ONWARDS
AND NORTHWARDS
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| Simon and his partner Amanda |
Simon
Jenkins is a well known figure on the British canal system and has
been a boater for decades, living on, working and owning boats and,
for the last couple of decades, the managing director of Norbury
Wharf on the Shropshire Union Canal.
There
he runs a brokerage, hire fleet, day boats, a trip boat and a
chandlery, as well as a paint dock, dry dock and full engineering
services. Simon has dipped his toe in to the waters of other
boat-related ideas including sea-going charters, but the inland
waterways are his first love and he has turned his gaze to Europe,
with it’s wide waterways and fully functioning system of commercial
river and canal navigations. He is just back from the boat buying
trip of a lifetime, bringing his first historic barge back to
Belgium, the country in which it was built, from the shores of the
Mediterranean. Last month he entered the mighty River Rhone and
braved the narrows. Now he is to meet some big locks and big boats.
This is his story, in his own words.
The
navigable river Rhone stretches from Lyon in central France to the
Mediterranean sea. It is 325km long and has 12 massive locks, it
travels along the Rhone valley through some spectacular places like
Avignon, Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Valence, Vienne, and Lyon.
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| Wine country |
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| Wine terraces |
As
well as being a very important commercial route it also plays an
important role in generating electricity in the form of hydro
electric power plants at every lock. The locks themselves are all
pretty much in canalised sections of the main river. These tend to be
narrower than the river and as they also have a hydro plant at the
end and this can mean even more strong currents.
We
had to pick our timings, as best we could, to avoid peak generating
times – morning, lunch and evening - when the plants could be
operating at maximum potential.
This
means letting a tremendous amount of water through the generators,
slowing our progress down to 4 or 5 kmph, grindingly slow, and always
a relief to get in to the lock.
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| Hydro-electric generation plant at a Rhone lock |
The
biggest lock we did was Bollene lock, measuring a massive 190 m long,
and 12 m wide, with an impressive drop of 23 m. As we were going
uphill I think we got the best and most impressive view. It was like
a cathedral of locks, a massive, cold and a dank damp place to be.
As
we entered the lock we made our way on our, now apparently tiny
little boat, towards the front, secured our lines to the massive
floating bollards sunk in to the lock walls and waited.
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| Bollene lock |
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| Entering the lock |
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| Big gates |
As
I looked back out of the wheel house I was greeted by the width of
the lock starting to fill with a hotel ship, its huge bow and beam
occupying the lock with inches to spare.
It
loomed up on us and almost over hung the stern of our boat. We were
close enough to speak with some of the guests onboard who were just
finishing breakfast. As they looked down on us we must have seemed
like ants on a bit of a branch clinging to the lock sides.
The
lock was very gentle as it filled, and in no time at all we were all
at the top, gates open, green lights and off we go again.
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| Hotel ship entering behind us |
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| Hotel ship goes on its way |
There
are not that many places to stop along the river - but there were
some fascinating places we would love to have lingered. However, as
we were on a schedule on our journey we couldn't take advantage and
most nights we ended up moored above a lock.
Not
ideal moorings, as they were mostly on what is called ‘dolphins’
which are bloody great steel tubes sunk in to the bed of the river,
some without any shore access. As the commercial boats could work 24
hours a day, the wash from them made for an unpleasant nights sleep,
with the ropes creaking and heaving as loaded barges and hotel ships
went past.
We
eventually made the last narrow point of our journey at a place
called the Medeterean bridge at Givors, which was also one of the
longest lock cuts, or diversions as they are also known, on our
route.
We
had been watching the flow rates increase day by day as the North had
rain and the snow in the Alps kept melting. As we were travelling
North things were getting quite bad and there was even the prospect
that we could have been stuck on the river, as it could be closed to
navigation for safety reasons.
By
now there was plenty of flotsam and jetsam coming down the brown and
dirty river so we tied up on a handy pontoon just before the bridge
and decided to wait 24 hours to see if the flow would subside a
little.
I
phoned and spoke with the previous owner and he said that he would
never have attempted to go through that bridge with the flow as
strong as it was, even though he had confidence in the boat being
able to do it.
We
waited 24hours with the rushing water around our bows-and the flotsam
and jetsam getting caught under the pontoon. I was starting to get
concerned as we watched big commercial barges and hotel boats come
past us sideways around the bends, taking up the entire width of the
river at up to 20 kmph, and then the very rare barge pushing against
the flow at 5 kmph.
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| Large pusher tug on the fast-flowing Rhone |
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| Tug without its barges |
In
the end, that little barge that we had overtaken right at the start
of our journey on the Petite Rhone came chugging past us. We watched
him for about half an hour as he pushed against the flow.
Paul
radioed the guy who turned out to be Dutch, he said that he had done
this journey several times and, although the flow was stronger than
normal, he was happy enough to push on.
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| Small barge pushing the flow |
I
had total confidence in our barge and the engine, so the decision was
made, and we set off shortly afterwards. We untied from the pontoon
and crabbed out sideways and in to the flow of the river.
We
maintained 4 or 5 kmph all the way until the lock came in to view and
we slipped inside our last lock on the River Rhone. Not being
foolhardy, and having experienced just what a powerful river we were
navigating, we all had lifejackets available, and we had two half ton
anchors ready to be deployed in an emergency. You don’t tackle
these conditions lightly!
In
the next episode: Thousands of litres of diesel, boarded by armed
police and a stoppage forces a route change.
