A busy morning's cruising today, with 18 locks to negotiate in the space of 6 nautical miles. There is barely time to get your gloves off after one before the next one comes round the corner. The first 11 locks were manual, with a series of lock keepers accompanying us upstream, until at Etreux we were sent on our way with the promise that the locks would open automatically. In addition there are several swinging and lifting bridges which are also operated, some manually, by the lock keepers. Approaching the summit of this little used canal, the surrounding countryside is very picturesque and rural, with tiny villages surviving miles from civilisation. With one lock keeper operating a chain of locks, many of the lock cottages are no longer needed for their original use. Some stand derelict whilst others have been tastefully restored with European funding, as their shiny plaques testify.

The well-equipped pontoons at the Halte Fluvial at Etreux were a welcome sight after our exhausting morning, although they were sadly under occupied. We were the only boat there as we made a much needed lunch stop. There seems to be a great interest in encouraging tourism on the Canal de la Sambre a l'Oise now that barge traffic is more sparse, but we still only see the occasional leisure boater.

We opted to push on to Landrecies, with the promise of shopping facilities in the town which Etreux could not boast. However, by mid afternoon the rain started to fall in earnest and we were treated to a very wet afternoon's cruise - one of those days when you get so wet you can't get any wetter, even if you stand out in the rain arguing with Dutchmen - which is exactly what we did when we got to Landrecies. Despite having seen only one other boat all day, when we pulled up at the halte nautique all the pontoons were full up with Dutch boats, who again refused any possibility that we might raft up, suggesting instead the adjacent canal bank as an alternative mooring. The rain got persistently heavier throughout the evening, and not even the forlorn sound of an ice-cream van could tempt us out of the boat to look around. Who said they wanted the hot weather to end....?

But the following morning the skies cleared and so did the moorings. We took a turn with the electricity and water supplies, and seven loads of washing later we were wondering how anyone managed without an onboard washing machine. A look round the town centre revealed we had inadvertently arrived in Landrecies on the weekend of their Grand Fete, and as well as a fairground and firework extravaganza there was a ritual with a giant - the finer details of which we never quite gathered.

Cruising Statistics

Distance: 17 nm

Total to date: 1773 nm

Avg Speed: 5 knots

Duration: 4 hours

Diesel: 45 litres (est)

Mooring: Free

Electricity: N/A

Locks

Gd Verly (2)

Tupigny (3)

Hannapes (2)

Venerolles (3)

Etreux (7)

Gard

Bois l'Abbaye

Ors

Min headroom: 3.5m

Min draught: 1.8m

Charts

Navicarte 24