Charleroi to the Somme

So there were, moored upstream of Marchienne Lock, on the outskirts of Charleroi, all ready for a calm, rural cruise up and down the Sambre before setting off towards the Meuse and France.

Considering our options!

And . . . overnight, our batteries, which we were watching carefully, had reduced to a very worrying 50%. We had assumed that by careful monitoring and usage, we might have managed the summer, but Alex decided, no, it was all too close to the edge. We were really only a short day's cruise from Seneffe, a veritable 'port in a storm' as it were, so we'd return, make extensive checks on the batteries, make phone calls, get quotes for replacements etc etc. So that is what we did and eventually removed the dead and dying batteries, loaded them into the car (not without difficulty as each one weighs more than Alex does himself!) returned to England, bought new batteries and did the whole thing in reverse. Seneffe port was brilliant, letting us plug into their permanent electricity supply, to avoid the coin-in-the-slot method (essential when we weren't going to be present) and happy to let us moor on the quay.

Using block and tackle to lower the 63kg batteries

10 days passed until we were back on board, with new batteries instlled and all looking good. ETTIE had arrived the previous night and KOTARE came in at coffee time so – you've guessed it – a long chat over coffee ensued, but we were all keen to get going, so set off around midday: Richard and Julia for the Sambre and ultimately Holland, and ourselves on our new route to the Somme.

However, during our morning chat with them we discovered that the Historic Centre Canal with its four ancient boat lifts was open! Both boats had come through from downstream so could confirm that the route was in use.

We had assumed, clearly incorrectly, that it was still closed, had been for years, but not now! So we called to book passage and spent the night moored above Ascenseur No 1, with a 10 o'clock start arranged for the next day.

All ready and waiting!

All was ready, ages before our 10am timed descent; the porte de garde raised, green lights showing.

It was a great little trip: seven kilometres, 4 balance-operated lifts and 5 lift or swing bridges and at least three men at each lift or bridge. It was great! And the lifts themselves, while looking antiquated, as indeed they are having been built originally in 1888, and in full use by 1917, operated quietly and efficiently. They are being maintained properly now and the Belgians are very proud of them, as they should be. The idea came from the Englishman Clark Standfield Clark, who had built the Anderton lift in England to provide a link between the Bridgewater Canal and the River Weaver. The operation is purely by balance between 2 tanks: one goes up while the other goes down by the simple expedient of adding more water into the caisson the boat is in for going down. Gravity does the rest!

We were SO pleased to have been able to do the trip at last and of course took hundreds of photos! Here are a few, to give a flavour.

The view from the old route to the new Strepy-Thieu Ascenseur

A quiet night followed on the Quais de Thuin downstream of the Historic Canal and the modern Strepy lift, adjacent to 13, yes 13, campervans and a fisherman who kindly (and somewhat surprisingly) happily removed his 2 lines till we got moored. His radio was tuned into a music station - thankfully on low volume - but it was clear that a very high percentage of the music was British or American, which we've noticed before, in shops particularly. But at least it wasn't rap or Turkish which is very common here!

It was very, very, hot – our temperature gauge read 37C!! so it was a quiet afternoon chilling – if that's not a contradiction in terms.

And then on, for Mons and the usual search for fresh milk and stocks. Amazingly to us and others when we got to the huge Grand Près retail park, the enormous Carrefour supermarket was closed: no one knew why, and this wasn't even Ascension Day. But IKEA was open, and happily still offering Swedish meatballs and chips with all the trimmings!

Friends Louise and Keith (cruiser SALTIRE, currently moored in Sweden) were diverting from their route to meet up with us shortly. Antoing near Tournai seemed a good spot to suggest. Just a brief overnight visit from them, with plenty of chat regarding their intrepid voyage from Holland to Sweden and we were back on our own again in cold, bleak weather: such a change from only a few days earlier. Needing to top up with fuel though, we decided to stay at Antoing until the Neptunia fuel barge was open again on Monday. Antoing has an interesting, if grim industrial history. The area was heavily quarried for chalk and limestone and many redundant quarries dot the landscape with old lime kilns here and there. The manufacturing plant pictured on a tourist information board was enormous, and stayed in production until the early years of the 20^th century. The present day town 'Stade' with its several football pitches, tennis courts, floodlighting and so on, was created out of the quarry which had been operated in the very heart of the town. It's an excellent resource, but in a very tired and sad looking town. Antoing's heyday is long past but on the plus side, it has the most amazing castle and a nice little port enclave for we pleasure boaters.

Filled with fuel, time came to move on, and into France. Belgium has its high spots and some areas of charm, but on the whole we do prefer France, though not in the present wintry weather.

The slog through the industrialised area of Denain and Valenciennes had little to recommend it or comment on, just a lot of 80m barges whacking to and fro with cargoes of sand or grain: mostly Belgian or French, some Dutch, but one remarkably from the Czech Republic! the first one we've seen. We were aiming for one of our favourite moorings, the tranquil Bassin Rond, just off the junction between the Escaut and the Dunkerque-Escaut Waterway, a major route. Then it would be the Canal du Nord (again!!) and the Somme, to welcome family visitors.

Well, the Bassin Rond was as usual peaceful and as lovely as ever, until the forty 10 year olds erupted out of a coach, coming for several days' sailing instruction, and nothing was the same again all day! Screams of excitement/fear/exhilaration rather wrecked the day's solitude, though it did provide some interest and merriment watching them flail around, and next day we were off again, intentionally before they could all take to the water!

Our trip up and down the Canal du Nord this time was a record of the not-too-good sort! Last time we had done 7 locks in 2 hours with NO opposition. This time, we had every boat in the whole of France, or so it seemed, against us. The same trip took 4.5 hours. We moored at Lock 7 Graincourt, for those of our readers who might recognise the name – on the summit, but before the tunnel, for an unexpectedly quiet night. Next day it was a quick and easy traverse through the tunnel to another favourite mooring. We call it the Bois de Vaux: it's a turning circle for boats up to 96 metres but it does have bollards along one side. Once upon a time it was clearly a loading quay, complete with weighbridge, but those days have gone. Some of the unladen big boats nudge into the turning circle just to turn round, then they travel down the next 2 or 3 kms backwards before loading up at the silo quay downstream, but even if we are moored up, it doesn't seems to inconvenience them.

We did the next 5 locks in the company of two 10 or 12 metre sailing boats, complete with all their sailing detritus – sails, masts, boat hooks, little wire railings and copious fenders all round the boat like a necklace for protection in the locks, (oh yes, and dogs!). And it was actually a very funny descent, watching these two hapless boats trying to tie up in locks or get themselves off quays into locks ready and waiting for them. 

We weren't in any hurry, so it was quite entertaining to watch the cartoon playing out ahead of us, not to mention hearing each captain yelling instructions in German or Swedish to his crew at high volume (in both cases the wife of said captain!). On approach to the last downward lock, and waiting for this shambles to unfold before us, an 80m commercial emerged from the lock. Alex held up his hands as if to say, 'Bloody Hell, what mayhem!' and the commercial captain answered with a knowing wink, a laugh and a shrug! In both cases the sailing yachts were heading to the Med to spend months or even years freely sailing round the islands: being fettered by lock discipline clearly was not part of their remit!!

So in just two kilometres we were out of the cut and thrust of a commercial waterway and onto the tranquil Somme: details of our time on this lovely river will be in the next blog.

A few further pics from our trip:

Refuelling whilst moving - the fuel barge can just be seen

Camels!!!  Yes, camels on the banks of the Escaut river

No boats for days and then . . . 7 at once!

Our lovely remote mooring - and four quad bikes appear to raise hell!

Ah that's better - a quiet spot at last