Wednesday 14th April 2004 Auvelais to Namur.

One I missed of Strepy - the top of the lift from the canal above it 

A chilly 1.3° C overnight. It was foggy when we got up, but the sun burned through by mid-morning. At 10.30 am we set off after Mike had been down to the lock with the rubbish and our quittances. A loaded péniche called Chris-Li came up and then we went down, followed by a British replica Dutch Barge called Jazz. The skipper had been calling the keeper on channel 10 VHF, got no answer, so Mike replied to him in English. He seemed very reluctant to reply! Bill said he thought it was an “Ownership” but it turned out to be a private boat from Harwich. Below Auvelais lock, an uphill tug called Zwerver was shoving a large pan of scrap metal, heading for Charleroi, waiting for the lock. 

Such a beautiful boat - nice to see Kevin and Barbara again

An empty 80m called Nova Scotia was moored right next to a fair in the streets of Auvelais. It looked like it had been left for the holidays. Jazz overtook us and the skipper took photos as they steamed off into the distance. Voyager, a loaded 80m from Maasbracht, was the next uphill boat, followed a little later by an empty péniche called Neptunia. Mike heard the correct pronunciation of Auvelais as the skipper announced he was approaching “Oovlay” bridge! Amateur was being unloaded at the sand quay, the crane was just dropping a mini digger into the hold to scrape the remaining cargo into piles. A large loaded tanker boat, called Ganda, arrived as we were passing and dropped into the oil berth next to the sand quay. 

Just exquisite!

We were fast approaching Mornimont lock, so Mike called the keeper on VHF so that Jazz didn’t get the lock to himself and we would have been left to wait for the chamber to be refilled. (How many times has that happened to us!) He got no reply from the lock - what’s new? But found that Jazz was waiting above the lock as it filled. The fourth pleasure boat (narrowboat Santana was the first, the Belgian cruiser Quiétude had been the second, while Jazz was the third) we’d seen so far this year, a Dutch cruiser called Laura, was coming up in the lock. The three of us dropped down in Mornimont and then I made some lunch on the 8 kms run down to the next lock, Florifoux. A young woman, up high in the cabin at the end of the weir structure alongside the lock, waved us into the half lock, we went alongside Rosy, then she closed the middle gate and we started dropping down the chamber. Mike shouted to her that there was a paddle still open as there was lots of water coming in behind us. She said it was just the sill leaking. 

Rosy moored in Namur by the Casino

A few minutes after that the uniformed keeper arrived and a shouting match followed. Unfortunately we couldn’t hear what was said, but the gesticulations were self-evident - she’d done something wrong - she went back in the cabin and the incoming water slowed down a bit. The crew on Jazz asked if we’d seen a fox as we came along the last stretch - no - they said they’d seen it go into its den and were  enraptured to have seen it. They told us they were going to Namur and heading upriver to Charleville. Below the lock we passed a loaded Dutch tanker called Theion from Druten. We had a problem with our 12v power, a bulb had expired and the voltage reading was high. Mike took some measurements and then disconnected our Adverc battery management system. He said he would check it over later. Then we saw a really funny thing. A large (had to be in Wallonie) green woodpecker was sitting halfway up a concrete pole pecking at a high tension cable, 72,000 volts! He’ll get a nasty shock if he gets through the outer casing of that! As we went round the sweeping bends at Malonne we met a Dutch empty Inspe II coming uphill. Again Jazz was waiting above the next lock, Salzinnes, when we arrived. An empty 80m called Semper Avanti and loaded Sanremo came out of the lock, a loaded boat called Semi came down and it followed us into the lock. Rosy came alongside and I went up to the cabin to take the quittance to be stamped. We got out of the way to let Semi past, but Jazz sped off downriver into Namur. Another loaded tanker, Tiffany, was waiting below the lock. We motored through the town, noting lots of brand new buildings among the old ones, turned the corner on to the Meuse and headed upriver to find a mooring. As I had predicted, Jazz had gone across to the Port de Plaisance - Port de Jambes - where we noted all the pontoons were missing. Two boats were moored opposite the port, a small green Luxe called Marlene and Merchant - Kevin and Barbara Hancock’s boat. We moored upstream of Merchant. As we were tying up the crew returned from a shopping expedition. We had a chat on the quay while we finished tying up. They remembered seeing Bill in Gent, and us from the previous year on the d’Heuilley canal near St Dizier. I remarked that after we’d seen them I’d spoken to my friend Yvonne and she’d sent us a copy of the article they’d published in the boat club magazine. Not us, they said, they hadn’t had any articles printed in any magazines - and they didn’t seem to be too happy about that. Later I searched out the article, which turned out to be their 2003 Christmas newsletter that they send out to a few friends. They had a good idea who’d done it and I think he/she might have a flea in his/her ear for doing it and not asking their permission first. Mike went to get the car and pick up a loaf. I prepared the ingredients for a stir-fry so that it was ready to cook when he got back. We had let the coal fire go out during the day as it had been quite warm with the sun on the cabin. We didn’t bother to relight it or the central heating - so summer must be on its way.

Monday 12th April 2004 Houdeng to Viesville. Tuesday 13th April 2004 Viesville to Auvelais.

Monday 12th April 2004 Houdeng to Viesville.

Canalside cottages. Charleroi-Brussels canal

All our visitors came on board for the trip to Viesville. Peter and Mike took both cars to Viesville and came back to Houdeng in ours. Peter wanted to get his car’s tank topped up with diesel but the pumps were 24hr card only ones because of the holidays. Fortunately a Belgian guy offered to let him use his card and Peter gave him the 40 Euros for the diesel in cash. It was Janet’s 60th birthday, the reason they’d come was so that she could do something completely different for her birthday and she was looking forward to a boat trip. Bob took to steering, which he did with Mike and Peter still talking non-stop from opposite sides of him on the stern deck. Bill’s friend (the vicar, sorry canon, who owns narrowboat Falcon) David Long, and his brother-in-law, arrived at Viesville by car at the same time as we did. They went on board to chat to Bill. We had our roast beef dinner at last, which turned out reasonably well. When our visitors left for home Mike went with them and Peter dropped him off to collect our car from Houdeng, while they continued on the motorway back into France to get the ferry in Calais.

Tuesday 13th April 2004 Viesville to Auvelais.

Above Marchiennes-au-pont lock.

When Mike switched our ‘phone on first thing he found that Peter had sent us an SMS to say they were back home safely at 2.30 a.m. They’d caught the 10.45 p.m. ferry (French time). It was 3.5° C overnight. Good weather promised by the métèo didn’t arrive, we had a chilly wind all day and showers, no sunshine. Mike went by car for a loaf and spoke to the lock keeper on his return, who said it was OK to leave our car by the lock. Bill’s friend David (who remembered that we’d met before in Vaudemanges in ‘93 – it was the first time he’d met Bill, they had only conversed by E-mail up until then) left to continue on his way to Falcon. 

The steel works

We set off at 9.40 a.m. and dropped down Viesville, lock 3, in the top end half chamber. The keeper immediately closed the gate and refilled the lock as there was a big boat behind us. I started the ‘fridge defrosting and made another cup of tea and some toast en route to lock 2, Gosselies. An empty 60m boat called Cheops came up, then we went down in the downhill end half chamber, causing the cleaning team to pause from jet washing the walls. I finished refilling the ‘fridge as we arrived at lock 1, Marchiennes. 

The steel works

Just above the lock two boats were waiting to unload coal and an empty, which had just discharged its load, left the quay and went down the lock, so we had to wait until the chamber refilled. The keeper called us right to the end of the chamber into the half lock. Mike took the papers up to the cabin, then they dropped the whole chamber off. The commercial had caught us up and was waiting above the lock as we left. It was only a short distance to the junction with the Sambre, where we turned left to Marcinelle lock, in the middle of Cockerill-Sambre’s steelworks. 

Unloading scrap alongside Marcinelle lock

As ever, a really mucky spot! Lots of boats were on the quays loading and unloading. A loaded Dutch boat from Zwolle was coming up in the chamber, so I took a walk down to the cabin to have our quittances stamped. There was a woman operating the computer under guidance of the uniformed keeper. She was very, very slow, using two fingers to type all the details off each quittance. The Dutch boat left and the keeper told me he wanted the two boats to come in and go right up the end of the chamber, one on each side. How was I supposed to tell them that? I was expecting them to pick me up in the chamber. 

Unloading scrap next to Marcinelle lock

The empty 80m boat arrived and Mike hung back as, normally, we go in last behind the commercials - they go bananas if you try going in the lock first. I walked back to the boats and told him what the keeper had said, so we complied with his instructions. Annico came in behind us. A woman was steering the boat, with two lads and a man acting as deck hands. We left the lock and entered the winding, high-sided, narrow channel through Marchiennes. Annico was catching up, and about to overtake, when a loaded boat coming uphill was blue boarding (on the “wrong” side of the river) so we had to move over, Bill having to almost cut across the bows of Annico as he was fast running out of room to manoeuvre. 

Below Marcinelle lock

We ate lunch as we ran down to Montignies. As soon as she was able Annico overtook us and was into the lock first, so we piled in behind. The boatyard at Pont-de-Loup was as busy as usual with lots of commercials on the slip and moored waiting to be repaired, plus a few Dutch barges. Annico had backed into the arm below the chantier to moor next to another boat, which was being loaded with stone. We moored above the lock at Auvelais at 2.40 p.m. Not long after we saw a very strange sight - a gunship! Number P902 Liberation, heading downhill for the lock.

Rosy navigating the bends in Marchiennes

Bill said he’d seen it before in Gent - it was the Belgian navy’s strike force! With all those guns we giggled but we kept our jokes to ourselves! It had to wait while an empty 80m commercial came up and then it went down the lock. Mike went off on the moped to collect the car. 

Photos taken in Sept 2005

Sunday 11th April 2004 Houdeng to Ronquiéres (almost) and back.

The tower at Ronquieres. (photo from 1993)

Our son Peter, his girlfriend and her parents were visiting, so I had planned to do a roast which we would eat on board at lunchtime. We took our visitors for a boat trip to Ronquiéres to look at the inclined plane. Unfortunately, as the canal was closed, the Belgian waterways had dropped the stop gates for safety, so we couldn’t get within five kilometres of the boat lift. We turned round and headed back for the mooring at Houdeng, had some sandwiches for lunch and then went by car to Ronquiéres. The road through Manages was closed, as there was a fair in the main streets of the town, so we had to find our own diversion route. Luckily we’d brought our big Belgian waterways guidebook with us and I used that to navigate our way to the lift. We had a walk around, then discovered that the tower and visitor centre were open. 

The tower from beneath the twin tracks for the caissons
(Photo taken in 1993)

There was an audio-visual display set out in twelve rooms, showing the life of the Belgian bargees, we each donned a set of headphones to give us a running commentary in English as we toured the tableaux. The tower was open, so we rode the lift to the ninth floor and walked up the last two flights to see the panoramic view. On the ninth floor there was a cinema showing a short film of tourist information about the region. We returned to the boat on the motorway rather than try to backtrack through the villages. It was 6.30 p.m. when we got back to the boat. Too late to start cooking a roast. Peter said there was a Chinese restaurant right opposite the hotel where they were staying and we could get a meal there if they were open, so they drove back to hotel and we got ready and went to join them. The restaurant was very smart with a marble ceiling and patterned parquet walls, bonsais and curly bamboos adorned the bar and the window alcoves. A pretty young Chinese girl took our orders. Our five course meal was excellent, it cost 108 Euros (about £12.50 each) which wasn’t too bad, as that included several rounds of drinks. After we’d paid the bill, the girl came with presents, “portes bonheurs” she said, gifts to bring good luck - painted gourds for the men and china eggs for the ladies - wasn’t that nice? A special for Easter, perhaps! We went across the square to have a drink in the Italian bar. We said goodnight and drove back to the boat at 10.30 p.m.

Thursday 8th April 2004 Seneffe to Houdeng.

Lift No 1 Canal du Centrum (taken in 1993)

2.3° C overnight. Sunny spells and heavy showers. Did the last load of washing, some woollies, and had trouble with the heaters - thought it had finished heating, swopped to mains and the washer dropped the breaker by switching the heaters on again. Three times it did that, so I advanced the programme and then it carried on working. We set off at 9.30 a.m. as a shower of rain arrived. Teenagers were setting off from ADEPS in rowing skiffs, heading the same way as us. A large empty commercial had just gone past, heading for the Sambre, as we turned back towards the lifts. Saw green woodpeckers on the towpath, they were running up the railway embankment. Turned into the canal du Centrum and tried to moor on the quay immediately above lift one at Houdeng. It was too shallow, we were on the bottom. In the time that the lift had been closed (two years), the end of the quay had silted up. A large empty commercial left the scrap berth and was sucking water away from the lift, we went bump on the bottom. Tried nearer the lift, same problem - plus a friendly pit bull at the house which barked and wagged his tail. His owner came out and said we were OK to stay there, but the dog would bark all the time. Thanks, but it’s too shallow anyway. We went back to the quay and tried the end nearest the empty commercial and moored there. Success, the water was 2m deep! Bill came alongside. After lunch we unloaded the moped and Mike went back to Majorie’s to collect the car. It was 1.15 p.m.

Wednesday 7th April 2004 Ville-sur-Haine to Seneffe.

Waiting below the Strepy-Thieu boat lift

3.1° C overnight. Mike took the camera and tripod to take a photo of the humorous sign warning fishermen of the dangers of overhead power cables. Unfortunately the one he walked back to photograph had been vandalised. It was grey and pouring with rain when we set off at 9.30 a.m. We arrived below the lift at 10.10 a.m. and moored in front of a hotel Luxemotor called Peterborough to wait for the lift. The left hand caisson had green arrow lights showing, indicating that was the side to use, but beyond that red lights were illuminated as the caisson was at the top. Mike tried calling the keeper on VHF and got no reply. We waited. He took a walk to the lift. There was no access to any office and no one was around. The skipper off Peterborough came to chat. He called the lift, they answered him straight away to say that they were waiting for a downhill boat to arrive and then we could go up. I went inside and made tea and toast. Mike took still photos of the tank descending. I found the video camera out. The loaded péniche Arcadia left the tank and we got a green light. Threw ropes round bollards half way along the tank and the guillotine gate dropped down behind us. A 

Rosy in the tank

few minutes later a voice on a tannoy, sounding not unlike a railway station announcer, said that we must move forward as a 38m boat would be joining us. We moved forward, although there was more than enough room for them behind us. The gate reopened and Con Zelo, a loaded péniche concrete carrier, arrived and moored behind Rosy. Still we waited. The trip boat Scaldis, which had been moored below when we arrived, had loaded with passengers and was now ready to depart, so he came in behind us. The trip up the 73m lift took just seven minutes, after a two hour wait! We left the top at 12.30 p.m. The wind was howling across the high level canal. The two commercials soon overtook us. The new canal was lined with asphalt and had sloping concrete sides. 

The rest of the boats in the tank

Mike paused to have a look down on the road below from the long aqueduct. More heavy showers. I cooked our last packet of British bacon (from the freezer) to make a hot sandwich for our lunch. It was excellent with tomatoes. Mike had fried eggs too. We followed Bill into the arm of the old canal at Seneffe, now used as moorings by SNEF yachting. We followed him past the kids in sailing dinghies at the ADEPS outdoor centre and down the arm past his friend Mike Clarke’s 19m long, riveted, red oxide painted narrowboat. A chap came out on the deck of the first boat on the moorings to tell us we couldn’t moor in the arm as the moorings were private. The space Bill had dropped into was someone’s mooring, which they paid for, he said, and would be upset if they found someone else moored there. Bill rang Mike C, he had a few words with the Capitain then we moved back down the arm to moor just before the bridge on their visitor moorings. 9 Eu per night, including water and electricity. 

Going up

I made a chicken curry for dinner. Mike replied to an SMS from Peter and put the HF wire antenna up to try various frequencies. Meanwhile after a knock on the cabinside, I went to pay up at the club house taking “Ships papers” with me. I filled in the form, had a beer from Bill’s friend Mike, who also paid for our overnight mooring charges, which was very kind of him. I chatted to Pierre who was keen to know more about how we got to Europe and about travelling to Poland. Bill chatted away to Mike in English, while I answered Pierre’s questions in French. Then we went to have a look at Mike’s boat, which he had been fitting out for four years. Back cabin with range. Engine room with a vintage Ruston engine. Shower and toilet (over a holding tank) still under construction. Kitchen with diesel cooker. Then a dinette under construction, a space for more seating and a low cabin at the bows for the kids, which they had to enter by ducking under the front deck. It will be very nice once it’s finished. Pierre’s ‘phone rang - his missus from the house opposite, dinner ready. We wished him “au’voir” and went on Bill’s boat for a drink. Chatted about red diesel and boats, Europe and cruising until 11.30 p.m.

View from the top looking back to where we set off from

Tuesday 6th April 2004 Pommeroeul to Ville-sur-Haine.

Choppy water on the "large" (wide section) at Mons
photo taken in 1993

5.3°C overnight. Grey and windy. We set off at 9.00 a.m. I had a cold so I stayed inside as much as possible, dosing on honey and hot lemon with painkillers, head over a bowl of steaming hot water. A shower hit and Mike lost his cap in the cut as he put the brolly up, which had flapped in the wind and caught his hat. Luckily it floated, so I hooked it out with a short shaft, wrung it out and then gave it a good wash. At 11.30 a.m. 

Entering Havre lock. (photo taken in 1993)

I steered while Mike ‘phoned our bank again. They told him that their head office had told them that there had been lots of problems with cards in Belgium, probably due to the “chip and pin” system, so it was best to use major high street banks - our cards should work at any bank showing the Visa symbol. A hail storm hit. I started making a sandwich just before Obourg lock, then I had to clear the gunwale and canvases on the port side of the piles of ice from the hail storm. The five metre deep lock at Obourg had no floaters, so we went up the wall using ropes on the recessed bollards. A small white Belgian, cruiser, called Quiétude, had been kept waiting in the chamber - he’d overtaken us earlier. I took all our papers up to the cabin. We ate our lunch en route for the next lock, Havre, a deep chamber at 10m, but this one had floaters. 

Centre gates closing behind us to use half the lock
(photo taken in 1993)

The keeper called us forward into the front end of the lock and we came up in half the chamber. The cruiser had the floater (lots of which were missing in this lock) next to the lock cabin, so we went on the opposite wall and went alongside Rosy with Bill hanging on a floater at the front while I controlled the other rope from his centre roof stud. Another call for the quittances. As we were on the opposite side to the cabin the ladders didn’t get much use and were filthy with green gunge. My hands were disgusting. Fortunately the papers were in a zipper bag to keep them dry, so I unzipped the bag and one of the keepers took them out. They took pity on me and let me wash my hands, which was kind of them. Peter ‘phoned as we went along the new canal towards the towering structure of the new Strépy-Thieu lift. Later I checked our credit balance and found it had cost us £8 to receive his 15 minute call! Probably more than it cost him to make it! We moored next to a long cabin-high quay at Ville-sur-Haine, opposite the lift bridges on the old canal. It was 2.15 p.m. Mike tried ‘phoning the D2 operator and had trouble getting them to speak English. He tried a second time and the girl said her colleague would call us back. Mike was getting very annoyed. He gave up and went to find a post office to get a stamp to post a cheque for the car insurance and get a couple of ‘phonecards. Meanwhile the operator ‘phoned back - we couldn’t use our card to top up as it hadn’t been “registrated” - I said we’d done it before, she insisted there was nothing, no card “registrated” against our ‘phone number. 

Quay below new lock on to the old canal and boat lifts
(photo taken in 1993)

Did we know anyone in Germany who could send us a scratch card? Yes but it would take too long. Couldn’t we get a scratch card in Belgium? She checked. No, none in Belgium. In the Netherlands we could use Keritel. Well thank goodness for small mercies! Mike returned. He hadn’t found a post office, but a small shop had sold him stamps and ‘phonecards and he’d posted his letter in a dubious looking post box. We had a cracking thunderstorm and more hail. We could recharge our UK Vodaphone using a debit card, so why not use that instead. He ‘phoned the GB operator - we’d got a card “registrated” (that word will stick!) with them and topped up the £15 balance with another £15. We would still have to pay through the nose to receive calls. Sent Peter an SMS to tell him the change of number. Rain poured down. Although we’d kept the coal fire going all day the boat was getting chilly after dark, so Mike lit the central heating for overnight.

Still a dearth of photos from 2004 - these were taken way back in 1993

Monday 5th April 2004 Peronnes to Pommeroeul.

Overcast, windy with heavy showers. We paid Majorie 370 Eu (250 for the docking, 25 for the washer, 5 for electricity (first time she’d charged us for electricity!) and 90 for the pump) André came and shoved the trolley with the forklift. As usual it was reluctant to get moving and when it did move it charged faster than we’d ever done before down the slope - did Majorie forget the brakes? The boat floated off the trolley and stopped moving in the water but the trolley carried on with Rosy on it and pushed us with the posts, fetching off some of our nice new paint. 

I saw this and flicked the rope off to shove us off, completely forgetting that we hadn’t got the engine running because Mike had changed the fuel filters and hadn’t bled the system as he needed water for the Jabsco pump and couldn’t get that until we were afloat again! The wind was blowing the boat towards the end of the lake, so I was able to get the rope back on and hang on to it while Mike started the engine. Bill circled round with Rosy until we were away. I shouted across to Majorie and the gang on the bank that we were OK, that the engine had to be bled and then we’d be away - they waved “au’voir” and went off to get some lunch. Once we were moving, I tidied up - several items had fallen over in the cabin, but no damage had been done. One empty commercial vessel came down Peronne lock one, then we went up. Mike put our squidgy blue fenders out as the paint was still “soft” when Bill came alongside to go up the lock. 

He dropped his roof centre rope round our centre stud, but held the end and we chatted while the lock filled (our rope was round a floater) until the flow caught Rosy’s bows and blew the boat across the chamber. Bill couldn’t hang on to it and raced off to the stern, but the bows still hit the wall harder than he would have liked with new paint! I took the quittances up to the office and told the lone keeper that we would like to pause in the corner while Mike collected the moped from the chantier. No problems. A loaded péniche was coming down to the lock like a rocket, making us bob up and down as we tied up. Mike collected the bike and stowed it on the roof, then we set off again at 1.30 p.m. Bill had already carried on to Pommeroeul. The weather turned wet and windy as I finished making lunch. After lunch I steered while Mike pumped out the loo tank (no pump out stations here!). We passed just one boat, a 60m empty called Timoré near the junction with the Blaton-Ath canal. It was blowing a gale and the rain was horizontal when we tied up in front of Rosy at Pommeroeul at 4.30 p.m.

Pictures are from 2011 

sunny in late May not the howling gales and horizontal rain of April 2004