The Kromme Leie: from Ghent to Deinze

Our favourite waterway in Belgium, and this is the third time we have done it.  It is narrow, leafy, rural, lined by magnificent properties, and just charming.  It is 27 km long and takes 4 hours.

I took 103 photos - no, I will not bore you with all of them, but it has taken me hours to decide which are the best!

So pretty

How rude!

A ferry

Small but perfect - probably only costs a couple of million

Another bum!

Autumn is upon us

A gangplank for the ducks

Green cow and purple duck

How they keep their lawns so perfect - a robot mower

I don't know how comfortable these chairs are but they look nice

Many many millions!

Also many millions

And another

Topiary - every bush is beautifully groomed

Through the manual lift bridge at Astene Lock

A chicken?

Brugge to Ghent

Got up early this morning, 6 am, to watch the Japanese Grand Prix.  One of the reasons we like to stay at Flandria Yacht Club is because it has free wi-fi with a strong signal!  So it has been a very sporting weekend with the rugby yesterday and motor racing today.

We left the yacht club at 10.30 but, as usual, had to wait at Steenbruggebrug along with 3 other pleasure craft, for a big commercial barge to arrive.  Elle was right behind it, so we travelled in convoy just as we did in the spring. 

The Ghent-Oostende canal near Brugge is rather pleasant, tree-lined and relatively narrow - not much room to spare when passing big barges!

Being a Sunday there was not much commercial traffic but as we approached Ghent the water became busier and busier with pleasure craft of all sizes.  The Ringvaart around Ghent has never been my favourite stretch of water and it is definitely not recommended on a Sunday afternoon when the Hooray Henrys go out to play in their flash ski boats!  Maximum wake rebounds backwards and forwards between the canal walls, resulting in a choppy "cross sea".  We even had stuff falling off shelves - memories of our sailing days.

We turned off the Ringvaart onto the Leie River to tiake us into the center of ghent and found even more water craft: Elle could not pass this kayak.

How about one of each side?

The two "sisters" together again in the marina.

We went for a walk

and stopped for a glass of wine/beer.

Oops, where's the rest of it?  How not to lock up a bike!

Had nasi goreng on board Elle, and a few more glasses of wine

and Ian took this "moody" shot of the marina.

Deinze to Brugge (Bruges)

A longish day, 45 km, along big busy canals.  We have got to rather enjoy the big barges and I write down their names and where we see them.  We tend to see some of then again and again;   they cover vast distances in a very short time, and it's almost like meeting old friends!

We had a barbecue for lunch, while tootling down the Ghent- Oostende canal.

We arrived at the Flandria Yacht Club at 2.30, had a decent shower (what joy!) then went by bike to the Coupure yacht haven where Lynn and Shaun are on their boat Elle.  It was great to meet up again.  They have 2 friends from Durban staying with them and we all went off to an Irish pub to watch the South Africa vs Samoa rugby match.  

That was great fun, there were a number of other South Africans also watching and we made lots of noise!  Fortunately South Africa won.

Another day in Deinze

Lovely day today - sunny with not a cloud in the sky,and we went off on the bicycles to find a Lidl store because they stock nice South African wines.

Then we wandered around the town.

Found a statue just across the bridge of Reynard the Fox, I gather this is the fable about him catching the chicken, Coppe, but I only know the story of Reynard and Chantecleer (from Chaucer).

Ian took a photo of the shenanigans in the square next to our mooring.  Pity we won't be here for the festival.

This afternoon we took a bike ride to the Ooidonk Castle.  It was a lovely ride through pastoral countryside. 

The castle was not open today so we took some photos from the periphery.

I'm so sorry this one was right into the sun, it is such and interesting building with its funny onion domes.

The owners of the castle are still in residence so it is only open in the summer months on Sundays and holidays from 2 till 5.

Back at the boat we got chatting to our neighbours, Norwegians, who have taken early retirement this year and are now living aboard full time.  Such nice people. 

This evening another big live-aboard barge tied up, British, who we have seen before in Tournai and Bossuit.  They too are heading for the Coupure in Bruges tomorrow so we will see them again.

Deinze

Not much to write about today - we expected to have lovely sunny weather so we could get the bicycles out and do some exploring, but it was grey, cold and threatening to rain.  So we did 2 trips to the supermarket (within spitting distance of the mooring) instead.  By 10 am 4 boats had left the dock so we were down to just 2 live-aboards plus 2 other long term boats. 

Yesterday after we arrived we noticed 2 young ladies taking measurements on the Poppeplein right next to the dock, wondering what they were up to,  and today 3 trucks full of equipment arrived and within a couple of hours a marquee had been erected, plus a public toilet, and within a couple of hours, another 2 smaller marquees.

It turns out that on Saturday it is a festival day here in Deinze called "Dag de Klant Smaakt" - or something like that.  What it all breaks down to is that a bicycle tour (with some 150 participants) starts at 9 am, and gets back at around noon, meanwhile a whole load of stalls open up at 11 am offering local delicacies, including local restaurants offering samples of their "signature dishes".   In the afternoon there are workshops of local activities, one of which is electric bicycles, and in the evening there is live music and dancing.

Pity we are leaving at 9.00 to meet up with Lynn and Shaun in Bruges!  

However, the public toilet was right next to the spot where we were moored so we decided to move and put some space between us and the activities just in case it all kicks off tomorrow.

This afternoon we decided to brave the cold wind and went for a walk, but not 10 minutes later the rain set in!  We ducked into the local church, and I was amazed and amused, by the statues of the saints.  They seem to be really down to earth characters carrying the tools of their trade: a dagger, a club, an axe, a sword.  Blood thirsty lot, weren't they!

Later in the afternoon 2 boats arrived for the night, and one of them was no less than our friend J....!  As usual no one on deck and when the chap on the dock next to them went to offer assistance it was declined, and J.... proceeded to bounce his way off the dock!

Moen Lock to Deinze on the Leie River

We are back in Dutch-speaking Flanders, much to Ian's delight because he can understand the language, not that you need to because all the lock-keepers speak excellent English, and French too apparently because we heard a French boat call in and the lock-keeper replied in French.  I enjoyed trying out my rusty French in Wallonie but it is very frustrating if you don't speak the language!

It turned out to be a long day today.  At 8.45 we noticed that the light at the lock had turned to green, so we took up the mooring lines and beetled into the lock as I called on the radio, just to find out that it had, in fact, been prepared for a commercial barge, so Ian started reversing out but nice Mr Lock-keeper asked how long we were and said we could stay in the lock but must move right to the front because the barge coming in was 80m long (the lock is 110m long, plenty of room for 9m Njord).  This lock had a 4.5m rise., climbing out of the River Schelde valley.  

Just 4km later we were into the 2nd lock, this one had a 12.5m drop; we were now dropping down into the Leie River valley. Again we entered the lock first, and waited and waited, and eventually after 15m the boat we shared the first lock with appeared - reversing in!

  Well, that was a first for us.  After leaving the lock he reversed something like 4km to the dock where he tied up to unload his cargo, which was too narrow for him to turn around, hence all the reversing.

 The Bossuit-Kortrijk Canal is a bit of an enigma:  in some places it was very industrial and not so charming in other places it is leafy, attractive and the water is crystal clear. At times we could see 2m down to the bottom.  Lots of water plants, even in the centre of the canal, and some of them got wound up in the bow thruster and needed some rapid right-left thrusts to get free.

Soon we came to the 3 locks that take you from the outskirts of Kortrijk right to its heart and onto the Leie River.  Three charming old locks, small and picturesque with a "mobiele ploeg" (mobile team, just one man in this case, who sees you through a series of locks and/or bridges).

 The old fashioned way, one man closes one gate, walks all the way along the canal, crosses to the other side

 then closes the other gate.

then he opens the "leaves" in the gates to let the water in or out, or sometimes if the river level is high it just pours over the top.

The last lock at Kortrijk, waiting for the maintenance skiff to be hauled out of the way.

 Seeing we had already worked our way, yesterday, along one third of the distance we had intended to travel today, we arrived at our destination, Kortrijk, way earlier than expected so we decided to push on to Deinze, a place we have stayed at twice before and enjoyed.  It is a longish slog down the Leie River, which is not particularly interesting. but it got warmer as the day wore on.

There are another 2 locks on the Leie, downstream of Kortrik, and at the first, Harelbeke, we had a long wait because a big commercial entered ahead of us, and another commercial was waiting to come up.  Mrs Lock-keeper told us we would have to wait for this but once that barge had cleared the lock light stayed red....seemingly forever.  So I called a second time, asking if we could enter the lock and without a reply the lights turned to green - we reckoned she had forgotten about us!

An hour later we were on our way again and the second lock went way smoother: still 1km away we could see 2 commercials leaving and others waiting to enter.  I called to say we were just 9m long and 5 minutes away. OK, came the reply, there are 2 commercials entering but you will fit in too.  This enormous lock, the Sint Baafsvijve, is 140m long and 16m wide!

This "double-trouble" barge looked like it was sinking.  How do they stay affloat?

An hour after that we were tying up at the "passantehaven" in Deinze at 5.15.  A long day, 7 locks in total, but all easy.

We were surprised to find the passantehaven so full, when we were here in May there were no more than 2 other boats!

Bad quality photo taken in poor light at the end of the day!