locks 48km 8¾ hrs
We were up at 6.30am, and it was so foggy, we almost couldn’t see the front of the boat! Not what we wanted, although we knew once it cleared it was due to be a beautiful sunny day. We went to look at the river bridge marker and the river level was down…hurray!
We waited until the fog cleared and left at 8am. I was terrified about being on the river with the strong current, but as usual, my fears were unfounded, we had a great day, although it is extremely unnerving going downstream on a fast running river approaching the locks, as they are situated just by the weirs. The locks are set in the favour of boats going downstream, so we could go straight in, once the gates opened, but there was always the worry that the lock would be unavailable due to another boat in there, or that the automatic lock would be faulty. One thing that wasn’t nice was that once we were on the river, for the first 30 mins or so it was still very foggy, it was hard to make out where we were going! Our speed was around 10-12kph and only 1000 revs.
 |
| Our first lock on the river |
 |
| this doesn't look to bad but the river was running pretty fast the fog clearing but still pretty thick hence no more photos for a while! |
 |
| Looks pretty serene doesn't it? The lock is on the left, to the right is the weir, you can't see it but you can certainly hear it as you approach Red and green lights on the lock which means its being prepared for you and we can see the gates are opening thank goodness |
 |
| Damaged buoy with debris from the flood |
 |
| Nice to see Ithake (Piper barge) going past us heading for Besançon We last saw Ithake on The Thames last July |
Thursday 7th August
Deluz to PK 57 Weir mooring
13 locks 36km 7hrs
We had another long trip, we could have stopped at Besançon, but we decided we just want to get off the river. We were moored at our favourite spot by just after 2pm. Harvey and Sandra left Montbéliard yesterday, and managed to catch us up and moor by us by the side of the weir. It was great to see them again. They must have been shattered, they’d covered such long distances, but they are like us they don’t want to get stuck on the river. They had managed 18kph, we’ve never been that fast!!!
 |
| This is how the weir looked at the end of June when we moored there when we were going upstream |
 |
| This is how the weir looked this time, much more water flowing over We'd have liked to have seen what it looked like a few days ago |
 |
| Hoop Doet Leven joined us after their mammoth journey of 11 hours |
PK57 weir mooring to Dole
14 locks 38km 6½ hrs
We left at 7.20am and arrived at Dole before 2pm. We had a great trip today. The river seemed much calmer, and we had long canal sections, and we lost count of how many kingfishers we saw today. We were certain that Dole would be busy and that we wouldn’t get a mooring, but as we turned the corner to enter into Dole, the quayside was empty!!! Harvey and Sandra arrived an hour later and there was still plenty of space for them. We are not sure how long we will stay here. Our next destination will be back to St Jean de Losne and then along the Canal du Bourgogne to our winter mooring at Migennes. Lets hope the rain/thunderstorms we have been having will have eased the severe water shortage on the canal du Bourgogne.
 |
| Another misty morning |
 |
| We were very lucky this Kingfisher sat on a branch as we went by |
 |
| Arriving in beautiful Dole |
 |
| The quay filled up in the afternoon Amarok (Piper barge) arrived with its english part share owners Le Koala will arrive in a couple of days so we'll have 3 pipers lined up! |
No comments:
Post a Comment