Diksmuide to Charleroi

Well, here we are, some 4 weeks into this year's cruise.  Leaving Diksmuide behind us we set off east for Bruges and eventually more southerly lands.

We had a very easy traverse of Bruges 

Ready to pass under the 'Rack of Lamb' bridge

encountering only RACHEL (recently moored in the Coupure and travelling north) and no commercials.  That afternoon we stopped at Moerbrugge where we hoped to take on water but went off sightseeing first!

Tank sculpture at Moerbrugge

 As luck would have it, the water bourne was “dienst” and an additional notice, when translated, said “frost damage”.  So undaunted, Alex lifted the huge man hole cover and investigated.  Damage circumvented in a jury-rig fashion, we filled our tanks and had a quiet evening and night.

The Coupure having had to empty for dredging, many boats were likely to be on the move, and we joined CHOUETTE, PEABODY 

and another small barge heading east.  Two of these would peel off, PEABODY to go north to a boatyard in Zelzate, CHOUETTE to go straight down the Leie Diversion Canal to Deinze, our own destination, though by the old Leie River.  Alex had long wanted to cruise the natural course of the river Leie from Ghent to Deinze, so after a night on ducs d'Albe on the outskirts of Ghent, close to Evergem Lock, 

Dwarfed by Perseus At Evergem

we set off with a little apprehension on Louise's part.  We'd heard people say how twisting and narrow the river is, lined with expensive houses and small but equally expensive day boats.  

Just one of the many wonderful mansions on the Leie

But in the event RICCALL behaved impeccably and managed all manoeuvres without fault – not on her own of course – something to do with the captain!  Lunch was at Sint Marten Latem on the mooring reserved for the passenger boats – well, what else as the visitor mooring, all 15m of it, was occupied?

A very pretty spot and a quiet lunch on deck in the spring sunshine, and then . . . from the south appeared LEMMERBOOT IV a 22m Dutch barge renovated by its owner and captain, Wimm, who uses it occasionally as a 'trip' boat for special occasions, this a 50^th wedding anniversary party.  

A good chat ensued between us, while the hiring guests had their celebratory lunch, and we discovered that Wimm and a group of like-minded volunteers operate the bridge ahead of us at Astene, across the open lock, but on Sundays it is closed!  Wimm however, was interested in old RICCALL and said he was happy to open up specially for us once he got his passengers back to his mooring.

All went as planned, and we carried on to Deinze, to meet up with CHOUETTE and have supper on board RICCALL with Mike and Sally.

We expected Deinze to be just an overnight stop, but Alex decided it was a good place to fit the replacement steering ram.  

The new ram - still needed painting

Free mooring and electricity at €5 per day was the draw, and stocking up and a look round Deinze took up some of Louise's time.  By the time we'd been there 4 days, we had discovered Ooidonk Castle, only open on Sundays from 2-5pm and a jewel in the crown of not only the region but of Belgium as a whole.  Only another 3 days would take us to Sunday, and we arranged matters so that we set off from Deinze on Sunday at 12.30pm, to cycle the 3kms along to Astene Lock where the voluntary boating community operate a small museum and basic cafe (and have the role of bridge-keepers).  So we ate our paté and toast with guerkins, silverskin onions and mustard, drank wine and coffee and cycled the next 2 kms to Ooidonk. We happened to arrive just as a tour in English was about to start, and Ooidonk was fabulous!  

Well worth the 3 day wait.

Alex's tooth had been troubling him and we'd visited a dentist in Ghent for a root filling – this had taken all of one day and now we needed to attempt to make a claim for reimbursement of a %age of the cost.  We'd done this only once before and the system has since changed.  The claim is now done in the country where the cost has been incurred.  Some investigations brought us to a 'mutual' office where the process is set in motion.  We wait to see if this is successful!  But it was worth a try for a €350 dental process!!

This completed, all that remained was a last visit to the ‘kringwinkel’ – a wonderful name for a charity shop!  Here we found 2 excellent recliner garden chairs and cushions at knock down prices.

Friends and regular readers of this blog will know our penchant for a bargain!!

We were gradually becoming aware that the canal was strangely quiet.  Where we had expected laden barges by the dozen, there was very little traffic, and after the side canal to Roeselare, virtually none at all.

Our night's mooring on the main line at the start of the Bossuit Canal was super – quiet, calm waters and a pleasant outlook.  

Sightseeing on the old canal through Kortrijk

And then in the morning it was clear that spring had definitely sprung – green shoots everywhere and much higher temperatures.

Arranging passage through the 3 hand-op locks was easy, by phone, and in the course of the next 2 hours or so, we learned why our overnight stay had been so comfortable!  A lock on the outskirts of Lille was under repair for SIX weeks.  All the normal traffic via Kortrijk to Lille was having to take an alternative route.  Our next 15 kms would be quiet and calm, but then, once we joined the Escaut, all hell would break loose as we would join the 'motorway' barge traffic.

Perfect thatch!

As it turned out, although the canal was pretty busy, we were locked through on the first bassinée at both Herinnes and Kain locks.  We fitted in nicely with 85m boats where other big boys couldn't.  The passage through Tournai was easy too as we just followed an 85m commercial RO-MA.  Back to Antoing for overnight and then on to a well-trodden path, or should we say well-cruised waterway – Peronnes to Seneffe.  Of course an overnight at the delightful basin at the Pommeroeul-Conde Canal entrance was in the plan as was a night below the Strepy Lift and then it was on to Seneffe for the weekend.

We lunched upstream of Seneffe on a favourite quay of ours, and then made our way into the basin, which had been Okayed by harbourmaster Patrick.  What he had failed to tellus however was that this very weekend the Seneffe Club was hosting a Grand Boat Jumble, and various other activities on the water, including first a training day for the local 'dog life-savers' organisation.  There were 15 or so of these HUGE dogs (breed unknown!) with their handlers/owners, hankering to get on with saving the life of a drowning person!  Each dog was released from the quay to swim out and save a person who was splashing around, looking as if he or she were drowning.  That part was fine, but the other 14 dogs also wanted to have a go, so the sound of barking was deafening.  We slipped by, probably unnoticed by the gathered small crowd, who were entranced by the action.

It's a dog's life!

So, back to Seneffe, where regular readers may remember, we have spent two winters, but it has been 3 years since we were last there. We met up again with Arthur and Vivianne of MON PLAISIR which moors permanently in the port, and met for the first time Peter and Susie of LAVANA, who had wintered there.  So as you can imagine, a little bit of socialising went on as usual, and we decided to collect our car from Diksmuide.  Having  looked up train times etc, we discovered that although not terribly far, about 100 kms, it would take 4 trains and 3 hours to get there.  Arthur and Vivianne gave us a lift to the nearest station, and we set off.  Not one of our most difficult journeys, we nevertheless had a 40 minute wait in Brussels because a train had passed a red signal and the whole electricity system in the station had gone into underdrive!  But the rest of the journey was easy and we got back to Seneffe without hassle.

So then it was decision time!  Should we stay another day or get on with this cruise?!  Decision made we set off for an easy day down to the outskirts of Charleroi – 3 locks and 23 kms.  Charleroi is, as we have reported before, a dreadful place, for shoppers/pedestrians and boaters alike.  There's nowhere to moor, it is heavily industrialised and not a terribly pleasant passage, so we like to stop overnight before we get there and then dash like the blazes through and out of  the other side next day!!  As most people do!

Having had the most glorious weekend weather-wise, the temperatures have fallen off again and it is feeling somewhat chilly.  Spring has gone into hibernation!