Kerr Barging Blogs

We have spent a fair bit of time cruising in the South Pacific aboard our 33 years young 11.1metre yacht, Pastime of Sydney. We are now cruising through the canals and rivers of France on our old barge, "Anja", which was built in the North of the Netherlands in 1903. Anja was 110 years old in May 2013 and we celebrated with good French Champagne- but the boat did not get any! In 2014, for Anja's 111th, we took her back to where she was built in the North of the Netherlands.

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On the Somme River

Barging 2016

Penelope and David Kerr

Friday, 29 July 2016

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A day and a half after the Fete Nautique, we were on the Somme River, which we last visited (and thoroughly enjoyed) in 2013.

We made our way down to Amiens, which was the perfect place to meet up with our daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren. They had a good flight from Australia and were able to take the TGV direct from the Airport to Lille and then back down to Amiens. The little two year old had been expecting to be on grandma/grandpa's boat every day for the previous week. We think it was hard for her to understand that there are actually two boats, on opposite sides of the world. She was apparently very puzzled when the journey to the boat included Sydney Airport!

All went well with the visit. We cruised down to Abbeville (not far from the sea) where the family members took the train to Saint Valery, including the historic steam train which goes around the Bay. Wiliam the Conquerer left from here to conquer England.
Anja at Amiens
Abbeville also had an excellent "Plage" set up for the summer. There were separate sections set up for different age groups, plus jumping castles, climbing frames and heaps more. It was also free and the children loved their two visits.

While cruising up and down the Somme (192Kms in total), we made sure to eat the Picardie specialties such as Ficelle Picarde and Maroilles cheese and see a few things we missed in 2013.
The pretty town of LongOne of these trips included Le Hamel and the Australian memorial there. Le Hamel was the site of the famous 93min battle planned and executed by General John Monash. This meticulously planned battle was totally different from the earlier battles where the Generals typically threw men into suicidal charges as if they were just numbers on a sheet of paper. The memorial does an excellent job of portraying the events of 100 years before. This area is also where Baron von Richthofen was finally shot down, having downed 80 enemy aircraft.
Le HamelAustralian Memorial
The weather was excellent for the three weeks on the Somme. One or two days were over 30 but the remainder around 25degrees.

We went kayaking on a 7Kms round trip up a disused arm of the Somme- we enjoyed fantastic scenery and birdsongs. Muscles were only a little sore afterwards. Our family members also went kayaking and the girls really enjoyed it despite being only two and five years old.
The girls were amazingly fond of and discerning about French cheeses. We started with eight different cheeses and they ate all of them. The younger grandchild particularly likes blue cheeses, but they both enjoyed them all.
Artist at work in AmiensFeeding healthy Rocqefort appetites might get a trifle expensive when they return to Australia!
Unusual "floating" houseEntry to Hortillonage (island gardens)
Now, we are off the Somme and at the North end of the Canal du Nord (only 12Kms from Cambrai) and are heading towards Lille, where we will pick up some more visitors who will be with us for about a week. Then we head further North towards Dunkirk and Belgium.
Notre Dame Amiens (2.5x Notre Dame, ParisBest Regards,
Dave and Penny