18th - 22nd July. Going North on the Canal du Nord, then the Canal à Grand Gabarit, before turning to the south on the Escaut à Petit Gabarit, joining The Saint Quentin at Cambrai.

From Peronne we continued northwards on the Canal du Nord, with its enormous locks, and guillotine bottom gates.

There is a lot of commercial traffic on this canal, with many of them being double length barges, like this one coming out of the lock.

As we approach Royaulcourt Tunnel the light is green for us. This tunnel is 4354 metres long, but has a wider section in the middle, where boats can pass safely.

We met no boats in the tunnel, but this barge was rather upset as they had had to wait for us, a mere pleasure boat!

Both sides of the canal are angled, but these “safety hooks” come regularly, to save anyone who might fall in.

Having tied up to wait for barge Spica and his pusher to exit one lock, we are hoping that he can see us, and can also steer past us! This is a big canal, but barges always have a large blind spot, in front of them. Having said that, we have always found them to be extremely considerate on this waterway, often even slowing down when boats are moored.

These metal hooks are used in the locks for our ropes, whether going up or down. On this section we are going down, which is a relief, as it is a long way between the two middle hooks. It would be more difficult to move the rope if going up.

It must have been many years since this bridge saw a paintbrush!

Hope is at hand though! This next one is half finished, and looks great.

The Canal du Nord ends at Arleux, to become the Canal à Grand Gabarit. We saw 43 barges tied up around this junction.

The Canal à Grand Gabarit runs from Dunkirk through into Belgium and we were expecting it to be very busy, but we only saw one barge on this twelve kilometre stretch.

Turning off, we took a pretty unnamed short cut which will lead to the Escaut à Petit Gabarit.

Suddenly the narrow waterway opened out into this huge lake, with so much mooring. We saw two sailing dinghies at the far end, but no other boats were moving.

Reaching the Escaut à Petit Gabarit, we found it to be a lovely canal. Don't worry, it is not all straight!

It is not often that a photo can be taken, looking directly at the sun!

We stopped on the main canal at Cambrai, but the marina is just across the grass from our mooring.

18th - 30th June 2016. On up the river Oise. So many barges – we counted 32 on one day. Moving on to the Canal du Nord, we shared locks with a double barge.

We continued on up the River Oise to L'Isle Adam, and were invited alongside this Dutch cruiser, Festina Lente. These were very friendly people, who are heading for Paris. The small seagoing yacht in front of them told us that we were too long, and our boat was not suitable for these waterways. They were heading for the Bourgogne canal, so we refrained from saying that their boat was possibly too deep, and they could get stuck there, as we thought that this would sound unfriendly. Their difficulty could be in mooring – well, they could stay in the middle of the canal all the time, where they can't offend anyone – possibly the best place for them!

The town of L'Isle Adam is very pretty.

This unusual coloured coypu spent an evening just beside our mooring. We saw him the next day under a bush, eating some bread, while fending off two swans who also wanted some. Obviously he was quite a character.

There are a lot of barges about, with several of them being double headers, with one barge pushing another. When they are fully laden, as these two are, they do not look so impressive.

There are not so many moorings on the Oise, but this one at Boran-sur-Oise was lovely. The white writing says No Mooring, but we were allowed to stay here for a couple of days. Thirty two barges passed us today!

This is our first real sunset this year.

The next section of the Oise is completely lined with trees, with few moorings. We moored below lock 2 at Verberie. A single barge arrived behind us, to be followed later by a barge and pusher, which moored outside the first one.

From inside The Puzzler, Simba looks enormous! Moving on the next morning, our VHF radio would not work, so Andy phoned Madame Eclusiere to arrange for us to come on into the lock. A barge exited the lock, so we entered it, and tied up. After about ten minutes Madame came out to complain that Andy had not waited for the green light, and denied all knowledge of his phone call. She then eventually let us ascend her lock! What a fuss!

The next night we moored above lock 1, and heard noises outside, so went to investigate. A man was there, and asked the way to the station. It was not until the next morning that we found that he had actually been trying to steal the bicycles off our roof! Fortunately, they were locked securely. We shared the next two locks with a barge and pusher, tying on to the barge in the lock.

Further on, we found a better mooring near to Ribecourt. The barges just keep on coming!

Shannon is doing her meerkat impression, to get a better view of things.

Moving on to the Canal du Nord, commercial traffic has priority, so we must wait.

These locks were built to take two freycinette size barges, or one with a pusher, and are very long and thin, with a guillotine bottom gate. There is no room for anyone alongside here!

The Canal du Nord was started in 1907, and two-thirds finished by 1914, but it was then destroyed during the First World War. Construction work began again after the second World War, to be finished by 1965. It has sloping sides, so mooring has to be at recognised sites.

At Panneterie tunnel there was a red light, but a touch on the intercom changed it to green, without Andy having to say a word!

This tunnel was 1.058 kilometres long. It is always good to see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Sadly the upper Canal de la Somme is now permanently closed, but we will join the Canal de la Somme tomorrow at Peronne.