Bruges to Namur (via Nieuwpoort and Diksmuide!)

We left Bruges and spent a few days cruising close to Calais via Nieuwpoort and Oudenburg to Veurne, 

Nieuwpoort Sluizencomplex Ganzefoot

Waiting in the 'Goose's Foot' basin 

Dick Whittington?

and then on to the French border on the Dunkirk Canal where there was just enough width to turn round. 

At the French border - 2 metres of Riccall is in France!

We spent the night there under the watchful eyes of the adjacent road police who were protecting the border from the hordes of ISIS terrorists flowing in from France! Back to Veurne for a night, then up to Fintele on the Ijzer river where we spent a couple of nights on what must be a 9¾/10 mooring (electricity only €3 a night, no mooring costs) quiet, peaceful, middle of beautiful country. 

Leaving Fintele mooring

 After that we went to Diksmuid on the Ijzer River which was also a very good town mooring and which gave us the chance to spend a week in a pleasant town at a very reasonable rate and have Paul and Diane to stay.  We climbed the AVV-VVK memorial tower museum (All for Flanders, Flanders for Christ) which was a very interesting morning's work.

What is this seal doing here?

Eventually, we got back to Flandria to leave the boat for a week while we sorted out the final stages of purchase of the new house in Hawkinge.

This turned into a month as there was so much to sort out (as there always is).so we didn't get away for this year's cruising until the 3^rd of June – a very late start for us.

We are heading for Friesland this year and amazingly that is still the plan! Louise hates tidal rivers so 'we' decided to go the long way round via Tournai, Mons, Charleroi, Namur, Maastricht etc rather than down the Scheldte to Antwerp then via Kreekrak Sluizen and the Volkerak.

The advantage of this current route however, is that as far as Namur we know the rivers, canals and moorings well, and also it gives us a chance possibly to catch up with old friends in Maastricht when we pass through.

However, we seem to have been beset by misunderstandings on this route. We spent a noisy night upstream of Kain Lock in Tournai and in the morning asked the lockkeeper if we could follow a commercial through the one-way system when the lights turned green. Our impression was that he said Yes! And as we followed CENTURIAN, albeit a little further behind than we would have liked, the lights turned red on us. Had they just turned them red too soon or what? We decided to keep going, but half way through the system we saw a woman gesticulating wildly from the bankside and waving a piece of paper at us, so we pulled up as she indicated: she said we should NOT have followed the first boat.

Now, there is NOWHERE in Tournai where it gives any indication as to how one should contact anyone to ask for permission to travel through the one-way system. We had assumed the lockkeeper was the guy in charge. We were wrong. The piece of paper showed us the correct VHF number and telephone number to use for said permission! But there is nowhere on the canal side that gives the correct channel number to use. Our computer program PC Navigo makes no mention of the one-way system at all so how is anyone supposed to know? The lockkeeper made no mention of the correct procedure either. Well, we stopped, the female bridge keeper gave us the paper with the instructions for future reference, and we carried on, expecting a fine to be extracted at some stage, but at the time of writing, not yet. This delay just meant the boats waiting at the other end of the one-way system had to wait a further 10 minutes while Mrs Bridge Keeper said her piece!!

Later that same day, after getting fuel at Antoing, we were negotiating the two Peronnes locks. The first one was no problem, but for the second we had a long wait while a commercial descended. As we waited, another professional came up behind both us and the other pleasure boat waiting with us.

We heard the lockkeeper telling the commercial that there were two plaisances in front of him, then a short time later a long and unintelligible instruction. So when the lights turned green, we set off and at the very last minute were red-lighted. Emergency Stop! Back off, get in the way of the commercial, get out of the way, let the commercial in first then follow in behind, and slip our way alongside him to the front of the lock to moor up: exactly where we would have been if we had gone in first! We know that it is generally the rule to defer to commercials of course, but in this case it would have been so much easier , quicker and safer to have done the opposite. Anyway, the other plaisance followed us, moored up and up we all went. The lady capitaine of the commercial was obviously still furious when the gates opened as she took off like a rocket under full power. Hubby gave Alex an apologetic wave and a raised eyebrow!

Finally we got to our very favourite mooring – the Pommeroeul Canal Basin and moored up easily. RIVAL and JOHANNA were already there and Brett and John gave us a hand and a chat as we moored up, but at that very moment the heavens opened and we all retreated to our respective shelters.

The next day the crews of both boats were nowhere to be seen when we popped round to say hello, so after lunch we decided to cast off and get ahead of a very slow-moving commercial and at that very moment everybody returned! Oh well, so be it, we'll catch up in Bruges this winter if not before.

Weird No 1

A couple of nights later we were in our old haunt Seneffe for a peaceful night and a catch up with Arthur and Patrick.

At Marchienne Lock, just before the outskirts of Charleroi we moored up at the end of the lock moorings for a fairly quiet night with not too many commercials/trains/aeroplanes/cars! And in the morning it happened again! We asked if we could follow a commercial into the lock and got no reply – as usual. So we watched the lights and when the big boy was in they stayed on green, so we started to follow: then at the last minute the éclusier came out of his office and waved his hands at us in an indeterminate manner which we couldn't interpret. And then the lights went red! Not enough room for us apparently, so we had to back off and moor up again. Actually we had forgotten that this lock and subsequent ones are shorter than most of the others around this area – only 86m long instead of 120m as we should have known by this time. But why not contact us on the radio?  We checked it was working and that's what it's there for!

Charleroi - don't you just LOVE it?!

Shitty Charleroi lived up to its nickname in no uncertain terms with clouds of rusty dust emanating from all the scrap loading at the start, and again as we waited for the Marcinelle Lock, where suddenly our first ever Havenmeesters Martine and Pierre turned up on their boat NANCY, who we hadn't seen for eight years!!! Much kissing and catch-up ensued. They have finally retired and were setting off on their cruiser for the South of France and the Midi.

Once released from this dreadful lock, as we travelled through the centre of Charleroi, we went under a bridge and heard a sharp bang on the wheelhouse roof. Alex immediately thought someone had taken a pot-shot at us but when we looked back we saw that under a tarpaulin cover they were sandblasting the bridge above. Obviously a large chunk had fallen on the roof and in addition the whole of the rest of the boat was covered in a layer of sand and grit.

We finally moored at Auvelais Lock where there is often an exchange of a few commercials, that night being no exception. Usually though once the commercials have come and gone, it is pretty quiet, but this time the commercial behind us had been abandoned and had left his genny running! - a continuous gentle drone in the background and a plume of blue smoke from the tired old engine all night and into the following day. Was this going to go on ALL weekend? We think it probably did.

We spent an hour or so brushing the whole boat down to get rid of the gritty sandblasting stuff, then the heavens opened again so the rest of the job was done by the rain.

So we have made it down to Namur, a city we have visited before by boat and car. But this time we made a special point of investigating the Citadel, high on its promontory above the confluence of the Rivers Sambre and Meuse. What a place and what views! 

View from the Citadel - spot the Riccall

'Ludus Pro Patria'

'Victorian' hotel at the very top

It's the most amazingly interesting complex – chateau, forge, barracks, with fortified walls on all sides. And all of it soaring above the town. Some of it is well-preserved but some of it is quite definitely NOT. There is a dilapidated outdoor auditorium at the top of the hill, just below a beautiful and well-preserved hotel. The auditorium had obviously just played host to an outdoor concert of some kind and the clean-up operation was in full swing while there were various makeshift sets being built for the next outdoor play, with actors rehearsing for 'Les Namur Medievals' in July. The whole thing made for a couple of hours of great interest.

When we got back to RICCALL we were sitting in the wheelhouse when suddenly a couple tapped on the window and said, “What luck! We have been reading your Riccallrambling blog for 3 years or more, but never expected to actually meet up. Do come for a coffee in the morning if you have time”.

So we went along for a coffee and a good chat with Sean and Lynn on their cruiser ELLE. They are from South Africa and spend about 3 months at a time cruising in Europe. They are heading up the Meuse, which will be hard going as it's flowing so strongly at the moment (easy for us going downstream though) so thank you both very much for coffee, chat and following our blog! (And a last-minute dash along the quay by Sean to give us a chart of the Maas – so kind.)

But hey! Two more readers!

Weird No 2.  It's just amazing what you see on these rivers.

So what do we make of our first 2 weeks or so cruising? Well, we've certainly entertained, if that's the word, several lockkeepers and one or two fellow boaters with our difficulty interpreting SILENCE!!!! We have discovered that interpreting French is one thing, Belgian quite another, but SILENCE???!!! Impossible!