Trip 10kms Departure 10.45 Locks 14 of 290
I circumnavigated the whole of epinal on the wheels of steel in search of a boulangerie this overcast morning. Enjoyed it immensely but sadly returned with bread which frankly was a bit doughy. Luckily I had a pamplemousse and pain au chocolat to redeem the brekky and collettes almond croissant kept her tranquil and at peace with the morning which is always a brucie.
The return trip up the embranchment was incident free and we turned to port to face the first of fourteen locks in just 3kms making up the Montee de Golbey up to the summit of the canal du Vosges. With recent lock issues on this heavily overlocked canal, it was with a little trepidation we entered lock number 14.
Pas de problem.
At 13 our luck ran out. Two red flashers. I was ready to scream. A call to the Vnf and our man was with us in a few short minutes. Turns out the storm had produced some floating debris which had caught in between gate sensors. We were soon on our way through short pounds between the locks. The scenery was of new build homes for the whole staircase and is best described as drab.
We also encountered the ugliest lock entrance of the trip whose gates were a weird fibreglass construction.
At last and with great relief we reached the summit. There was an immediate welcome change in the scenery. Rural, green and at last how I expected this canal to present itself. It was long overdue, I had been less than enamoured so far with my decision to come back from Saverne to take this route and had been expecting beauty which with nearly 100kms traversed had materialised for only the first 20kms or so and we seemed to have spent most of our time in locks which were either broken or simply the slowest process we had encountered so far.
My mood was already improving as We arrived at the lovely village of Chammousey. A picture post,card place. We moored alone on the bankside and settled down on a lovely sunny afternoon to cheese pate and bread for lunch.
The phone rang to shatter our day. Stacey was in a hospital in Cambridge having suffered stomach pains overnight and following tests was awaiting surgery to clear fluid from her ovaries and check on her appendix.
Carla was on her way to Cambridge but suddenly we were amidst our first crisis of being away. We were both frustrated and worried and the iPad was in full use investigating quick routes home should they become necessary. It was a long wait for news with texts that the wait continues.
We went for an evening stroll round the village. A strange situation in that the canal lies above the land and there are pedestrian and vehicle tunnels which pass under the canal for village access. It was a bit spooky walking under all that water especially as lots of it was running down the walls.
It was a lovely village and we tried to relax in the knowledge that Carla was now at the hospital and reporting that our panicky little Stacey was handling it well and she had just gone to theatre. She could be down up to 2 hours depending on what they found and then in recovery for 2 hours so we were heading for a long night.
We got back to the boat and I put on the Olympics and we just did not have an appetite to eat. It was the early hours when the phone rang. "Hello dad" from a clearly out of it daughter was enough to fill me with relief. Carla took over immediately and informed that they knew no more than it was what they had expected and all had gone well, the doctors would speak to her in the morning.
It was still going to be a sleepless night wondering what had caused the need for such quick surgery and the fluid found on the scan, but it had been so good to hear her voice.
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