Barging on ANJA

We have successfully negotiated the Upper Rhine River from Niffer to Strasbourg. We went approximately half way and stopped about 6km down the Canal de Colmar, which comes off the Rhine River. We spent two nights at the small village of Kunheim and caught a taxi and bus return to the historic and exceedingly pretty town of Colmar. The designer (Bertholdi) of the Statue of Liberty was born here and the town has a strong German influence as it has been German a number of times in history and was also annexed by Germany during the war.

We spent hours in the famous Unterlinden museum which was excellent. We also walked around and saw many other notable sites. The day was a little marred by rain, but we survived quite well.

The Rhine went surprisingly well. There were plenty of commercial vessels, but they all behaved very predictably and exactly as expected. The lock keepers were good and by radioing ahead, they took note of our presence and speeded us through much more than we expected and had been led to believe by various English bargees. Perhaps they like Aussies more? As the Rhine River is the border between Germany and France, we crossed the border into Germany many times on the trip.

An American barge owner (Jerry) had warned us that he got caught in a vicious whirlpool where the river divides between the hydroelectric station and the locks (all locks are huge with a pair of locks side by side. Both are 185metres long with a fall of about 15metres and width 22metres and 11 metres). Jerry was thrown across his wheelhouse as his large boat (bigger than ours) got sucked into the whirlpool. Fortunately, he was not injured.

So, we were very careful of the whirlpools. At one stage we were behind a largish passenger ship carrying about 150 passengers. They went too close to the danger zone and next thing, were spun sideways and then in a complete circle! Fortunately, they seemed to get out of it skilfully. Indeed, given these people are so professional, we wonder if the skipper deliberately steered into the whirlpool as a bit of extra excitement for the passengers? Guess we will not find out.

When we got to Strasbourg, we easily found a good spot to tie up and will spend a few days exploring. We had been nervous because another bargee told us it was extremely difficult to find anywhere to stop, but this appears to be inaccurate.

Pictures show:

Montbeliard (2)

Strasbourg container port

Pusher barge on the Rhine

Hydro Electric Statiuon (they are every 15km and supply 20% of France's electricity

Colmar

Little Venice (Colmar)

Unterlinden

Famous Issenheim Retable (Colmar)

Rhine River (2)

Charlie keeps us against the lock

Best Regards,

Dave and Penny

Hi Everyone,

There were quite a few highlights of the trip to Mulhouse as well as Mulhouse itself.

At a place called Montbeliard, I visited the Peugeot Museum which is located at the Peugeot factory.

I found it quite difficult to get to the museum because it was on the other side of the factory, which in iteslf was a 6Km ride from the barge. The factory was bigger than the Boeing Aircraft factory and encompassed many suburbs. If I had possessed a fluorescent vest, I would have been able to ride through the factory, but that was not the case. So, I had to ride a number of kilometres around the outside.

Many people do not know that the factory started in the 1700s and initially produced tools, crinolines for womens' dresses then coffee grinders, bicycles, carriages and then cars. Peugeot outproduced all of the US for cars until some time around 1910 or so. The museum was absolutely fantastic with many historical items and hundreds of pristine antique cars, bicycles etc. Of course, there were modern items as well. One definitely did not have to be a car enthusiast to appreciate this truly excellent place.

People had told me that as well as the Peugeot museum, there was an even grander one at Mulhouse. Charlie and I visited it and were exhausted by the end. We were able to catch the excellent tram right to the front door. There were hundreds of old cars from the first ones invented to futuristic cars not yet in production. There was even a special event where a selection of very old vehicles were driven around a track for us to see and hear. This National museum has a huge collection of Bugattis (I think the biggest collection in the world) plus many Rolls Royces, Mercedes Benz and other excellent cars. Just the cars from pre-1900 were too many to count!

Mulhouse is a large town which is close to Switzerland, Germany and the Rhine River. Its Harbour handles 2million tonnes of barge freight a year. It was one of the principal industrial towns on France and today still has that flavour, but has been "reclaimed" through urban renewal and made into a tourist attraction with 8 museums, a couple of zoos etc.

We arrived there on Bastille Day (Fete National) and rather than the traditional parades, bonfires, firecrackers etc, Mulhouse put on a four day extravaganza of street theatre, movies, circus performances, Hamlet and other things.

On the Saturday night, Penny arrived on schedule from Australia. I whisked her to the barge to deposit her bag, then we took her straight to the "angels" performance. Well, it was certainly spectacular! For days, the organisers had been stringing wires high above the town square. It was dark when the show began a little after 10pm and the rain just managed to stay away. "Angels" dressed in white suits and feathers came swooping down the wires and threw feathers onto the huge crowd below. There were many other scenes involving the angels pretending to fight and huge amounts of feathers everywhere. There were angels flying down from lots of different places and some of them spun around getting lower and lower until they were just skimming the heads of the huge crowd. What a spectacular performance.

We have just been doing the planning for coming down the Rhine River and the Grand Canal de Alsace. We are looking forward to this new experience where we will be "mixing" with huge commercial barges, ships etc. There is a lot of current, which we will enjoy because it means that we will travel at twice normal speed, but we need to ensure that nothing goes wrong as we do not want to become "mincemeat" in the huge hydro-electric generators on the river or miss a lock entrance and go over a large weir.

More later!

Pictures show:

Peugeot Museum (3) Angels and the feathers (4) Car Museum Early bicycle (no pedals or brakes) Cars..cars....cars Trapeze artists at Mulhouse Mulhouse Town Hall Staircase locks

Best Regards, Dave

Swan

Doubs River

Garden on the Canal

Penny left Besancon for "Grandmother duties" with Mary, our new grand child.

After several days of maintenance, I was joined by Charlie and his brother, John. After they had acclimatised and seen some of the sights of Besancon, we headed North along the Doubs and associated canal for Mulhouse. Mulhouse is about 25km from Germany and was a part of Germany until a couple of hundred years ago when it was "re-united" with France.

We had 90 locks and 155Km to traverse and managed it in much less than the predicted time. This was due to the small amount of other traffic as well as the excellent organisation of the lock keepers once we moved from the automated to the "manned" locks.

We got to Mulhouse in six easy days travel. We only had one long day.

We had plenty of time to examine some excellent scenery and look around the countryside. This part of the canal/river was very different from the early portion (which was flat). Nearly every day, we had high and steep cliffs on one or both sides of us.

There were a couple of very hot days and some cool ones plus some rainyt weather which has been rare on this trip. Charlie and John quickly got the hang of things and the trip went smoothly.

Our first minor excitement happened when we tied up in one of the river locks. We were travelling upstream. A lady was up te top of the lock shouting something to Charlie and John. However they speak no French. Once I spoke to her, she explained tat there was a Commercial Barge (Peniche) stuck on the canal section ahead (river and canal levels were low because of lack of rainfall). She needed to raise the level of the canal so they could free themselves. She also explained that even if she let us through, we would be unable to pass the other boat in the narrow/shallow section. So, we had to reverse out of the lock anbd tie up to the shore. This was a good opportunity for Charlie and John to jump over board for a swim. Very cooling. We also had a leisurely lunch.

Finally, the Peniche came and we had to reverse further down the river to let them past. We understood what the Eclusier meant on the next section of canal. It was indeed shallow and narrow with jagged rocks on each side.

The only other issue we had was with one of the lifting bridges. There are a number of these and they either swing to the side or lift up to allow a barge to pass. Unlike the Nivernais canal, these are staffed bridges and they give excellent priority to boat traffic. We approached one such bridge and the gates to stop carsd went down but the bridge did not move. This cycle repeated several times over 10 minutes with no movement of the actual bridge. Eventually, the operator came and explained that he was very sorry, but the bridge was broken and we were stuck. He called the maintenance people but had no idea how long repairs would take. Ah well, time for another leisurely and untimely lunch. Well, the service person cam relatively quickly and we were on our way again after about 30minutes delay- not too bad.

One day before reaching Mulhouse, we were stopped on an aqueduct while the lock immediately after the aqueduct was readied. John, fascinated by being perched well above another river, was jumping up and down onto the tow path taking pictures when he cried out and roilled on the ground. He had excruciating pain in his leg and had heard something go "pop". We stopped at a small village that night and had dinner at a restaurant 50 meters away. We had to both prop John up to get there and back to the boat. However, alas, there was no doctor and not even a taxi in the town. Indeed, the only commerce was the (excellent) restaurant.

The next day, we arrived in Mulhouse and Charlie and John went off to find a taxi and get to the hospital. John was treated very quickly and expertly. It was a muscle tear and he was bandaged up and given various instructions and a prescription. All just in time to catch the train to London the following morning! Fortunately, by the time of his departure the next morning, it was starting to improve.

Mulhouse is an excellent place. It was one of the towns at the heart of the industrial revolution in France. It has no less than 8 museums plus other attractions such as a big event for Bastille Day, lasting four days. We went off to watch three trapeze artists perform in one of the town squares at 11pm last night and it was fantastic!

Penny will be back from Australia tonight on the excellent TGV from Paris (570km in 3hrs including stops and suburbs). We are hoping she is not too tired because people have been erecting (very) high cables in the main town square. They criss cross the square from a large Cathedral, several other buildings and a huge crane. Performers (the "angels") will be dressed in white feathers and performing on these high wires at 10pm tonight.

All the best,

Dave

Besancon was an excellent stopping place. It was a major supply depot for Julius Caesar and then became a Roman City. There was an ampitheatre holding 20,000 people, an aqueduct for supplying the city with water and a Roman Bridge over the River Doubs. Parts of these are still visible.

Besancon was owned by several countries and only became French in the 1600s when the French overcame the Spanish inhabitants. One of the conquerers was Vauban who then set about making the city better able to withstand attack. He built lots of things around France, but the Citadel and all the intricate fortifications were his best known work. The city is built inside a loop in the river and there is a very steep hill preventing any access from the land. It was on this hill that they built the Citadel, which occupies over 12 hectares and which gives tremendous views over the city and countryside. It is all so magnificient that it is UNESCO World Heritage listed. So, we can tick off yet another World Heritage site from our list.

We climbed up and visited the two museums, the fortifications, the ramparts and even a zoo (with tigers, orungatangs, wallabies, kangaroos and other animals). One of the museums is the "French Resistance and Deportation Museum" and we spent hours exploring it. Very sobering information.

While at Besancon, I was able to view the most amazing clock I have ever seen. It is a "Horlogue" and is huge. Not only is it huge, but it contains 30,000 moving parts and was built in 1857. It tells the time all over the world, has tides for all major French ports, has an operating planetarium, has the catholic church liturgical calendar, signs of the zodiac, leap years and leap centuries (the leap century dial only moves once per 400 years). It does other things as well and visits are timed to include various "events" and animations each hour. This is the hugest, most complicated, old mechanical thing that I have ever seen. While on the subject of time, there is a huge "Museum of Time" housed in an old Palace. It traces the measurement of time through the ages and has a trulyt magnificient display of every type of clock, watch and other time-keeping apparatus. They would probably like to include the Horlogue, but that would be too massive to move and possibly would never work again.

I attended a fabulous organ concert which included a Bach organ duo. Not only were there two organists, but they were playing on two old organs in the cathedral. The performers could not see one another so it was very impressive.

While at Besancon, Penny left for Australia and two weeks with the new mum and grand daughter. All is going well.

I got on with some tasks- all of which took longer than expected but which will make the occasional 38degree day more comfortable. The decks are now white rather than dark grey and as a result, are 30degrees cooler. I replaced a huge radiator from the wheelhouse. It would stick into the right thigh of whoever was steering. The damage caused to the internal ceiling from the rotting roof is finally repaired and simply requires some beading for completion. Various splicing was completed. The wooden facias at the base of the mast were rotten. They have now bee replaced and the new wood has several coats of epoxy resin and then marine varnish. It should last a long time. I welded up the winch which raises the mast and this is much better. I also relocated the tailshaft greasing system and installed a system for refilling the small generator with red-diesel. Previously, I needed to use a jug and decant the diesel from one place to another.

The final day was spent changing the oil plus diesel-oil filters.

There was another day when I finally uncovered the remaining mysteries of the shower and bathroom sink water which was not being pumped away properly. I discovered yet another (but well made) tank which was full of smelly grey slime, wads of hair and all sorts of other junk that had gone down various pluig-holes. I would say it has not been cleaned out for years and was rather disgusting. Anyway, it is all clean and sparkling now and works far better than in our experience.

So now, must major work on Anja for the year is complete and all of it will make life more comfortable.

Friends Charlie and his brother John have just arrived from Australia. Charlie will be with us for a month and John for 10 days. John will be leaving just before Penny arrives back. This is likely to be just before we tackle the mighty Rhine River. We have been told this is "not for the faint hearted" but as we are not faint-harted, we will be going down it and hopefully avoiding treacherous whirlpools and the like plus dodging huge ships and container vessels.

Photos show:

Views in the underground Grottes

Bear Skeleton

Overnight stop near old mill and waterfall

Spectacular tunnel

Views of Besancon City

Citadel

Resistance transmitter from WWII

Vauban

Besancon Cathedral

Best Regards, Dave and Penny

Ancient House, Auxonne

Organ, Auxonne

Halles at Auxonne

Dole Basilica

Pasteur's birth place (very humble dwelling)

Dole

Anja at Dole

Canal du Rhone au Rhin

"Reflections"

Steeples from the Jura Region

The Beautiful Doubs

View from the Museum tower Auxonne

The subject is an Australian joke, because in Australia, unemployment benefits are referred to as "the dole".

Back in St Jean de Losne, the batteries were delivered as promised.

We had to fit Anja into the smallest spot ever. We went in ever so slowly and had to fold the rudder "hard over" to squeeze into the small space between two boats. When tied up at the dock, there was less than 10 centimeters at each end of the boat! We had been promised someone to help me lift out the old (over 50Kg each) batteries and lift in the new. Instead, we had the owner of the business plus two other men, so the lifting part went very smoothly. All part of the service and no charge. Once David had them in place and connected up we set off for the next part of our trip along the Canal du Rhone au Rhin. As its name suggests this canal provides a route between the Rhine and the Rhone, via the Saone which joins the Rhone at Lyon.

The canal was proposed in the 18th century but not completed until 1833 because of the political events in France in the meantime. In many places, the route is on the Doubs River, then moves into a canalised section. So far it is spectacular, with steep limestone cliffs on one side and forests and fields on the other.

The towns are mostly very small and David is feeling deprived as we have not had baguettes for two days, despite him covering vast distances on his bicycle in search of the elusive bread. Tomorrow looks equally doubtful.  
Moorings are also quite difficult to find. One day we anchored in the river just off the canal. The weather has become very hot- yesterday climbed to over 37 degrees and today has started hotter- so our proximity to the river is very welcome as we can swim (or in Penny's case, dip).

The main town on the beginning of the canal has been Dole. It is very old and has a spectacular position, rising high above the river. It was the capital of French Compte before it was absorbed into France in 1678. It had a university back in the 15th century, moved to Besancon after the French takeover.

Louis Pasteur is deservedly its proudest son and is celebrated with monuments, streets and a Museum located in his childhood home. Whereas many scientists seem to have come from a line of learned men, his father was a tanner who went to nightschool so that he could help his children with their homework.

Today we rode about 9kms return to see the Grottes d'Osselle which have been a tourist destination for centuries and a hiding place during the French Revolution. They extend for over 15 kilometres but we explored only about 1300 metres of them. The temperature down there was 13 degrees, a welcome interlude on such a hot day. Skeletons of huge bears, over 40,000 years old, were on display.

An interesting feature of this canal is that most locks are automatic. At the first lock we were issued with a controller which operates the locks. As we approach, we turn it on and press the button to announce our arrival. As long as there is not already a boat in the lock, traffic lights tell us that our presence has been registered and in time, give us the green light to enter. Today we used our controller to operate a waterfall, an artistic feature at each end of a tunnel. As we approached, we pressed the button and the water stopped falling to let us through. Ahead we could see a display of moving lights and the waterfall at the other end, which stopped once we were close.

Best Regards,
Penny and Dave

There was a "Fete de la Musique" in St Jean de Losne on the evening of our arrival, which coincided with the summer solstice. The town came to life with people everywhere and bands and groups taking up prominent positions for their performances. We had promised ourselves dinner that night and were entertained by a group (vocalist, piano accordion and keyboard) singing folk songs. Elsewhere we saw a junior marching band, a mixed choir (some elderly and in wheelchairs), and a rock group.

Anja's batteries are rapidly deteriorating so we have taken the big and expenbsive decision to replace them now rather than, as we had hoped, waiting until next year. Fortunately St Jean de Losne's chandlery can supply the chosen type, with delivery of three days. While waiting for the batteries we had a quick trip further up the Saone to Auxonne, a mediaeval fortress town. The ramparts and the chateau built by Louis XI in 1479 are interesting. Napoleon Bonaparte trained at the Royal Artillery school there in 1788- 89 and was an instructor in 1791 so mementos of him are on prominent display. There is still a Transport and Logistics Regiment at the same Army barracks.

The trip to Auxonne was a milestone for Anja- we deployed the anchor for the first time! Faced with a long wait for a lock and no obvious place to tie up, we realised that the spot was perfect for anchoring. The anchor was easily lowered on its substantial winch, and held well. It came up just as easily afterwards. We had tried out raising and lowering the anchor before but never actually used it so we will have more confidence in future. No doubt sailors will wonder how we could be on the water for almost three months without using such a basic piece of equipment!  Still, we make up for it with extra practice in mooring.

While at Auxonne, we visited the local museum which is in a tower of the old Chateau. It was a somewhat tired and undernourished museum (due to lack of funds) but was interesting and the custodians allowed us to the roof for a spectacular view of the town.

Best Regards,
Dave and Penny