We set off from Vreeswijk Historic Harbour (leaving our car in a side street)
Vreeswijk mooring
having first checked with the lockkeeper that we had time to get through his lock before the water levels made it impossible. (This lock only operates when the tidal river and canal level are equal - 2 hours either side of high water)
We had to be out of the harbour before 11 am and we were at the lock by just after 10am so that was good. It’s not easy exiting the historic harbour as there are two bridges which have to be opened – one road bridge and one pedestrian bridge operated by a ‘civvy’ who is alerted by the harbourmaster.
We crossed the Lek and stopped at Meerkerk for the night. We’d hoped to stay at the lock on the south side of the Mass for the next night but having made us wait for the lock for about 15 minutes the lockkeeper said, ‘No you can’t’ so that was that!
We trundled on for half an hour or so trying to spot a pontoon where we had stopped for the night in 2016. Suddenly we saw it, though it looked quite unlike we remembered, but there was now a sign saying only with permission and a phone number. A quick call and yes, it was OK and no charge. Phew – the next possibility was hours further on. Reaching Den Bosch we were joined by a VERY fancy yacht! At night lit up like a Xmas tree.
When we reached the north side of Den Bosch Alex noticed that his newly-fitted implant crown was coming loose. Bloody Hell! The emergency dental hospital said they couldn’t deal with implants so that was no good. Four dentists all asked if Alex was a registered client and if not they couldn’t help, but the fifth one asked for details of the implant and offered an appointment at 10.30 the next morning. Result! A 45 minute cycle ride and 10 minutes in the dentist’s chair and the crown was fixed again. €80 for the repair and a tip of €20 for Yolande the receptionist/practice manager for being so kind and helpful, and getting Alex a timely appointment; and we were on our way again.
A couple of days later we had to divert from our planned route yet again as the lock beyond Weert was out of order.
In due course we arrived at Maastricht and after a rather speedy arrival at the wall for the first night (exciting the couple on their small boat which we just missed)
we moved on to St Pieter’s basin, one of our favourite moorings,
but, you’ve guessed it, the crown on Alex's implant was beginning to come loose again!
An email to the practice in Den Bosch got an answer from Jackie rather than Yolande and she was not nearly so accommodating. After several email exchanges however, things suddenly changed and an appointment later that day was offered and accepted. Alex decided this time though to give up on the crown, just go back to the ‘healing cap’ and deal with the problem with his own dentist when back in the UK.
We decided that as Den Bosch was half way back to Utrecht near Vreeswijk, we would carry on and collect our car after the dental appointment that afternoon. This all worked out fine but it meant that we didn’t get back to the barge until after 8 pm. We left the car in a free car park close by and spotted this rather lovely tree in a local garden.
We spent another day at St Pieter’s then headed slowly south, stopping overnight at the darse (commercial harbour) at Harcourt for a quick nosey round the moorings at the lock on the little parallel canal, then on to fuel up at Neptunia in Liege.
Alex missed his footing when swinging onto the steps of the fuel barge to pay the bill and managed to crack a rib as he swung back against the hull. (Wot, again?!!!)
We had to wait for hours to pass through the Amsin lock as only the old lock was operating, and that on only one sluice gate and there were lots of large commercials taking priority. But later it gradually became obvious that whatever problem had slowed up our passage had become a complete closure as suddenly there were no more barges of any sort coming up behind us.
We spent a night at the nice mooring at Amay then on to Huy wall where we had a long chat with the captain of barge LIBRIA, owned by a South African couple who obviously had a lot of money to be able to employ, full time, a captain/handyman.
At Namur we moored just up the Sambre which was OK but we might have been better on the Meuse just before the junction as the Sambre became very busy with both pleasure and commercial boats – probably the backlog from Amsin Lock, now fixed?
We decided to pass through Charleroi and carry on up the Sambre a couple of kilometres to Marchiennes and moor there for the night. The only problem was that it was full of boats there for a festival on that weekend. We passed through, turned round and headed back through the assembled throng to the only mooring left about 50m downstream of the gaggle of boats. No sooner had we tied up than one of the old guys organising the festival came down and invited us to join in the following day. How kind, but we explained that we had a bit of a time pressure and would be moving on.
The quay at Soudromont was taken up with a huge commercial and also a new Neptunia fuel barge! This is quite an innovation as finding fuel on-line is often tricky. But unfortunately no room for us this time, so we moored up on the new commercial quay at Pont de Manage.
On our way to the Strepy-Thieu lift we passed the biggest fishing competition we have ever seen – we counted 90 fishermen!!
We spent the night at Mons at our favourite mooring next to the car park next to the swimming pool.
Later in the day a campervan turned up and we got talking to the lady owner.
We invited her for aperos and soon discovered that she was ‘born again’ and on a sort of pilgrimage to ‘find herself’.
Alex caught the train back to Maastricht to collect the car and leave it at Mons Grand Large. He had worked out that this was the best way to achieve moving the car along as the trains from Valenciennes to Maastricht didn’t link up time-wise and it would take all day.
At the Pommeroel-Conde Canal quay we awoke to thick fog! And had to wait till 11.45 before we could see enough to set off safely.
Thereafter we had an easy day to Valenciennes at which point everything turned belly-up.
Alex underestimated the flow down into the port and although we had told the Capitaine that we were coming in, she failed both to move a boat moored in ‘our’ place, and to explain where we were supposed to be mooring. She also tried to insist we turned round before mooring up, which would normally be our preferred plan, but the flow was just too great.
We spent about half an hour trying our damnedest fighting the current and trying to get a line onto anything that might help stop our forward momentum. Eventually we got a line onto a lamp post and then miraculously, the flow eased off and we nosed into a temporary spot which was going to be occupied by another barge in due course.
This occasional flow is created by the weir at the end of the moorings which controls the level of the canal, so sometimes it is open to reduce the level and sometimes it is closed when the level is low enough. So the speed of the flow in the port is very variable and unpredictable, and a trap for the unwary, as we found out. Strangely, the flow can sometimes even be upstream if the weir is closed and the adjacent lock is being filled.
The arrangement for water and electricity in Valenciennes is by a card which is loaded with litres or units by the Capitaine and then off-loaded onto the borne chosen. What was not explained, was that only 30 units would be transferred when the button was pressed (we had assumed the whole amount would be transferred). Each subsequent press transfers another 30 units. Thus our electricity ran out after 30 units while we were away and on our return the power was off and our domestic batteries were down to 16v – probably terminal. AGAIN!!!
Totals stats for the season:
1674.85 kms
100 locks
149 bridges (lift or slide aside)
