Today was a long day in the
saddle - even longer for Lynn and Shaun on Elle. They needed to fill up with fuel, and
although Ieper was advertised as having a fuelling station, it was on a bunker
barge and it was closed. So, we set off
together at 8.30 through the 2 locks where the lock keeper takes you lines but
at the junction with the Ijzer River Eller turned right to Diksmuide where
there is a fuel pump at the marina, and we turned left towards the Flintele
lock.
We passed large groups of kids bikes
We tied up at a free mooring to wait for them to catch up with
us. We discovered that this section of
the river floods every winter and tens of thousands of water fowl fly in to
roost, mate and breed.
Further upstream
the Ijzer River is a protected bird sanctuary.
The Flintele lock is quite
different from all the others we have been in to date. It has sloping sides and a pontoon to tie up
to.
It is still a manual lock and the
lock keeper raises and lowers the sluices and opens the gates by hand.
He told us it is going to be "electrified" later this year.
After the lock we were into
the Lo Canal. Very narrow, winding, lots
of water fowl, and pretty.
At Veurne the junction of the
Lo Canal and the Niuewpoort-Dunkirk Canal is at a very acute angle.
That's the Lo on the left and Niuewpoort-Dunkirk
Canal on the right.
The marina is immediately
after the junction on the Niuewpoort-Dunkirk Canal and we finally tied up at
5.00 - eight and a half hours after leaving Ieper.
This is where we will be
leaving the boat in the summer.
The town was left unscathed by the First World War. It was well behind the front line and did not suffer the bombardment that destroyed Ypres and Diksmuide. The town square is beautiful.
Tomorrow we part company with
Elle. They are going into France and we are
spending our last 2 weeks in this area, mostly on free moorings where we can
paint the deck. Time to get rid of the
patchwork look!
Lynn and Shaun treated us to
a wonderful dinner on our last night together.
Lovely restaurant.
The building is the second
oldest in Veurne, dating from the 15th century and some of the walls are
original.
The food was excellent. Ian and I went for steaks, Lynn had
bouillabaise and Shaun had sole.
Before
After
We finished off the evening
with Irish coffees on Njord.
The marina at night.
No comments:
Post a Comment