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| Preserved crane near Beek en Donk (photos from 2005) |
A sunny morning. Put the pins in
to run the Markon generator and do some washing and the ironing as we were
moving. A large cruiser, moored towards the liftbridge, set off just before we
did at 9.00 a.m. He turned right at the crossroads and went towards Maasbracht.
We waited for a couple of loaded boats (one with sand, the other a container
boat) to cross from the Wilhelmina, also heading for Maasbracht, before we went
straight across the junction, continuing down the Zuid-Willemsvaart for
s’Hertogenbosch (the Duke’s woods) - shortened to Den Bosch (the woods).
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| Rosy and an empty on the Zuid Willemsvaart (photos from 2005) |
Mike
called the central control at Helmond lock to operate the lift bridge at Beek
en Donk, which worked right away. We arrived at lock 5 at 9.30 a.m. It was full
and the gates were just opening, so we were in and down in minutes. The washing
had been put on pause while we went through the lock, so as soon as we had
cleared it I switched it back on and did the ironing. The first load of washing
finished as we arrived at lock 4. We had a short wait while a loaded spitz
called Adonia came up, then we went down. The keeper went off on his scooter to
lift the liftbridge a few hundred metres below his lock.
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| Lock 5's square chamber. (photos from 2005) |
We waited for Jolanda
to clear the bridge, the keeper dropped it for the road traffic and then lifted
it again for us. Traffic on the canal was busy as we approached Veghel. Bill
was in front, so Mike suggested to him that he turned and reversed into the arm
and we did likewise, mooring alongside Rosy while we both took on water from
the hose under the steel plates. (Mike had been pleasantly surprised that there
was no padlock on the plates, we think the water point was put there for the
commercials, but as no signs said only for commercials we helped ourselves).
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| Railway lift bridge at Veghel (photos from 2005) |
We
just had time to water up before a commercial which had just finished unloading
started reversing down the arm towards us - we quickly got out of his way.
While we were filling up the washing machine conveniently finished so Mike had
taken the pins out and I had handed Bill his clean washing before we set off
again. Well timed. We ate lunch on the way down to the next lock. We were overtaken
by an empty called Disponibel, then another uphill went past and another empty,
called San Fransico, overtook us - a lovely shaped hull - it went by with
hardly a ripple.
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| Lock 0 at Den Bosch (photos from 2005) |
The two which had overtaken us were waiting above lock 3, as
they’d caught up with others that were now dropping down in the big lock. We
hung on the wall above the lock in the area designated for “Sport” boats. When
the lock refilled we went down with the two big boats, sitting opposite San
Fransico with Rosy behind us. The wind picked up and it went chilly as we ran down
into Den Bosch. We passed Aruba, a 60m empty, heading uphill as the canal
narrowed. Another boat was fast catching us up as we waited for the next
liftbridge to raise, then we passed three loaded boats in a row coming towards
us. As we were approaching the city, a Campina milk tanker boat overtook us and
then blocked our path as he winded to reverse to the other dairy mooring (the
other big Campina dairy is in the arm at Veghel). It was 3 p.m. when we slotted
in between a tug and an empty pan and an empty called Animo. After dinner we
went out in the car to locate a supermarket to get groceries next day. After
several unsuccessful circuits of the city, Mike parked and asked someone. The
nearest to the basin was located left at the third set of traffic lights in a
new shopping complex called Arena, where there was also an underground car park.
Very useful.
Photos from 2005 again. Please don't forget you can look at where the boat was moored by clicking on "location" and clicking "satellite" view.
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